BOSTON _ The New York Yankees could not have asked for a better situation in Game 2 of this American League Division Series, even after dropping a one-run heartbreaker in the opener.
The Boston Red Sox were throwing David Price, a pitcher who a.) is typically awful against the Yankees and b.) is typically awful in October.
That daily double hit in spades for the Yankees on Saturday night. An early power surge from Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez had Price out by the second inning, which_combined with more outstanding playoff work by Masahiro Tanaka_produced a series-tying 6-2 victory over the Red Sox in front of 39,151 disgruntled fans at Fenway Park.
Game 3 of the best-of-five series will be played Monday night at what is sure to be an ear-splitting Yankee Stadium, where the Yankees are 7-0 in the last two postseasons, outscoring the opposition 42-14 in that span.
"It's very important," first-year Red Sox manager Alex Cora, Houston's bench coach last year, said before Game 2, referring to the importance of taking a 2-0 lead Saturday. "They haven't lost a playoff game in a while there. The wild-card games. They swept the Astros last year. So it's a tough place to play. Last year that place was alive, the fan base. From the get-go it was loud."
Judge hit a 445-foot home run to left-center over the Green Monster in the first inning off Price, who lasted 1 2/3 innings. Sanchez hit a bomb to leftfield to lead off the second, then added the back-breaker in the seventh, a 479-foot rocket to left-center that drove in three runs and made it 6-1.
Price, 0-8 with a 5.74 ERA in nine previous postseason starts, retired leadoff man Andrew McCutchen on a grounder to third, bringing up Judge. The rightfielder fell behind 1-and-2 before Price grooved a cutter that Judge annihilated high atop the Monster in left-center for his seventh career postseason homer and sixth in his last eight postseason games. Judge became the first Yankee to homer in each of the team's first three playoff games since Hank Bauer in 1958 (Bauer, of course, did it in the World Series). Judge, who had two hits, is 7-for-12 with three home runs in this postseason.
Tanaka, 2-1 with a 0.90 ERA in three postseason starts last year, allowed a two-out single by J.D. Martinez in the bottom of the first, but that was all in the 17-pitch inning. Tanaka allowed one run, three hits and one walk in five innings, striking out four.
Sanchez led off the second by tattooing a 1-and-1 cutter into the Monster seats in left, with his first homer of this postseason making it 2-0. It made Sanchez 7-for-14 with six home runs against Price and gave the Yankees 11 homers in five games against the lefthander this season.
Price entered the night with miserable numbers against the Yankees, 2-7 with a 7.71 ERA since joining the Red Sox, including 0-3 with a 10.34 ERA this season.
He retired Didi Gregorius and Miguel Andujar after Sanchez's homer, but Gleyber Torres and Brett Gardner each drew a walk (Price thought he had Gardner struck out on a borderline 2-and-2 pitch). McCutchen then whacked an 0-and-1 fastball to leftfield off the Monster for anRBI single that made it 3-0 and endied the night for Price, who was boisterously booed as he walked slowly to the dugout.
Joe Kelly provided 2 1/3 innings of scoreless relief and the Red Sox finally got on the board with one out in the fourth when Xander Bogaerts hit a first-pitch fastball over the centerfield wall to make it 3-1.
The Yankees did have multiple chances to tack on after Price departed but through five innings, they had gone 1-for-6 with runners in scoring position and stranded seven. Sanchez's three-run shot off lefty Eduardo Rodriguez in the seventh gave the Yankees a 6-1 lead. After a perfect nine-pitch sixth, Dellin Betances allowed an RBI double by Ian Kinsler in the seventh that made it 6-2.
