The Red Sox and Yankees were scoreless when the tarp came out at Yankee Stadium Friday night in the middle of the third inning. Romy Gonzalez had the game’s lone hit, a two-out double, and Tanner Houck had thrown two perfect innings with one strikeout, tossing 20 pitches. Yankees lefthander Nester Cortes has four strikeouts and has thrown 41 pitches through three innings.
The game resumed about 40 minutes later with Houck and Cortes still pitching.
Sudden rain delay in the Bronx. Here comes the tarp.
— Pete Abraham (@PeteAbe) July 5, 2024
Three weeks ago when the Yankees came to Fenway Park, there was not a whole lot of hype.
That was certainly due in part to the Celtics trying to close out the NBA Finals for their 18th title. But it also spoke to how hot the Yankees were. When they took the opener, 8-1, they became the first team to 50 wins and improved their lead over the Sox to 15 games. At 28 games above .500, they looked to be running away with the American League East.
Well, well, well, how the turntables as the teams get set for a three-game series at Yankee Stadium this weekend.
Advertisement
The Red Sox have gone 12-4 since, including taking the final two games of that series, while the Yankees are just 4-13 in that period to fall behind the Orioles and into second place in the division, just four games ahead of the Sox in the loss column.
Tanner Houck will be on mound for the opener tonight, looking to bounce back after getting tagged for eight runs on nine hits in 4⅓ innings in an 11-1 loss to the Padres.
Lineups
RED SOX (47-39): Duran CF, Refsnyder RF, O’Neill LF, Devers 3B, Wong C, Gonzalez 1B, Yoshida DH, Valdez 2B, Rafaela SS.
Pitching: RHP Tanner Houck (7-6, 2.67 ERA)
YANKEES (54-35): Rice 1B, Soto RF, Judge DH, Verdugo LF, Torres 2B, Wells C, Volpe SS, Grisham CF, LeMahieu 3B.
Pitching: LHP Nestor Cortes (4-7, 3.51 ERA)
Time: 7:05 p.m.
TV, radio: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7
Red Sox vs. Cortes: Rafael Devers 3-11, Jarren Duran 1-1, Reese McGuire 1-4, Tyler O’Neill 0-2, Rob Refsnyder 6-10, Dominic Smith 1-3, Connor Wong 1-4
Advertisement
Yankees vs. Houck: Oswaldo Cabrera 0-0, Jahmai Jones 0-1, Aaron Judge 3-9, DJ LeMahieu 0-11, Juan Soto 0-2, Gleyber Torres 5-18, Jose Trevino 1-3, Anthony Volpe 0-4, Austin Wells 0-3
Stat of the day: Rafael Devers is batting .378 (14-for-37) over his past 10 games.
Notes: The Red Sox have won four in a row and are coming off a three-game sweep of the Marlins, capped by Thursday’s 6-5 win in 12 innings. … The Yankees have dropped three in a row after getting swept at home by a Reds team that is three games below .500. … Houck is 2-0 with a 5.59 ERA in 10 career appearances (four starts) against the Yankees. He is 0-1 with a 5.94 ERA in his past three outings after earning four consecutive wins. … Devers has 19 of his 51 RBIs in the past 16 games and is one hit shy of 1,000 for his career. … Cortes is 2-0 with a 5.59 ERA in 10 career appearances (four starts) against the Red Sox. The lefthander is 4-3 with a 1.84 ERA in nine home starts this season, 0-4 with a 5.63 ERA in his nine road starts.
Follow Andrew Mahoney @GlobeMahoney.