4:48 AM UTC
BOSTON — Before the hysteria created by Tommy Pham’s walk-off hit in his dramatic introduction to the storied Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, you had Garrett Whitlock going into “airplane“ mode.
“It’s a joke,” J.D. Martinez said of the filthy offerings of Whitlock. “I was talking about it earlier today. I was like, ‘Dude, he’s not even throwing a sinker. You can call it like an airplane or something, just taking off.’ When he’s like that, good luck.”
It was Whitlock, stone-cold under pressure in the final two innings, who got the win, retiring six of the seven batters he faced — three on strikeouts. Without Whitlock, this come-from-behind, 3-2 win over the Yankees in 10 innings on Friday night at Fenway Park would not have been possible.
It was semi-surprising that Red Sox manager Alex Cora went to Whitlock with his team trailing, 2-1, to start the ninth. Whitlock typically only pitches when his team is tied or ahead.
But these are different times in Boston. Closer Tanner Houck, Whitlock’s best friend, is on the injured list with an ailing back. John Schreiber, the team’s other leverage reliever, was down for the night after pitching two innings to close out Thursday’s win.
“We’re very short [in the bullpen],” said Cora. “And going to him there, it was just out of necessity more than anything else. Nothing against their guy [Clay Holmes], but we know what’s been going on the last month. We had the two lefties coming up with Raffy [Devers] and [Alex] Verdugo hitting behind Xander [Bogaerts].
“We rolled the dice there. It was out of necessity, but at the same time, trying to maximize our lineup, understanding he was coming in and he’s struggled since the last time he was here.”
That roll of the dice came up aces, as Holmes walked Bogaerts and Verdugo back to back with one out in the bottom of the ninth, and Martinez drilled his third hit of the night, an RBI single to center that brought home the tying run.
Whitlock still had more work to do, this time with Aaron Judge, Anthony Rizzo, Josh Donaldson and Gleyber Torres looming in the 10th.
The crowd of 36,434 surged with energy as Whitlock worked around a leadoff walk to Judge after a full count, then retired the dangerous Rizzo on a lineout and struck out Donaldson and Torres with overpowering pitches.
Whitlock threw his hardest pitch of the season to Judge, a 98.2 mph sinker. He ramped up between 96.7-97.3 in the at-bats against the next three batters.
“I have been working with [pitching coach Dave Bush and bullpen coach Kevin Walker] to try and get mechanics right,” said Whitlock. “But the adrenaline definitely had something to do with it.”
The adrenaline Whitlock gathered from the crowd transferred to his offense.
“To come in there in that situation, in that part of the order as well, that’s huge,” said Pham. “When he came in there and shut it down like that, I knew we were gonna win. It was destined. To get through their two, three, four in that lineup, that says something about Whit.”
It was Pham who ended it, roping a single down the third-base line with runners at the corners and one out in the bottom of the 10th.
At this point, the Red Sox are scratching and clawing to stay in postseason contention, knowing that they have several key players on the injured list (Kiké Hernández, Michael Wacha, Trevor Story and Houck) who could fortify them for the final stretch.
With 48 games left, Boston is four back in the American League Wild Card standings. The Sox must climb over three other teams to get to that coveted spot. Cora is managing like he still believes there is a chance.
“I’ve been saying that for a while,” said Cora. “Not too many people believe me. I think people that really matter, they believe it, and that’s the people in there [in the clubhouse]. We just have to keep playing. There’s a winning streak somewhere, and this is a good baseball team that’s going to get healthy, and that’s what people haven’t seen, but that’s not their job. It’s my job to keep them positive and keep pushing, and the coaching staff is doing an amazing job.”