While Boston has exceeded expectations to this point, New York hasn’t been able to meet them.
But the Yankees had caught a little burst of momentum coming into Fenway, winning seven of their last 10.
That made it important for the Red Sox to set the tone for the weekend by cooling off their rivals.
They accomplished that with a tense and satisfying performance, which included the latest throw by Hunter Renfroe that looked like it was shot out of a cannon -- a 94.7-mph strike home that nailed Gio Urshela trying to score from second on a single by Miguel Andújar.
“The fact that everybody was here early, the fans, that’s something different, but obviously for the right reason,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “I have to give it to the fans, for them to show up and bring the energy from the get-go with Pedey, and then keeping it going all the way through the end. I’ve been saying Friday nights at Fenway are cool. They’re pretty cool, and it was another great atmosphere.”
The offense, perhaps jolted by the Pedroia ceremony, made some early noise with run-scoring doubles into the gap in left-center in the first by Xander Bogaerts and Renfroe.
“Yeah, it was incredible,” Renfroe said of the atmosphere. “Obviously, this is the thing you live for. These are the games you live for. Obviously, it wasn’t a playoff [game], but it was a playoff-like atmosphere. The guys felt it from the fans, and the fans were there the whole game.”
Without question, the biggest roar of the night unrelated to Pedroia was when that throw from Renfroe came searing home, and Christian Vázquez dropped down the tag on Urshela.
“He’s been awesome offensively and defensively,” said Bogaerts. “I didn’t even know he was that good of an outfielder. He’s been playing really, really good for us.”
It was Renfroe’s second assist in as many nights, his third in the last four games and sixth in his last 21 games.
Amazingly, teams continue to test him.
“I honestly didn’t even think [Renfroe] was going to make a throw on that play,” Yankees third-base coach Phil Nevin said. “There’s no excuse. You can’t get the guy thrown out there. Even if you think you see something, you’ve got to err on the side of caution with nobody out. I’ll be thinking about that all night, for sure.”
Though lefty Martín Pérez lasted just 3 2/3 innings, allowing three unearned runs, the bullpen took it home by getting the final 16 outs without yielding a run.
Nobody on the Red Sox was more grateful for the dominance of the ‘pen than Bogaerts, who booted a routine ground ball by Urshela in the second that led to a three-run inning by the Yankees that tied the game.
“These guys picked me up big time,” said Bogaerts. “Just continued putting up zeros after I messed up. It was a rough feeling for me, and these guys came in and they did a great job. I still don’t know how I missed it, because normally I catch pretty much everything that’s hit to me. Once I missed that one, that really hurt. That was an awesome win.”
It was a much better feeling for Bogaerts when, with the potential go-ahead run at the plate with one out in the ninth, DJ LeMahieu hit a grounder that he started a 6-4-3 double play on to end the game.
Cora couldn’t help but note how fitting it was for this entertaining contest to end on a play that Pedroia turned countless times in his career.
“It was meant to be,” said Cora. “The whole thing was amazing, it was cool. [Pedroia] was amazing. I know he enjoyed every moment of it. There were a few surprises. I didn’t know Pedro [Martinez] was in town. He came out and that was cool, as always. The big man [David Ortiz] with a great message [on the scoreboard]. And Pedey, he nailed it.”
It was a win that belonged to Boston.
“What an incredible crowd,” said Renfroe. “Obviously coming from last year and not having fans at all to having a packed house tonight against the Yankees, it was pretty special.”
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