The Red Sox are facing their long time foes for the next 4 games, the New York Yankees.  The Yankees went from being totally out of it and selling off their parts to suddenly right back in the thick of it for the race for the AL East.  The Sox really need to get this series to keep themselves out in front in the final weeks of the season.  The Sox had Eduardo Rodriguez on the mound vs. Masahiro Tanaka for the Yankees.  Tanaka pitched a gem and ERod was out of the game by the 3rd inning, however the Sox bats took control in the 9th and ended up walking off when Hanley Ramirez hit a miracle 3 run homer.

The game didn’t start out well for ERod and he didn’t last long either.  He gave up 2 runs off the back in the top of the 1st to put the Sox in a hole.  ERod gave up an RBI single to Castro and then an Rbi Sac Fly to Butler.  Sox 0-2.  He got in trouble again in the 3rd and would end up being pulled before the inning was over.  ERod gave up an RBI singles to Butler and Headley.  Sox 0-4.  With one out in the inning Farrell had seen enough and went out to get ERod in favor of Heath Hembree.  Hembree got the two outs the team needed to at least stop the bleeding.  The Sox got on the board for the first time in the game in the bottom of the 3rd when Ortiz hit a RBI sac fly to score Bradley Jr.  Sox 1-4.

Hembree came back out for the 4th and unfortunately gave that run right back to the Yankees.  Hembree gave up an RBI infield single to Castro that allowed Gardner to score.  Sox 1-5.  Hembree was done after the 4th and Junichi Tazawa came in to pitch the 5th.  Tazawa gave up a leadoff double and then Gregorius stole third.  Tazawa had a runner at 3rd and no outs, but then he struck out the next 3 batters in a row.  Robby Scott came out to pitch for the 6th inning and ended up pitching two much needed scoreless innings.  Scott was helped out in the 7th when Xander Bogaerts made a great throw to home to have Headley tagged out trying to score.

The Sox finally got Tanaka out of the game in the 8th inning and that is when the offense got back to work.  Ortiz scored the team’s second run when he hit a solo home run to centerfield.  Sox 2-5.  It is fitting that Ortiz surpassed Mickey Mantle’s home run record while playing the Yankees.   Joe Kelly came out of the pen to pitch the 8th inning.  Kelly got himself into trouble, but then was thankfully able to get himself out of it.  Kelly gave up 2 singles and a walk to have the bases loaded with only one out.  Kelly hunkered down and got strike out for the 2nd out and then Williams lined a ball right at Kelly which he was miraculously able to snag.

The Sox headed to the bottom of the 9th down 3 runs to the Yankees.  The Yankees seemed to want to stay away from Betances and they definitely would have been better off if they did.  Tommy Layne got the first out of the inning when he struck out Aaron Hill.  Layne was done and the Yankees went with Parker to face Chris Young.  Parker hit Young with a pitch to put him on first.  The Yankees then decided to go with Betances in hopes of him putting the Sox away.  Pedroia walked to have two on and only one out.  Pedroia and Young advanced to 2nd and 3rd and now the Sox were in business.  Ortiz came to the plate and hit an RBI single to score Pedroia.  Sox 3-5.  At this point Papi had all the RBIs in the game for the Sox.  Betts changed that when he came to the plate and hit an RBI single of his own to score Bogaerts.  Sox 4-5.  The final at bat of the game was by Hanley Ramirez.  He came to the plate and Betances threw him a pitch to hit.  Hanley did just that and belted a 3 run walk off home run to see the team celebrating when he rounded third.  This game might have been the best game of the season.  The Sox took what most considered to be an automatic loss and turned it into an electric win.

Red Sox 7  Yankees 5  BOXSCORE

WP: Kelly (3-0)  LP: Betances (3-6)