Narvaez Notches First Career Walk Off After Judge’s Game-Tying Home Run in Sox 2-1 Win

By Zachary McMahon-

The Boston Red Sox played the New York Yankees in the opener of a three-game series at Fenway Park in Boston, MA. The Sox won the last two games against the Tampa Bay Rays, and had won four out of the last five games. The Yankees had swept the Kansas City Royals in the weekday series. 

Garrett Crochet pitched a career high of 8 ⅓ innings, with allowing four hits, one earned run, one walk, and seven strikeouts. It was his seventh start this season with seven innings or more, which ties for the most in the MLB with Framber Valdez. He’s the this Sox pitcher to have a 2.25 ERA or lower in his first 15 starts in a Sox uniform in the Live-Ball Era joining Tim Wakefield (1995) and Dave Feriss (1945). He’s also the third Sox pitcher to have 115 or more strikeouts in his first 15 starts with the club joining Chris Sale and Pedro Martinez. He’s gone five innings or more in his first 15 starts, and it’s the longest by a starter at any point by Tanner Houck who went five or more innings from October 1, 2023 to June 4, 2024. They had their starters go seven innings or more in back-to-back games for the first time since last season with Nick Pivetta and Tanner Houck, and the first time having both games be at Fenway Park since Rick Porcello and Nathan Eovaldi in 2018. He’s also gone a career-long 14 straight starts where he went five or more strikeouts, the longest streak since Sale’s 19-straight games in 2019. 

Ryan Yarborough went 4 ⅔ innings, allowing four hits, one earned runs, three walks, and three strikeouts. Yarborough went back-to-back games going lower than five innings for the first time since a career-high five start streak of being below five innings or less between 2023 and 2025 with the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Yankees. He had limited Boston to no extra base hits before exiting in the fifth with two runners on (both of whom didn’t score). 

Rob Refsnyder started in left field for the Sox, and batted leadoff for his 500th career game. He batted leadoff for the second time this season, and he led off with a walk from Yarborough in the first. 

Ceddane Rafaela had an RBI single in the second inning, and it was 1-0 until Aaron Judge’s solo home run against Crochet in the ninth inning. 

After Judge’s home run, Arolidis Chapman pitched for the final two outs to get out Cody Bellinger and Anthony Volpe. 

Garrett Whitlock pitched the 10th inning, and automatic runner Volpe was caught trying to steal third, struck out Jasson Dominguez and DJ LeMathieu ended the half with a groundout. 

The Sox went into the bottom of the 10th, with former Sox infielder Pablo Reyes taking over at second on defense, and David Hamilton was the automatic runner at second base. Hamilton went to third on a groundout to Jarren Duran, who replaced Refsnyder at left field after pinch hitting in the eighth. Rafael Devers was intentionally walked to attempt to not allow another walk off victory from the Sox. Marcelo Mayer was struck out by Tim Hill, and Carlos Narvaez went up to the plate. Narvaez hit a ball off the Green Monster for his first career walk-off hit as the Sox won 2-1 over the Yankees in the series opener. The Sox had previously lost the last three series openers against the Los Angeles Angels, Yankees and Rays, and the Yanks had won the previous three series openers against the Cleveland Guardians, Red Sox, and Royals. 

This was their first walk-off win against the Yankees since Aug. 12, 2022, when current Pirates outfielder Tommy Pham hit a walk-off single, that brought home Christian Arroyo in a 3-2 win. 

The Sox had no extra-base hits in the game, as this is the first time the Sox had scored two runs or less and no extra base hits and won all in the same game since May 27, 2023 against the Arizona Diamondbacks. The last time it ended in a walkoff was on July, 24, 2015 against the Detroit Tigers when Xander Bogaerts hit a walk-off single in a 2-1 victory over the Tigers. It had happened only once before against the Yankees, when it happened all the way back in 1918 in a 1-0 victory. 

Devers extended his on-base streak to 11 games with a single and a walk, Narvaez has now reached in 27 straight starts with a single and two walks. He has collected a hit in each of his last five starts, and it’s the second time that he’s drawn multiple walks in his last six starts. Rafaela’s single made him extend his hitting streak to five games, and on-base to six games, and has reached base in 14 out of the last 15 games. 

Refsnyder has walked in four straight games, and it’s his second-longest such streak of his career, as he had a six-game walk streak in 2023. 

LeMathieu hit a single in the fifth inning as he extended his season-long hitting streak to six games. Volpe was the only player on both sides to have a multi-hit game with two singles in the game. 

Judge’s homer in the ninth was his second career game-tying home run in the ninth inning or later with the first being on May 23, 2023 against the Baltimore Orioles off Felix Bautista. He’s had five home runs in the last five games, and is tied for the league lead with Cal Raleigh. 

The Yankees have scored exactly one run in back-to-back games, and they are 4-3 in games where they score exactly one run, which is the only MLB team with a above .500 record in such games. This was the first time since Sept. 2023 that they had exactly one run in back-to-back games, in fact they had three such times in the 2023 season. 

It was the first time since Sept. 3, 2022 against the Rays, that the Yankees had lost a game where they allowed two runs or less and allowed no extra base hits, and the first time such a game ended in a walk off since May 5, 2016 against the Orioles. They had four hits or lower for the third time this season. 

The Sox would like to continue their winning streak as Hunter Dobbins goes up against Carlos Rodon at 7:15 pm first pitch on FOX on Saturday.