April 10, 2018: Red Sox thrash Yankees to post best 10-game start; play 10 error-free games

Decisively beating the visiting New York Yankees, 14-1, on April 10, 2018, the Boston Red Sox won their ninth consecutive game, giving them a 9-1 season record, the best 10-game start in franchise history.

They had lost on Opening Day to the Tampa Bay Rays, 6-4, at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, then won the next three – all by one-run margins. Then they went to Miami and won two games over the Marlins, and came home to Fenway Park and won the home opener in 12 innings, against the visiting Rays.1 They took the next two against Tampa Bay as well, scoring six runs in the bottom of the eighth on Sunday, April 8, for an 8-7 come-from-behind victory.2

After an offday, the New York Yankees arrived for a Tuesday night game on April 10 and naturally drew a large crowd – 32,357. Starting for Alex Cora and the Red Sox was left-hander Chris Sale. It was Sale’s third start of the season, though he was without a decision despite having given up only one earned run in 11 innings.

Right fielder Aaron Judge, the reigning AL Rookie of the Year as well as the 2017 MVP runner-up to Houston’s José Altuve, singled in the top of the first, but he was New York’s only baserunner. Left fielder Giancarlo Stanton had gone 0-for-7 with five strikeouts in the team’s last game, a 12-inning loss to the Baltimore Orioles that left the Yankees at 5-5 so far. He started this one off with another K.3

The Yankees’ Aaron Boone (like Cora, in his first year of managing) started right-hander Luis Severino, 2-0 with a 1.38 ERA. The Red Sox got on the board right away, with a double off the wall in left-center by right fielder Mookie Betts, a walk to left fielder Andrew Benintendi (already his 10th of the new season), and an RBI single right over the mound and up the middle by first baseman Hanley Ramírez.

In the second, the Yankees again managed just a single off Sale, and the Red Sox bumped their lead up to 4-0 in the bottom of the inning. Catcher Christian Vázquez kicked things off with a single, another hit skipping over the mound. Shortstop Brock Holt struck out, but Betts singled to left-center, Vázquez stopping at second.4 Benintendi drove them both in with a triple down the line and into the right-field corner.5 Ramírez singled again, this time on a broken-bat blooper to left, picking up his second RBI of the game.

Yankees second baseman Neil Walker and Judge both singled in the third, but Sale struck out Stanton again, and DH Gary Sánchez.6 Severino retired the Red Sox in order.

Sale struck out three Yankees in the top of the fourth, after an infield single by shortstop Didi Gregorius. In the bottom of the inning, Severino struck out Holt again, but walked Betts, who took third when Benintendi swung at the first pitch and doubled off the left-field scoreboard. Ramírez lined a ball to Judge in right field, and Betts tagged and scored. Boston had a 5-0 lead, Ramírez having picked up an RBI in each of his three times up.

With two outs in the fifth, Aaron Judge put the Yankees on the board when he homered several rows deep into the center-field bleachers. It was the 2017 AL home-run king’s third of the season. Stanton singled, but Sánchez popped up foul behind the plate.

Severino struck out two Red Sox in the bottom of the fifth. The only runner to reach base was Jackie Bradley Jr., on a single to left-center. The inning ended 5-1 Boston. Peter Abraham of the Boston Globe noted that Severino “was fortunate to get that far given the Sox left six runners on base when he was in the game.”7

The Red Sox effectively put the game out of reach in the bottom of the sixth, scoring nine runs on just three hits. Tommy Kahnle came on in relief, and Betts doubled into the left-field corner with one out. On nine pitches, both Benintendi and Ramírez walked. Designated hitter J.D. Martinez doubled high off the wall in center, driving in two runs and missing a grand slam by inches. Ramírez held at third, but tagged and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by third baseman Rafael Devers. Kahnle then walked shortstop Eduardo Núñez, whereupon Aaron Boone called on left-hander Chasen Shreve to relieve Kahnle.

With his first pitch, Shreve hit Bradley, thereby loading the bases. Vázquez grounded a ball that ticked off the glove of third baseman Miguel Andujar. But for the error, the inning would have been over, but another run scored and the bases remained loaded. Holt walked, on five pitches, forcing in Núñez with Boston’s 10th run.

