April 22, 2007: Four consecutive home runs help Red Sox beat Yankees and sweep a home series

When the New York Yankees arrived in Boston in April 2007, the Boston Red Sox had not swept a series from the Yankees at Fenway Park for 17 years. The last time had been August 31-September 2, 1990, part of Boston’s only season home sweep of the Yankees in franchise history. The last time the New York team had visited Boston, in August 2006, the Yankees had swept a five-game series.1

On Friday night, April 20, Boston beat New York, 7-6, thanks for a five-run bottom of the eighth. In a late-afternoon game on Saturday, the Red Sox won again, 7-5. The Red Sox were in first place in the American League East Division with an 11-5 record; the Yankees were third at 8-8.

The April 22 game was an 8:10 P.M. start and ESPN Sunday Night Baseball telecast, with rookie Daisuke Matsuzaka starting for Terry Francona and the Red Sox, while Joe Torre and the Yankees pinned their hopes on left-hander Chase Wright. It was Wright’s second big-league game; he had won his first five days earlier, beating the Cleveland Indians, 10-3.

Matsuzaka was 1-2 in the still-young season, but his teammates had scored only one run in the two losses combined.

He gave up two runs in the top of the first inning in this one. After two outs, right fielder Bobby Abreu was walked  and Matsuzaka hit third baseman Alex Rodríguez with a pitch. Rodríguez already had 12 home runs after just 16 games, with 31 RBIs. The DH, Jason Giambi, doubled to left-center, the ball hopping up and hitting the wall, driving in both runners. Robinson Canó then grounded out.

Wright quickly dug a hole for himself, walking the Red Sox’ leadoff batter, shortstop Julio Lugo, who stole second with first baseman Kevin Youkilis batting. Wright then walked Youkilis. He worked out of trouble, getting both David Ortiz and Manny Ramírez to fly to right-center, then striking out right fielder J.D. Drew.

“Dice-K” retired the side in order in the top of the second. The Red Sox had two two-out baserunners in the bottom of the inning after Wily Mo Peña walked and Dustin Pedroia doubled, but Wright again escaped damage as Lugo grounded out. 

In the third, Yankees center fielder Johnny Damon singled up the middle, advancing to second when Derek Jeter was hit by a pitch. Matsuzaka struck out Abreu and A-Rod, but saw the Yankees bump up the score to 3-0 when Giambi looped a single to short right field, scoring Damon. Canó struck out.

Wright began the bottom of the inning by getting Youkilis and Ortiz to fly out, Ortiz to left field not far from the stands.

Then the game took a turn. On a 2-and-1 count, Manny Ramírez – batting only .190 – homered high into the Green Monster seats in left-center. It was his second homer of the season and the 472nd of his career.

Drew then homered several rows deep over the Red Sox bullpen in right-center field on a 1-and-2 count.2 Third baseman Mike Lowell homered high and over everything in left field to make it three in a row. Jason Varitek joined in with a home run of his own, right onto the top of the Monster, giving Boston a 4-3 lead. The four solo home runs in succession set a team record.3 All had been hit in a 10-pitch span.   

“Needless to say, the place went pretty much kablooey,” wrote one reporter.4

“It certainly brought some life back into the ballpark in a hurry,” manager Francona said after the game.5

Wright struck out Peña to close the inning. “We told (Peña) he (stinks),” joked Lowell afterward.6

Wright himself allowed, “It was a whirlwind right there. That’s what happened when you leave pitches up in the zone.”7

Yankees first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz – like Damon, another Red Sox alumnus from the 2004 championship team – hit a ground-rule double to the 420-foot mark in center field to lead off the New York fourth. None of the next three batters got the ball out of the infield.  

Colter Bean relieved Wright in the fourth. He’d worked one game for the Yankees in 2005, two in 2006, and this was his first of what became three appearances in 2007 – the sum total of his work in the majors. Lugo drew a one-out walk and Ortiz hit a two-out ground-rule double into the right-field corner, but no one scored.

