David Price was no match for the bats of Didi Gregorius and Austin Romine.
You read that right.
Led by the bottom of the order, the Yankees shelled the Red Sox and their ace in an 8-2 win at Yankee Stadium Saturday afternoon.
Gregorius, batting eighth, went 2-for-3 with three RBIs, a run and a sacrifice bunt, while Romine, hitting ninth, was 3-for-4 with two doubles and two RBIs. Nathan Eovaldi had a strong showing, pitching eight innings, allowing two runs on six hits with no walks and six strikeouts. Price pitched only 4 2/3 innings, allowing six earned runs on seven hits, with three walks and four strikeouts.
Hanley Ramirez got nailed by Eovaldi’s 99-mph fastball with one out in the second, advanced to second on Travis Shaw’s groundout and came home when Brock Holt singled against the shift for the early Red Sox lead. The Yankees would get it back in the third, when Chase Headley led off the inning with a single off Price, got sacrificed over to second and came home on Romine’s double in the gap in right-center.
With runners on first and second and one out in the fourth, Price went 2-and-2 on Dustin Ackley and just missed low with a curveball before eventually walking the bases loaded. The next batter, Headley, popped out to shallow right, keeping the runners where they were. But on an 0-and-2 count, Gregorius stroked a double to right, clearing the bases and advancing to third on the throw, good for the 4-1 lead.
Jackie Bradley, Jr. hit his third homer of the year, a solo shot, to draw the Red Sox to within two runs in the fifth inning, but the Yankees tacked on two more on Carlos Beltran’s double to the corner in left – which Holt fell recovering – to go up 6-2 and end the afternoon for Price. Aaron Hicks added a sacrifice fly to score Gregorius in the sixth, and Romine laced an RBI double to left in the eighth for the final margin.
Price, who came in second in Cy Young voting last year, is now 4-1 but has struggled uncharacteristically in the early portion of the season. Saturday’s performance bloated his ERA to 6.75 (he started the game at 6.14). He’s allowed six earned runs or more three times already this season, after doing that only once last year.
..... - Newsday