Dobbins Dominates in Sox Victory over Yanks, 4-3

By Zachary McMahon-

The Boston Red Sox played the New York Yankees in the second game of a three-game series at Fenway Park in Boston, MA on Saturday night. The Sox won the opener off former Yankees catcher Carlos Narvaez’s first career walk-off. 

Hunter Dobbins pitched six innings, allowing just two hits, no earned runs, one walk, and five strikeouts. The last Sox starter to throw six or more scoreless innings with two or fewer hits was Brayan Bello on Aug. 28., 2024. He’s the 11th Sox pitcher in franchise history to do this within their first 11 starts since Clay Bucholz’s no-hitter in 2007. He’s the third Sox pitcher in their first 11 career starts to have six scoreless innings with two or fewer hits, one or zero walks, and no earned runs within their first 11 appearances, joining Jim Wright in 1978 and Ernie Shore in 1914. 

This is the fifth straight game where the starting pitcher for the Sox had gone six or more innings in their start, and the first streak where all the games were at home since July 2024, when they also had a five-game streak. 

Carlos Rodon pitched five innings for the Yankees, allowing seven hits, allowing four runs (three earned), two walks, four strikeouts, and a hit batter. He allowed the leadoff batter to reach in five out of the six innings that he appeared in and four of them scored. He allowed three or more earned runs for the fifth time this season, and in back-to-back starts for the second time this season and the first time since a three-game streak in April allowing four or more earned runs. He had allowed two or more runs in his last five starts against the Red Sox. 

Rob Refsnyder hit leadoff for the second straight game, leadoff with a double, and then Narvaez hit an infield single, and an error by Anthony Volpe allowed Refsnyder to score in the first inning. 

Both Trevor Story and Romy Gonzalez hit RBI doubles in back-to-back innings in the fourth and fifth, and Marcelo Mayer hit a sacrifice fly in the sixth allowing Story to score as the Sox were up 4-0. 

The Yankees tried to comeback in the final innings off RBI singles by Jasson Dominguez and Austin Wells in the seventh, and a RBI groundout by Volpe in the ninth, as they closed in to 4-3. With the bases cleared, Dominguez hit a two-out double, but Wells flied out for the final out clinching Greg Weissert’s second save of the season as he has multiple saves in a season for the first time in his career. 

Narvaez singled, doubled and walked for his 13th straight multi-hit game this season, and he’s now reached in 28 straight starts, and is one start away from tying Carlton Fisk in 1977 for the third-longest on-base start streak for a Sox catcher. 

Jarren Duran walked in the eighth inning as he has reached in each of his last 10 starts, he has tied his longest career streak of seven straight starts where he reached once while also striking out in the game. 

Story hit two doubles in the game, as he had his third multi-XBH game of the season and it was his 24th career game with multiple doubles, and his first this season, and he’s had multiple hits in five out of the last seven games. Refsnyder hit a single and double as he had his fifth multi-hit game this season, he’s reached in his last five games, and had reached multiple times in back-to-back games. 

Rafael Devers went 0-for-4 with two strikeouts, as his 11-game on-base streak came to an end. 

The Sox are on a four-game winning streak and have won the last three by one run, which was the first such streak since June 2022 at Los Angeles Angels, and the first time at home since June 2014 against the Minnesota Twins. Their four straight wins at home are the most in a single season since April 27 to May 1st, 2024. 

DJ LeMathieu went 0-for-3 with a strikeout as he snapped his season-long six-game hitting streak. Dominguez had a single and a double, as he had his second multi-hit game in the last four as he had a three hit game on Tuesday against the Kansas City Royals. 

The Yankees had scored five runs in the last three games with just four extra base hits with just one home run, which was Aaron Judge’s solo home run in Friday’s game, and went homerless for the 17th time this season, which is the fewest in the American League. 

The Sox will try to sweep the Yankees as they will face each other on Sunday afternoon with Brayan Bello and Carlos Rodon taking the mound at 1:35 pm first pitch.