Red Sox First to 75 Wins, Manager Tossed in Testy Yankees Game

By Ross Kelly August 4, 2018 at 8:48am

The race to win the AL East very well could be over by the end of the weekend if the Boston Red Sox continue to dominate the New York Yankees as they’ve done the past two nights.

After the Sox bats provided 15 runs in Thursday’s win over New York, it was the pitching of Rick Porcello who paved the way to victory on Friday night.

Porcello threw a complete game one-hitter while striking out nine batters. The Red Sox defeated the Yankees 4-1 as they stretched their division lead to 7.5 games.

Rick Porcello is the 1st @RedSox pitcher to throw and win a complete game at Fenway against the Yankees since Roger Clemens in '91.

He threw 86 pitches. Prior to tonight, the last pitcher to throw a CG (9+ IP) on fewer than 90 pitches: Rick Porcello on Sept. 19, 2016 vs O's. pic.twitter.com/rIr97yvesr

— ESPN Stats & Info (@ESPNStatsInfo) August 4, 2018

Early on, things appeared to be in the Yankees’ favor after Red Sox manager Alex Cora was ejected in the first inning.

Cora was upset that both teams received warnings after Yankees pitcher Luis Severino threw one high and inside to Mookie Betts. That pitch came just moments after Porcello had hit the Yankees’ leadoff hitter, Brett Gardner, on the arm with a fastball.

Replay of Luis Severino throwing high and inside as retaliation for Porcello hitting Gardner earlier (on an 0-2 count…), as well as Alex Cora's audible reaction and ejection #NYYvsBOS pic.twitter.com/lEff8GAlo2

— First and Fan (@FirstandFan1) August 4, 2018

It was Cora’s first ejection as a manager, and he said he received a call from his daughter about his demeanor and language used after the ejection.

While he spent the rest of the game watching from the clubhouse, Cora did get to complete his postgame press conference, during which he took a shot at Severino.

CORA WALKOFF: Alex Cora takes a not-so thinly veiled shot at Luis Severino when asked if tonight’s animosity is over with Yankees pic.twitter.com/k4apt54swX

— Mike Petraglia (@Trags) August 4, 2018

“I don’t know we scored four runs in less than six innings. Is that a quality start?” Cora said about Severino when asked if players throwing at each other is over.

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Even the Yankees thought the umpire who issued the warnings was a little trigger happy and affected the rest of the game.

“It was a little quick,” Yankees catcher Austin Romine said. “It definitely changed the game a little bit.

“Something is always going to happen between us and the Red Sox. It is what it is,” Romine said about the inside pitches. “They scored how many runs last night? So we have to pitch inside. There was no intent on that. When someone puts up 15, 16 runs, you’ve got to kind of change the game plan up.”

The teams will play on Saturday and Sunday to finish off their four-game series. They will then play six more times in September to complete the season series.

Per FiveThirtyEight, the Sox have an 87 percent chance of winning the AL East. The only time they’ve blown a division lead this large and this late in the season came in 1978 when the teams finished tied for first place and the Yankees won the tiebreaker game thanks to Bucky Dent’s legendary home run.

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