July 5, 2024: Trailing by two runs in the ninth, visiting Red Sox beat the Yankees in New York

It had been more than 116 years since the Boston Red Sox had found themselves in a road game where they trailed the New York Yankees by multiple runs with two outs in the ninth inning – but rallied and won the game. On June 2, 1908, the Red Sox were playing the New York Highlanders (frequently called the Yankees at the time) at Hilltop Park in New York City. In the second game of a doubleheader, the Red Sox were losing, 5-2, in the top of the ninth inning with two outs and two men on. But Boston capitalized on an error, a hit batsman, and another error to score four runs for a 6-5 win.

At Yankee Stadium on Friday night, July 5, 2024, the Yankees held a 3-1 lead after eight full innings, when Boston’s last-gasp magic struck again.

Through the Fourth of July, both teams had winning records. New York (54-35) trailed the first-place Baltimore Orioles by two games. Boston (47-40) was six games behind the Yankees, in third place. On June 14 the Yankees had been 28 games over .500 (50-22) and in first place, but both Baltimore and Boston had gained considerable ground since then. New York had been 4-13 in its last 17 games while Boston had been 12-5.

Yankees left-hander Néstor Cortés was in his seventh big-league season. He had a record of 4-7 with a 3.51 ERA. Boston’s Tanner Houck was in this fifth season. He was 7-6 (2.67) but had been hammered for eight runs (seven earned) in his previous start, on June 29.  

Cortés struck out the first two batters he faced, then got Tyler O’Neill to line to right, where Juan Soto made a sliding catch. In the bottom of the first, Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers dived over the rolled-up tarpaulin and into the protective netting to snare rookie first baseman Ben Rice’s foul popup, then Houck caught Soto looking at a called third strike and induced designated hitter Aaron Judge to hit a harmless grounder to shortstop.

First baseman Romy González’s two-out double off the base of the left-field fence in the second was the first hit against Cortés, who picked up two more strikeouts – making it all four K’s on swinging third strikes – in another scoreless inning. Houck retired the Yankees in order.

It was three up, three down for the Red Sox in the top of the third. After a 38-minute rain delay, the Yankees threatened in their half of the inning. Shortstop Anthony Volpe lined a single into right-center and center fielder Trent Grisham walked.

DJ LeMahieu hit into a force at second to put Yankees at the corners, and Rice grounded to first. González stepped on the bag, removing the force, and threw to second, where shortstop Ceddanne Rafaela tagged out LeMahieu to complete the double play. The New York Daily News excoriated the Yankees’ baserunning: “Rafaela tagged a lumbering LeMahieu, whose minimal attempts at evasion fell flat. Meanwhile, Volpe watched the play unfold as he jogged his way home from third and failed to cross the plate in time.”1

The only Red Sox batter to reach base in the fourth was O’Neill, who walked.

The Yankees went ahead by scoring three runs in their half of the fourth. With his first 13 pitches of the inning, Houck walked Soto and Judge. Alex Verdugo, traded from the Red Sox to the Yankees during the 2023-24 offseason, flied to left, but second baseman Gleyber Torres loaded the bases on an infield single to shortstop. Oswaldo Cabrera came in to run for Torres, who injured his groin while hustling to first.

Austin Wells grounded to Red Sox shortstop Enmanuel Valdez. It could have ended the inning with a double play, but Valdez threw wide of second for an error and everyone was safe, Soto scoring the first run of the game. With the bases still loaded, Houck walked Volpe, and Judge trotted home.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora turned to left-hander Bailey Horn in relief.2 It was just Horn’s third appearance in a major-league game. Grisham grounded out, second to first, Cabrera scoring the third run of the inning. LeMahieu also grounded out, second to first.

Cortés took the mound again, now with a 3-0 lead in front of a sold-out crowd of 47,148 – but the first batter he faced in the fifth was González, whose double in the second had been Boston’s only hit of the game. González got to Cortés again, this time hitting his first home run of the season, several rows deep into the stands in straightaway left field. Valdez singled with one out, but never got past first base.

In the bottom of the fifth, Horn allowed a leadoff single by Rice but got Soto to hit into a force play at second and struck out Judge and Verdugo.

Two more Red Sox struck out in the sixth. No one reached base. The only Yankee to reach in the bottom of the inning was Wells, on a one-out single off Horn.

For the seventh, Yankees manager Aaron Boone had Luke Weaver take over from Cortés, who had allowed only three hits and one run, while striking out eight. Weaver struck out catcher Connor Wong, retired González on a comebacker, and picked up the third out on DH Masataka Yoshida’s fly ball to center. Rookie Cam Booser replaced Horn after the seventh-inning stretch.3 He walked Rice but retired the other three.

Weaver endured the top of the eighth, but it wasn’t easy. Valdez reached on an infield single. Rafaela hit a tapper inches in front of the plate. Wells tried for the out at second but threw the ball poorly, and both runners were safe on the error. Speedster David Hamilton ran for Valdez. Weaver struck out center fielder Jarren Duran. Wilyer Abreu came in to pinch-hit. Weaver turned and fired toward second base to pick off Hamilton, but his throw was “air-mailed” well past Torres – the second Yankees error of the inning. Boston had runners on second and third – the potential tying runs. Weaver then struck out Abreu and got O’Neill to ground out.  

A two-out single by Wells was all the Yankees got off Booser in the eighth.

