Before today’s regular season finally between these two dreaded rivals, the Boston Red Sox fired President of Baseball Operations Dave Dombrowski 10 years removed from winning the World Series. They also witnessed David Ortiz’ first appearance back in Fenway Park and watched him throw out the ceremonial first pitch three months after being shot in his home country of the Dominican Republic. So, a lot was on the mind of the home Red Sox.

As for the game, it started as a pitcher’s duel between New York Yankees starter James Paxton and Boston Red Sox starter Eduardo Rodriguez. This was until Yankees catcher Austin Romine smoked a home run in the top half of the 5th inning to get the scoring started. The visiting Yankees exploded in the 7th inning for three runs on four hits, taking control of this affair. New York scratched out an insurance run in the 9th and had no problem closing this one by a final score of 5 to 0. 

New York padded their amazing seasonal record at 95 wins and 50 losses, holding onto a ½ game lead on the Houston Astros for first place in the American League going into the postseason. Boston’s postseason hope shrunk even more as they dropped to 76 wins and 68 losses, 8 games behind the Oakland Athletics for the second wild card.

The game’s top performers were Austin Romine and Yankees third baseman Gio Urshela. Romine erupted for 2 hits in 2 at bats with a home run, a double, three runs scored, one run batted in, and two walks. Urshela had himself an admirable day with two runs on four at bats, a home run, a double, and a run scored and a run batted in apiece.