'You can't really put it into words' as Derek Jeter's namesake helps Red Sox beat Yankees
BOSTON – On the 11th anniversary of Derek Jeter’s 3,000th career hit, Jeter Downs collected his first MLB hit Saturday night at Fenway Park.
That single by Downs also produced his first big-league RBI and extended the Red Sox’s 10th inning rally.
And when Alex Verdugo lashed a two-out single, it was Downs who crossed with the winning run at Fenway Park, giving Boston a 6-5 comeback win against the Yankees.
Yes, the inspiration for Downs’ name was the Hall of Fame former Yankees’ captain.
Jeter had congratulated Downs’ late June call-up to the majors via Twitter, adding “good luck…unless you are playing the Yankees.’’
“I mean, it’s pretty ironic,'' said Downs, referencing Jeter's "good luck'' tweet. "(It's) kind of funny that my first big-league hit, RBI and run'' contributed to beat the Yankees at Fenway.
Plus, "a base hit in the 4-hole,'' where Jeter legendarily placed singles to right with his inside-out swing, you "can’t write a better story.”
For the record, Downs also scored the game-tying run in the eighth, and the Red Sox (46-39) eventually scored a rare victory against the Yankees’ bullpen.'
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A right-handed hitting infielder and a 2017 first-round draft pick by Cincinnati, Jeter Deion Downs - who grew up in South Florida - was traded by the Reds to the Los Angeles Dodgers, who later sent him to Boston in the Mookie Betts deal.
“We all have dreams, we all have wishes but I don’t think you can make something like this up to be honest,'' said Downs, born in 1998, two years after Jeter's MLB debut season.
"I dream a lot. I envision. But this is something you can’t really put into words.”
Rare, late loss
Entering Saturday, the Yankees (61-24) were 48-0 this year in games they led after seven innings.
Through an interpreter, Wandy Peralta said he “feels terrible’’ for enabling Boston to come all the way back, after RBI doubles by Aaron Judge and Anthony Rizzo gave the Yanks a two-run lead in the 10th.
But on a night when “you could feel the passion on both sides,’’ as Rizzo noted of a sellout crowd, with plenty of vocal Yankees’ rooters among the 36,945 fans, the overwhelming takeaway was the entertaining, 10-inning battle.
Yup, Rizzo took the Yanks out of a scoring situation in the 10th, thrown out trying to steal third with one out and Giancarlo Stanton at-bat.
“We’ve been an aggressive baserunning team,’’ and Rizzo tried to take extra advantage of the Yanks’ two-run lead.
Sure, the game could have ended with Xander Bogaerts’ hot grounder to third baseman Josh Donaldson, a tailormade double play.
But Donaldson, who otherwise played another splendid defensive game, momentarily lost his grip and settled for the out at first base.
Verdugo followed with his game-winning single to right, sending Fenway into a frenzy and giving the Red Sox a chance to split a four-game series, which concludes Sunday night.
Not their night
In this everything’s-coming-up-roses Yankees year, to date, it was almost surprising to see the elite arms in Boone’s bullpen give up even the narrowest of leads.
But after rescuing starter Jordan Montgomery in the sixth, preserving a 3-2 lead, Michael King gave up a two-out double to J.D. Martinez in the eighth.
In came Clay Holmes, who walked Bogaerts – just the third walk he’s yielded over his last 13 appearances – and set up Verdugo’s game-tying, RBI ground single to left.
By the 10th, Boone was certainly trusting this game to Peralta, who carried a 1.99 ERA through 29 appearances into Saturday’s extra inning.
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There was no chance of Aroldis Chapman seeing any high-leverage situations at Fenway, unless the situation were absolutely necessary.
And for the most part, the Yankees seemed poised to extend their whopping AL East lead on Boston to 17 games.
Rizzo (2-for-5, two doubles, two RBI) was back in the lineup for the first time since Sunday, due to a lower back spasm.
Donaldson drove in his eighth run of this series with a sixth-inning RBI single and Aaron Hicks stayed hot, belting his sixth homer of the year on an 0-2 pitch, swinging left-handed against rookie righty Kutter Crawford.
To that point, Hicks was 11-for-24 (.458) over his last nine games, with three homers, three doubles, a triple and eight RBI.
Saturday’s game-tying homer gave Hicks an extra-base hit in five consecutive games, establishing a new career high and the longest such streak by a Yankee this season.
After compiling just six extra-base hits through his first 69 games this year, Hicks has six extra-base hits over his last five games.