Alex Verdugo felt the Red Sox had to protect ‘our house’ prior to walk-off win over Yankees
Verdugo hit a game-tying single and a game-winning single in Saturday's win.
Alex Verdugo came up in the clutch twice in the Red Sox’ 6-5 win over the Yankees on Saturday.
The first time was in the eighth inning. With the Red Sox down, 3-2, Verdugo hit a groundball single to short. But with the Yankees in the shift, Verdugo’s groundball rolled into left field, allowing Jeter Downs to score from second base to tie the game.
In the 10th, Verdugo stepped up to the plate with the Red Sox down a run again. This time he hit a line drive to right center, which went deep enough for Downs to score from second again and win the game.
Right before Verdugo’s clutch at-bats on Saturday, Yankees All-Star Aaron Judge made a diving catch in center to prevent Christian Vázquez from getting a base hit in the eighth. The catch sparked a loud “M-V-P!” chant for Judge at Fenway Park, a rarity.
For much of the first three games in the series, Yankees fans have made their presence loud and clear at Fenway. Of course, they gave the fans who traveled from New York and other places many reasons to cheer as they took the first two games of the series. Verdugo wanted to put a change to that on Saturday.
“You could hear it, even today, Yankees fans chanting,” Verdugo said. “It was really loud for the Yankees. It felt like Boston was getting overpowered vocally by Yankees fans. It was like, ‘We’ve got to get this back. This is our house. This is where we play. This ain’t their field.
“So it just felt like we had to keep going. A win right now is huge.”
Prior to his two clutch at-bats on Saturday, Verdugo struggled at the plate for much of the first three games of the series. He was just 1-for-11 with a walk up to that point, failing to advance a runner on-base in four of those at-bats.
Verdugo’s struggles at the plate over the first two games of the series were just a minor reason why the Red Sox were just 3-8 in their prior 11 games entering Saturday. As Verdugo stepped up twice, he felt like Saturday’s game was one they couldn’t let slip out of their hands.
“To keep fighting back and forth, man, it was one of those games where it just needed to be us,” Verdugo said.
Verdugo’s heroics on Saturday add a little juice considering the opponent. The Yankees’ bullpen is a major reason why they’re 61-24, a historic mark at this point in the season. Yankees right-handed reliever Clay Holmes entered Saturday’s game with a 0.47 ERA. Verdugo hit a game-tying single off him in the eighth inning. Lefty reliever Wandy Peralta had a 1.99 ERA entering Saturday’s game. Verdugo hit the walk-off single against him.
With Verdugo’s two late-inning hits on Saturday, the Yankees lost a game for the first time all season in which they were leading at any point in the eighth inning or later. They had won all 61 times prior to that, which was the third-longest streak to start a season over the last 20 years, per ESPN’s Marly Rivera.
Verdugo had a sense of how big the moment was.
“Tonight is up there. Today was a big one for me, man,” Verdugo said. “I just felt really good about it. I’m really coming down at the moment.”
Red Sox manager Alex Cora said simply what his team needed to get the win on Saturday.
“We needed a Dugie to beat the Yankees,” Cora said.
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