BOSTON — One win does not erase the weekend’s previous three putrid performances against the Red Sox. Nor can Domingo German’s strong outing remove the smell produced by the Yankees’ starters in their previous eight games.
Yet, what the 9-6 victory over the Red Sox in front of 37,429 Sunday night at Fenway Park did was release the pressure building in the Yankees’ universe, salvage the finale of a four-game series and allow the Yankees to enjoy Monday’s off day instead of hearing and reading about the pinstriped sky falling around them.
“It felt good to get this one, obviously it’s been a difficult weekend for us and it was difficult to finish it off,’’ said Aaron Boone, who had to endure Zack Britton working out of a bases-loaded jam in the eighth and Aroldis Chapman giving up two runs in the ninth before sealing the win. “That is a happy room to finish off what was a difficult week for us. Obviously, we have to keep grinding, keep getting better, but this one was a good one.’’
The victory not only halted a three-game losing streak, it slowed down the momentum of the third-place Red Sox, who dropped nine games behind the AL East-leading Yankees. The second-place Rays are 8 ¹/₂ back.
Battered by the Twins (eight runs and nine hits in 3 ²/₃ innings) in his previous start, German rebounded with 5 ¹/₃ innings Sunday in which he allowed three runs and four hits. He tied a season-high with nine strikeouts and improved to 13-2.
In the previous eight games Yankee starters were 1-5 with two no-decisions and a whopping 13.78 ERA. They allowed 59 hits, 10 walks and hit two batters in 32 innings over that span. Ten of those hits were homers.
German is a relative neophyte to the big leagues, but he understood what he needed to do Sunday.
“I felt it was my responsibility to go out there and put a stop,’’ German said. “It’s been a rough patch for our starters.’’
Austin Romine hit a two-run homer off Chris Sale in the third and Didi Gregorius did the same in the fourth. Sale (5-10) gave up six runs and five hits in 5 ¹/₃ innings.
Working with a tighter curveball than he did against the Twins, the only base-runner German allowed through three innings was Rafael Devers, who reached on second baseman Gleyber Torres’ fielding error in the first. He gave up a two-run homer to Andrew Benintendi in the fourth that reduced the Yankees’ lead to 4-2 and was replaced in the sixth with one out and the Yankees leading, 6-3.
Gio Urshela’s second double in three innings plated Torres in the sixth and Cameron Maybin followed with an RBI single. Two runs in the seventh thanks to Gold Glove center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr.’s throwing error made it 8-4 and Maybin scored on a wild pitch in the eighth.
As the first three games of the series showed, nothing comes easy for the Yankees these days and the eighth and ninth innings provided enough stress.
Britton walked two and gave up a single to load the bases with one out in the eighth, whiffed Bradley on a slider and induced Christian Vazquez to ground out.
Chapman hadn’t worked since Wednesday and he quickly had runners at the corners with one out. He struck out J.D. Martinez on a slider in front of Benintendi’s two-run single before using a slider to strike out Michael Chavis to end it.
One win isn’t a magic pill that kills all the germs. The miserable stretch of starts can’t vanish because German was effective. It remains to be seen if GM Brian Cashman finds an arm to bolster the rotation that lost CC Sabathia to the injured list on Sunday.
But the schedule softens and good times and bad times have one common denominator: At some point they end.