Betts then hit a grand slam to the walkway atop the Green Monster in straightaway left field, giving the Red Sox a 14-1 lead.8 Betts had come to bat five times in the game and scored all five times. Tyler Kepner of the New York Times wrote that Betts thus became “the first Red Sox player ever with four hits, four runs batted in and four runs scored in a game against the Yankees since R.B.I. became an official statistic in 1920.”9

There had been four bases on balls, one hit-by-pitch, one error, two doubles, and the home run. Nine runs scored.

The bullpens closed the game out. Shreve rebounded by striking out the side in the seventh, and Luis Cessa pitched a clean eighth for the Yankees.

For Boston, Joe Kelly pitched a scoreless seventh and Brian Johnson handled the final two innings of the 13-run win. The Red Sox had their 10th straight error-free game, and ninth win in a row.

“Just a crappy night all around,” Boone said, adding, “That’s no fun getting beat up like that, especially when you have your ace going – certainly not the way we wanted to start the trip. But you also turn the page from it.”10

The Red Sox streaks finally ended the next night. A throwing error as the Yankees stole a base was the first miscue of the season for Boston, and the Yankees went on to win, 10-7.

Playing their first 10 games without an error was the best start in franchise history. No other major-league team had started a season with 10 error-free games since at least 1913.11 The Red Sox won eight more games in succession to improve their record to 17-2 as of April 20. They ultimately won a franchise-record 108 games and lost just one game in each of the three rounds of postseason play, capped by their fourth World Series championship of the still relatively new century.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by David Rader and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Mookie Betts, Trading Card Database.

Notes

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and YouTube.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS201804100.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2018/B04100BOS2018.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Baq-SFAGU8

Notes

1 Hanley Ramirez singled with the bases loaded and one out.

2 The Red Sox had also won 14 of their last 15 games in spring training. As to their hot start in the regular season, outfielder Mookie Betts said, “We’ve been doing well, but we got 162. It’s not necessarily how you start, but where you finish.” Julian Benbow, “Rolling Red Sox Await Stanton, Yankees,” Boston Globe. April 10, 2018: D1, D6.  

3 On April 3, Opening Day at Yankee Stadium, he’d also struck out five times, thus having achieved a “platinum sombrero” twice in the team’s first 10 games. He had two “golden sombreros” as the season wore on (four strikeouts in one game). Stanton had signed with the Yankees in the offseason. He was the reigning National League MVP, coming off a 2017 season for the Miami Marlins in which he led both leagues in home runs (59) and RBIs (132). He hit 38 homers and drove in 100 runs for New York in 2018.  

4 Holt was in at shortstop because Xander Bogaerts was out with an ankle injury. Bogaerts returned on April 27.

5 That made him a career 7-for-15 with 8 RBIs against Severino.

6 Because Stanton had also hit into a double play and grounded into a force play in the April 8 game, there were not six strikeouts in succession. He had however, struck out 22 times in his first 44 at-bats and had been “booed lustily by the Yankee Stadium crowd.” Mike Mazzeo, “Punched Out by Boston,” New York Daily News, April 11, 2018: 35.  

7 Peter Abraham, “Red Sox Bats Do Number on Yankees,” Boston Globe, April 11, 2018: C1.

8 It was the first Red Sox grand slam against the Yankees since Jarrod Saltalamacchia’s on September 13, 2013. Betts was reportedly the first Red Sox player in 100 years to hit a grand slam and score five times in the same game. Nick Cafardo, “Off the Top, Betts Becoming a Force,” Boston Globe, April 11, 2018: C4.

9 Tyler Kepner, “Red Sox Remind Yankees: They’re Still the Team to Beat,” New York Times, April 11, 2018: B9.

10 Billy Witz, “Red Sox Hand Yankees the Drubbing of a Decade,” New York Times, April 11, 2018: B9. The last time the Red Sox had beaten New York as decisively was on August 22, 2009, also a 14-1 victory.  

11 2019 Boston Red Sox Media Guide, 263.