NEW YORK - The roles were reversed Friday night at Yankee Stadium, and because of it the Red Sox were the big winners.
The chaos, uncertainty, and underperformance resided on the other side of the diamond, for once. Before the game, it was the Yankees fending off the bad news in the form of Aaron Judge's revelation that he had a stress fracture in his ribs. During the game, it was the Yanks' inability to push through when it counted the most. And after the game, it was the Red Sox' clubhouse that drifted into the night feeling actually good about themselves.
All of it was wrapped up in a 5-3 Red Sox win over the Yankees.
The joy finally found its way over to Chad Tracy's team.
"Awesome, amazing," said Andruw Monasterio. “So I think it's like a dream come true when you are a kid, being part of the biggest rivalry in baseball. I think it’s something special for me."
The smile couldn't be wiped off the face of Monastario, whose fourth-inning solo home run started putting distance between the visitors and the hosts. He wasn't alone in his satisfaction.
There was also starting pitcher Sonny Gray, who returned to the place he called home in 2017 and 2018 to pitch 6 1/3 solid innings, allowing just three runs.
Willson Contreras also joined Monasterio in the Red Sox's rare home run barrage, blasting what would be the decisive blow - a two-run blast to left field - in the fifth inning. (It was just the 10th time the Sox hit two or more homers in a game.)
And Danny Coulombe, the lefty reliever who hadn't quite uncovered the kind of defining moments the Red Sox were hoping for, found his dose of satisfaction. With the Red Sox' clinging to a two-run lead and a runner on base, the veteran pitcher struck out the majors' second-most dangerous hitter (OPS-wise), Ben Rice, to finish off the seventh.
"That's why you do it. That's why you play the game," Coulombe said.
Finally, the ultimate sense of satisfaction most likely went to the guy who could be found in the visitors' dugout trying to sift through such items as Brayan Bello's demotion, how the Red Sox could somehow find a trade to help their last-place plight and just the overall uneasiness that came with entering this series nine games under .500 and 9 1/2 in back of the team the Sox were about to play. That would be chief baseball officer Craig Breslow.
Monasterio. Gray. Contreras. Coulombe. They were all supposed to be the kind of puzzle pieces that would make this thing work. This time, it did.
"I think we need to run our own race,” the chief baseball officer said before the game. "We need to make sure that we get our house in order. We need to play better. We need to win more games, and at that point we can figure out where we are relative to the league."
For one night, the wind was actually at the Red Sox's back. Now with 100 games to play, it's a feeling they need to start uncovering a whole lot more often.