The game entered the ninth inning still 3-1 in favor of New York. Clay Holmes came in as the closer. With 19 saves and a 2.57 ERA, Holmes was headed for his second All-Star selection in three seasons, but he had not recorded a save since June 9. His only save opportunity since then, on June 13, had turned into a loss when the Kansas City Royals rallied for two ninth-inning runs.

First up was Rafael Devers. It took 10 pitches, but on that 10th pitch Devers hit a grounder back to Holmes for the first out. Wong then grounded out, short to first.

Dominic Smith, already with his third team of 2024,4 pinch-hit for Romy González and singled to right field. Yoshida came to bat. Smith took second on defensive indifference.

On the eighth pitch of the at-bat, on a 3-and-2 count, Yoshida homered to right field – at least a dozen rows deep into the seats, into the section known as the Judge’s Chambers – and the game was suddenly tied, 3-3. Hamilton flied out to center.5

The Yankees faced rookie right-hander Justin Slaten in the bottom of the ninth. It was his 30th appearance of 2024. He had an ERA of 3.54, his ninth hold coming just the day before, when he threw two-thirds of an inning against the Miami Marlins, despite giving up two eighth-inning runs in a game that Boston eventually won in 12 innings. Slaten struck out Grisham, got LeMahieu to ground out third to first, and got Rice to pop up to Rafaela.

Tommy Kahnle worked the 10th for the Yankees. Rafaela was the first man he faced, and on the second pitch, the 23-year-old native of Curaçao who was playing in his first game at Yankee Stadium homered just over the center-field fence into Monument Park. His 10th home run of the season was good for two runs, because Hamilton was the automatic – “ghost” – runner on second base. Duran then doubled, but Kahnle retired Abreu and O’Neill, walked Devers intentionally, and got Wong to ground out. It was 5-3, Boston.

Alex Cora called on Kenley Jansen. The 36-year-old Jansen – also from Curaçao – had 16 saves so far in the season. Ben Rice was the ghost runner on second. It was soon Yankees on first and third and nobody out when Soto singled to right field. Judge, representing the potential winning run and leading the majors with 32 home runs, swung at the first pitch and popped out foul to third base. Verdugo also swung at the first pitch and popped up as well, to first base. Oswaldo Cabrera built the count to 2-and-2, then grounded out to first base unassisted, ending the game. It was career save number 437 for Jansen, tying him with Francisco Rodríguez for fifth in major-league history. The win went to Slaten.

The Yankees were reportedly “booed off the field … in their most embarrassing performance of the season.”6 They did recover, winning the next afternoon’s game 14-4 behind three homers and seven RBIs by Ben Rice. They reached their first World Series since 2009 but lost to a dominant Los Angeles Dodgers team.

But this night belonged to the Red Sox and their once-in-a-century rally. “I always was a Red Sox fan and these types of games are the games I always dreamed about,” Rafaela told reporters after the game. “Having those types of at-bats, those are the type of games I really wanted to be in.”7

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Laura Peebles and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Ceddanne Rafaela, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for pertinent information, including the box score and play-by-play.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/NYA/NYA202407050.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2024/B07050NYA2024.htm

For highlights of the game, see: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2GA0GoKSBQM

Notes

1 Gary Phillips, “Yanks Hit Low Point,” New York Daily News, July 6, 2024: 30.

2 “Houck had required 31 pitches to get one out in the fourth. Between that total and the rain delay, manager Alex Cora decided to go to his bullpen.” Julian McWilliams, “Showing Late Life,” Boston Globe, July 6, 2024: C1.

3 Booser had just been called up from Pawtucket to take the place of Chris Martin, who had just gone on the injured list with right-elbow inflammation.

4 Smith, a first-round draft pick of the New York Mets in 2013 who spent the first six seasons of his major-league career with the Mets, signed with the Chicago Cubs as a free agent in February 2024 but was released before Opening Day. The Tampa Bay Rays signed and released him in April 2024. Smith signed with the Red Sox on May 1; he remained with Boston until he was released on August 20. Finally, he signed with the Cincinnati Reds on August 22 but was released on September 5.

5 It was Yoshida’s first home run since April 20. The 30-year-old Yoshida, who had played for the Orix Buffaloes of Japan’s Nippon Professional Baseball for seven seasons, was in his second season with the Red Sox after signing a five-year, $90 million contract in December 2022. As the Boston Globe wrote, “It took a season and a half and overcoming a mountain of doubts, but Masataka Yoshida finally had his moment with the Red Sox. It came at just the right time against just the right team. With the Sox down to their final strike Friday night, Yoshida stunned Yankee Stadium with a game-tying two-run homer to right field.” Peter Abraham, “For One Night, Yankee Stadium Is Yoshida’s Stage,” Boston Globe, July 6, 2024: C1.

6 Chris Kirscher, “Yankees Fail to Take Accountability after Embarrassing Meltdown against Red Sox,” The Athletic, New York Times, July 6, 2024. https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5619546/2024/07/06/yankees-meltdown-red-sox/.

7 Conor Roche, “Ceddanne Rafaela said his home run in Red Sox’ win over Yankees was moment he ‘always dreamed about,’” Boston.com, July 6, 2024. https://www.boston.com/sports/boston-red-sox/2024/07/06/ceddanne-rafaela-red-sox-yankees-home-run-quote/, retrieved January 10, 2025.