Derek Jeter led off the top of the fifth with a home run into the first row of the Monster seats in left, tying the game 4-4. Abreu and Rodríguez both struck out, and Giambi popped up foul to Varitek.

Bean walked two and saw a stolen base in the fifth, but no runs scored.

The Yankees took a 5-4 lead in the top of the sixth. Canó singled to left, took third on Mientkiewicz’s single to right, and scored when left fielder Melky Cabrera grounded into a 4-6-3 double play.

Andy Pettitte – who had returned to the Yankees as a free agent after three seasons with the Houston Astros – relieved Bean. The 34-year-old lefty walked Youkilis with one out in the sixth, then induced Ortiz to hit into a double play.

Matsuzaka retired the three batters he faced in the seventh. In the bottom of the inning, Scott Proctor became the fourth Yankees pitcher of the game, working for a third consecutive day. Ramírez singled to the left of the second baseman. Drew doubled off the wall in left.

With runners on second and third, Mike Lowell hit a three-run homer to straightaway left, just inches inside the foul line.8 The Red Sox took a 7-5 lead, with all seven of the runs on homers.

Luis Vizcaino replaced Proctor. Vizcaino secured a couple of outs, saw two batters reach base, and then got the third out.

In the eighth inning, the Red Sox used three pitchers to preserve the lead. Rodríguez singled to right field. Francona called on Hideki Okajima to relieve Matsuzaka after 108 pitches. Giambi popped up to Lowell at third base. Canó singled to center, with Rodríguez stopping at second base. Jorge Posada pinch-hit for Mientkiewicz and walked, loading the bases for Cabrera.9

Francona called in Brendan Donnelly to take over from Okajima. Cabrera grounded into a force play at second base, while Rodriguez scored. The Yankees were trailing by just one run, 7-6. Pinch-hitter Josh Phelps lined to Pedroia at second base for the third out. The Boston Globe called it the “defensive play of the game, stabbing a wicked liner.”10

Sean Henn pitched for New York in the bottom of the eighth. Two batters reached base – Ramírez on a one-out single and Lowell on a two-out walk. Varitek grounded into an inning-ending force out at second base.

Jonathan Papelbon came in to close out the game and hold the one-run lead. He did. Damon lined out to left. Jeter struck out. Abreu walked, but Rodríguez grounded to Lowell at third, who threw to Pedroia for a force out at second. With their third win in three days, the Red Sox had swept the Yankees at Fenway Park for the first time since 1990.

Despite having given up six runs, Matsuzaka got the win, his first at Fenway Park. Proctor not only blew a save but bore the loss. Wright became only the second pitcher in American or National League history, after Paul Foytack of the 1963 Los Angeles Angels, to have surrendered four consecutive home runs.11

Wright was sent to the minors after the game, returning for one more game in the final game of the year, on September 30 in Baltimore. He won that one, 10-4, working the fourth and fifth innings and being in the right place at the right time as the game became official. His major-league career record stands at 2-0.

Matsuzaka finished the season with a record of 15-12 (4.40 ERA), with a very impressive 18-3 (2.90) record in 2008. Matsuzaka won Game Seven of the 2007 ALCS, helping send the Red Sox to the World Series, and won Game Three of the Series itself, as the Red Sox swept the Colorado Rockies.

Acknowledgments

This article was fact-checked by Victoria Monte and copy-edited by Len Levin.

Photo credit: Mike Lowell, Trading Card Database.

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com, Retrosheet.org, and the ESPN video broadcast of the game on YouTube.com.

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/BOS/BOS200704220.shtml

https://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/2007/B04220BOS2007.htm

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4kIsyOB8fwE

https://www.mlb.com/video/red-sox-hit-four-consecutive-home-runs

Notes

1 The Yankees had won their last seven games at Fenway Park, including the five-game sweep from August 18-21, 2006.

2 Just the year before, Drew had been the second of four Los Angeles Dodgers who had homered consecutively in the September 18 game against the San Diego Padres. Later, his brother Stephen Drew was one of four who homered for the Arizona Diamondbacks on August 11, 2010.

