Hanging 8 On Sox Is Great, But Paxton's Pitching Was More Important

My concern coming into this brief 2-game home series with the Boston Red Sox was that the Yankees would not be prepared to face them.

This, of course, flew in the face of the fact the Sox have had an even worse start than the Yankees, 6-11 as opposed to 6-9. But, as we've seen over the last few years, it doesn't matter how bad the Red Sox are, they still find a way to beat the Yankees. Whether that was within the rules or not doesn't seem to matter to them, but they do it.

I was sure the Yankees would lose both of these games, and badly, whether that was through a blowout or blowing a big lead and losing in shocking fashion.

As it turned out, at least for last night, my fears were unwarranted. James Paxton pitched not just the best game of his thus-far-brief Yankee career, he pitched the best game of the thus-far-brief season. He began the top of the 4th by walking Mookie Betts and allowing a double to Xander Bogaerts, and  J.D. Martinez flew to right. But because Aaron Judge has a good arm, he was able to hold Betts on 3rd on both the double and the would-be sacrifice fly.

Paxton hit Rafael Devers with a pitch in the 5th, and allowed a 2-out double to Jackie Bradley in the 8th. But that was it: 8 innings, no runs, 2 hits, a walk, a hit batsman, and 12 strikeouts.

In contrast, Chris Sale, perhaps the biggest reason the Red Sox won * last year's World Series, continued his horrific start to the season. He didn't allow a baserunner in the 1st 2 innings, but Brett Gardner led off the 3rd with a double. After 2 outs, DJ LeMahieu singled him home. Judge drew a walk, and Luke Voit singled LeMahieu home. 2-0 Yankees, and that would be all we needed.

But not all we wanted. This is The Scum we're talking about. And we got more. Clint Frazier continued his bid to prove he can hit major league pitching by leading off the 4th with a home run. A single by Austin Romine and a double by Mike Tauchman made it 4-0 Pinstripes. Rookie Gio Urshela led off the 6th with a double, Gardner drew a walk, and Romine bunted the runners over. Small ball. Torreball.

Then Tauchman hit a home run. Cashmanball. Hey, whatever works!

It was the 1st major league home run for the 28-year-old rookie outfielder from the Chicago suburbs. Naturally, Yankee Fans were wondering what John Sterling's home run call would be. I was thinking it could be, "You can't Tauch this!" But it's not "tawtch," as in "touch," but "tauch," as in "rock." So Sterling said, "Tauchman, the Sock-man!" As in, he socked it. Lame, John, very lame.

Gleyber Torres added a home run in the 8th, and rookie Joe Harvey pitched the 9th to finish it off. Final score: Yankees 8, Red Sox 0. WP: Paxton (2-2). No save. LP: Sale (0-4).

Eight-nil! We beat The Scum, eight-nil! We beat The Scum, eight-nil! We beat The Scum, eight-nil!

Easily, the best Yankee game of the season so far, topping Opening Day. And, while hanging 8 runs on The Scum is wonderful, the pitching performance of James Paxton was, for the long term, far more encouraging.

The brief series concludes tonight, J.A. Happ against former Yankee Nathan Eovaldi. Come on you Pinstripes! Beat The Scum!