Tanner Houck had settled down and a Christian Vazquez home run had given the Red Sox the lead, but Boston’s bullpen couldn’t do its part. Garrett Whitlock and Josh Taylor crumbled to pieces in a disastrous fifth inning that handed the Yankees a 5-3 win in Game 1 of Tuesday’s doubleheader.
With the Red Sox leading 3-2 after four, manager Alex Cora elected not to keep Houck in for a third time through the order, pulling the rookie after four innings and just 58 pitches.
Whitlock started with a clean inning in the fifth, but things quickly turned messy. After striking out DJ LeMahieu to start the inning, Whitlock then struggled to find the plate and issued back-to-back walks to Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge.
That was it for Whitlock and in came Taylor, back after two days on the COVID-19 related injured list. Taylor had no easier a time throwing strikes, as he promptly walked Joey Gallo to load the bases.
That set the stage for Luke Voit, who dropped in a bloop single over Kiké Hernandez’s head to plate two and give New York a 4-3 lead. Giancarlo Stanton followed with an RBI single to center that chased Taylor from the game.
Hansel Robles would ultimately get the final two outs and prevent the Yankees from completely running away, but the damage had been done. Whitlock and Taylor had combined to face six batters and recorded just one out, surrendering three walks, two hits and three runs between them.
The Red Sox gave themselves an excellent chance to come back in the seventh and final inning, but couldn't pull it off. Kyle Schwarber, Vazquez and Alex Verdugo recorded three straight singles off Jonathan Loaisiga to load the bases with no outs, bringing up recently re-signed Travis Shaw in a huge pinch-hit spot.
Shaw made solid contact, but lined out right to Gardner in left field. Loaisiga then struck out Hernandez and Hunter Renfroe to leave the bases loaded and end the game.
Boston's three runs earlier in the game came on a two-run single from Xander Bogaerts and the home run from Vazquez, the catcher's first since June 27.
Game 2 of the day-night doubleheader is set for 7:05 p.m., with Nathan Eovaldi matching up against Luis Gil.
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