NEW YORK – The Yankee Stadium faithful wanted to get rowdy on Saturday afternoon after watching the home team come up empty in the first two games of a four-game rivalry matchup.
But Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet kept everyone from the box seats to the Bleacher Creatures to the upper deck quiet and in their seats for the majority of his latest dominant performance. Crochet stifled the Yankees, scattering five hits and one run while walking one and striking out 11.
Behind the lefty, who is referred to as “Beast” within the confines of his clubhouse, the Red Sox rolled to their third straight victory this weekend and fifth overall in the Bronx, defeating the Yankees, 12-1, on a postcard type of summer day.
“That’s why we call him Beast,” said catcher Carlos Narváez. “We talked about this game three or four days ago. He’s always prepared, and you see the big dominance today, and I’m proud of him.”
Given all the noise that typically emanates from Yankee Stadium, the sounds of silence stood out.
“Yeah, it feels good,” said Crochet. “It's kind of eerie in a way, but we’re playing really good ball right now. When you do that, that tends to happen on the road. So that's cool.”
The 71-59 Sox increased their lead over the Yankees (69-60) to 1 1/2 games for the top American League Wild Card spot.
And now they have a chance to do what is rare for any four-game series, not to mention one against the Yankees, and complete a four-game sweep on Sunday Night Baseball when Dustin May faces off against Carlos Rodón.
It would be Boston’s first four-game sweep of the rivalry series since Aug. 2-5, 2018, at Fenway, and its first in the Bronx since a five-game sweep from July 7-9, 1939.
“We’ll come here tomorrow with the same expectation, just play good baseball and see what happens,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora.
What happened Saturday was a lot of lethal pitches from Crochet, who used his cutter, sinker, sweeper and four-seamer almost equally.
In his first season with Boston, Crochet is stacking up a run at the American League’s Cy Young Award. Crochet’s latest impressive effort only improved his case, as he ran his record to 14-5 while lowering his ERA to 2.38 ERA while running his strikeout total to 207, just two shy of the career high he set last season.
“It’s cool,” Crochet said. “I was talking about it with someone yesterday or two days ago. I think that I put a greater weight on innings in my mind. Especially this year, like being able to fully stretch myself out over the course of 162. I feel like that's just a greater representation of what you're able to provide to the team. But it's still cool.”
By reaching the 200-K mark within his first 26 starts, Crochet joined some select company in becoming just the fourth pitcher in club history to do so.
The others? Pedro Martinez (three times), Chris Sale (twice) and Roger Clemens (once).
But as the Red Sox improved to 8-1 against their rivals this season, Crochet was far from the only story.
Trevor Story, an American League Comeback Player of the Year candidate, belted a two-out, two-run double into the corner in left in the third to break a scoreless tie. Two innings later, he belted a solo homer to right-center, his 20th of the season.
Story joined Nomar Garciaparra (1997) and John Valentin (‘95) as the only shortstops in club history to have 20-20 (homers and steals) seasons. The right-handed hitter, who spent his first three seasons in Boston battling injuries, has been healthy throughout this one and has 82 RBIs.
“There's a lot more work to do, but it means a lot for me to do it here with these guys, with this team, and the way we're doing it, playing winning baseball,” said Story. “So that's the thing that matters the most. I’m pumped to do it with these guys.”
And by the late innings, there was at last some noise from the announced crowd of 45,512 as chants of “Let’s go, Red Sox” came from a collection of interlopers spread throughout the Stadium.
“I didn't really hear them. We were just locked in on the game,” said Story. “Obviously we know our fans are passionate, and they travel well, too. So it’s always good to hear that.”