Yankees demolish Red Sox: 3 things you missed in Saturday night’s blowout

The New York Yankees had an easy night at the office on Saturday, as they demolished the Boston Red Sox 14-1.

The Boston Red Sox were able to take the series-opening game over the New York Yankees in extra innings after Xander Bogaerts scored on a wild pitch thrown by Michael King, winning 5-4. On Saturday, let’s just say the Yankees did not want to go to extra innings for the fourth night in a row, and who can blame them?

New York completely negated a first inning solo home run by Boston third baseman Rafael Devers, as they won 14-1. That’s right, Devers was the entire Red Sox offense in the Bronx on Saturday night. Pay the man, Red Sox.

Here are three things you missed in the Saturday night blowout win by the Yankees.

3. Matt Carpenter proves he’s the under-the-radar signing of the season

The Texas Rangers have to be kicking themselves. Earlier in the year, they signed former St. Louis Cardinals player Matt Carpenter to a minor league contract. He never played for them in the major leagues, and both sides opted to part ways in mid-May. Then, the Yankees swooped in and signed Carpenter, who instantly became their most impactful bat in his short amount of time with the team.

It all started in the bottom of the first inning, as Carpenter sent a pitch thrown by Nick Pivetta to the right field stands of Yankee Stadium on a three-run home run to extend New York’s lead to 4-1.

Carpenter decided that he wanted another home run and a couple more RBI added to his stats page, as he hit another three-run blast bottom of the fifth inning.

In just his 30th game with the Yankees, Carpenter now has recorded 13 home runs, 31 RBI, a .360 batting average, and a 1.460 OPS. The under-the-radar signing of the year? Sure looks that way so far.

2. Aaron Judge shows why he’s still the AL MVP favorite

Carpenter was not the only player wearing a Yankees uniform to hit multiple home runs on Saturday night. The other was someone you may know. His name is Aaron Judge.

Judge hit his 32nd home run of the season in the bottom of the fifth inning, a solo shot to left center field off Pivetta. One inning later, he sent his 33rd homer of the year into the center field to increase New York’s lead to 10-1.

Since the start of the season, Judge showed that he knew what he was doing by turning down that contract offer by the Yankees prior to the start of the season. He has only dramatically increased his asking price with his play, as he is now on pace to hit 59 home runs this season.

Sure, the AL MVP field is pretty crowded, but Judge is still the favorite to win the award, and Saturday night proved why.

1. Red Sox finally try to get over the hump against the AL East

Entering July 16, the Red Sox were looking to not just get a win over their hated rivals, but to clinch their first series win against the Yankees. Not just that, but their first series win over an AL East team!

The Red Sox have played a total of 10 series between the Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, Toronto Blue Jays, and Baltimore Orioles, and they have not won any of those series.

They had the chance to clinch it on Saturday with a win, but the Carpenter-Judge show completely derailed those plans. Certainly does not help matters that Pivetta surrendered seven earned runs on seven hits in 4.1 innings of work, and that Devers provided Boston’s only run scored of the game.

Boston can make the All-Star break that much sweeter if they are to defeat New York on Sunday afternoon. They will have Chris Sale taking on Gerrti Cole in the series finale.