3 The Red Sox thus tied the major-league record of four consecutive home runs, one that (through 2024) has been accomplished 11 times. In the first of the 11 games, the homering team lost the game. All 10 other games resulted in wins. The other games were:

• June 8, 1961: Milwaukee Braves vs. Cincinnati Reds: Eddie Mathews, Hank Aaron, Joe Adcock, Frank Thomas. July 31, 1963: Cleveland Indians vs. Los Angeles Angels: Woodie Held, pitcher Pedro Ramos, Tito Francona, Larry Brown.
• May 2, 1964: Minnesota Twins vs. Kansas City A’s: Tony Oliva, Bob Allison, Jimmie Hall, Harmon Killebrew.
• September 18, 2006: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Diego Padres: Jeff Kent, J.D. Drew, Russell Martin, Marlon Anderson.
• August 14, 2008: Chicago White Sox vs. Kansas City Royals: Jim Thome, Paul Konerko, Alexei Ramirez, Juan Uribe.
• August 11, 2010: Arizona Diamondbacks vs. Milwaukee Brewers: Adam LaRoche, Miguel Montero, Mark Reynolds, Stephen Drew.
• July 27, 2017: Washington Nationals vs. Brewers: Brian Goodwin, Wilmer Difo, Bryce Harper, Ryan Zimmerman.
• June 9, 2019: Nationals vs. San Diego Padres: Howie Kendrick, Trea Turner, Adam Eaton, Anthony Rendon.
• August 16, 2020 White Sox vs. St. Louis Cardinals: Yoán Moncada, Yasmani Grandal, José Abreu, Eloy Jiménez.
• July 2, 2022: Cardinals vs. Philadelphia Phillies: Nolan Arenado, Nolan Gorman, Juan Yepez, Dylan Carlson

4 Mike Fine, “Four Gone,” Quincy (Massachusetts) Patriot Ledger, April 23, 2007: 17. Fine quoted Matsuzaka: “In Japan, I’ve neither seen nor heard of such a thing taking place. It was the most I could do to contain my own excitement.”

5 Jack Curry, “Francona Uses His Power of Suggestion to the Benefit of the Red Sox,” New York Times, September 22, 2007: D2.

6 Fine, 20.

7 Tyler Kepner, “Five Home Runs, One Big Sweep: Yanks Overcome 4 Homers in a Row Early, but One More Is Too Much,” New York Times, September 22, 2007: D1.

8 “Lowell’s “professional estimate” was “an eight-inch clearance.” Bob Ryan, “Recounting 3rd-Inning Barrage Is a Real Blast,” Boston Globe, April 23, 2007: D6.

9 Posada had not caught the game, out with a sore thumb.

10 Gordon Edes, “Five Home Runs Help Sox to Series Sweep of Yankees,” Boston Globe, April 23, 2007: D6.

11 This April 22 game was played on Red Sox manager Terry Francona’s 48th birthday. One of Foytack’s four home runs was hit by Tito Francona, Terry’s father. After the 2007 game, Foytack said of Wright, “I kind of feel bad of the kid because he’s young. I’m going to tell him that these things happen and that he shouldn’t let it get to him.” When given an email address so that he could get in touch through the Yankees, Foytack said, “I don’t even know how to turn on the computer.” Jack Curry, “After 44 Years, Pitcher Gains a Partner in the Record Book,” New York Times, September 22, 2007: D2. In the 2010 game, Dave Bush surrendered all four home runs. In the 2017 game, the Nationals’ Michael Blazek gave up the four consecutive home runs, retired Daniel Murphy on a fly ball to deep center field, and then gave up a fifth home run to Anthony Rendon.