BOSTON _ It didn't take long to figure out that J.A. Happ didn't have it Friday night. The veteran lefty could not command his fastball and struggled to get ahead of the dangerous top of the Red Sox lineup. With two on and one out in the first inning, Happ dropped a fastball low in the zone against Boston designated hitter J.D. Martinez.
The Boston slugger dug down and crushed a three-run homer over the Green Monster to stun Happ. The Yankees' best pitcher against their rivals had his worst start of the season Friday night. Happ was chased in the third inning as the Red Sox beat the Yankees 5-4 at Fenway Park in the first game of the American League Division Series.
The best-of-five series continues at Fenway Saturday night with the Yankees looking to rally behind Masahiro Tanaka, facing Red Sox lefty David Price.
Happ lasted just two batters into the third inning Friday night before Yankee manager Aaron Boone was forced to go get him.
He allowed five runs on four hits, including that first-inning three-run homer to Martinez. After giving up a leadoff double to Mookie Betts and a single to Andrew Benintendi in the third, Happ was pulled for Chad Green, who let both inherited runners score.
It was the shortest outing for a Yankee pitcher in the playoffs since Luis Severino could not get out of the first inning in last year's wild-card game and the shortest for Happ since he went just two innings May 16, 2016 with the Blue Jays against the Rays.
He put the Yankees in a hole deep enough that the Bombers bats could not quite climb out of it _ even against the Red Sox shaky bullpen.
The bats were quieted by Red Sox lefty Chris Sale, who held them to two runs on five hits over 51/3 innings work. The Bombers chased him after giving up three straight singles to start the sixth, and two of those runs scored. The Yankees had the bases loaded that inning when Gleyber Torres struck out to end the rally. They scored another on Luke Voit's grounder to second in the seventh and their fourth run on Aaron Judge's leadoff homer in the ninth, but it wasn't enough.
The Yankees went 1-for-7 with runners in scoring position, stranding 10 on the night and never could get the big hit the needed.
It is a pretty considerable blow in the first game of this series.
They had looked to be in their best possible spot to take on the Red Sox with Happ available to start the series and come back for a Game 5 if needed. Happ had become something of a Red Sox slayer.
This season, he made four starts against Boston, pitching to a 1.99 ERA, striking out 29 in 221/3 innings pitched against them. In 21 career appearances against Boston, 20 starts, Happ has a 2.98 ERA over 1171/3 innings pitched.
In 10 career starts in Fenway Park, Happ had held the power Red Sox lineup to a .228 batting average against. He had a 3.27 lifetime ERA here coming in. This season, Happ made two starts in Boston, holding the best offense in baseball to four earned runs over 9.2 innings pitched, a .231 batting average against and a .713 OPS.
That's why he seemed like the perfect fit when Brian Cashman pulled the trigger on a trade with the Blue Jays that brought Happ to New York. The Yankees GM denied stopping the Red Sox was the reason they targeted Happ.
"He was the best pitcher we could get," Cashman said.
And for two months, he was the best pitcher the Yankees had in their rotation. Happ finished the season going 7-0 with a 2.69 ERA in 11 starts for the Yankees.
In fact, he had been so good, the Yankees had to reconsider their plans. They had to consider using Happ in the wild-card game against the A's, but ultimately chose to roll the dice with Luis Severino. That seemed to also give them the added bonus of having Happ lined up to pitch two games in this series.
Now, the Yankees have to find a way to rebound from Happ's struggles.
