Red Sox Sweep Yankees After Questionable Called Third Strike in Ninth Inning

The Red Sox swept their arch rivals following a questionable called third strike that killed a Yankees rally in the bottom of the ninth inning.
Red Sox Sweep Yankees After Questionable Called Third Strike in Ninth Inning
Red Sox Sweep Yankees After Questionable Called Third Strike in Ninth Inning /

It's been a rough go of it for the Yankees lately, who had lost 10 of their last 13 games heading into Sunday Night Baseball against the Red Sox. With the game tied 4-4 in the bottom of the ninth, it appeared to be a prime chance at avoiding a sweep at the hands of their hated rivals when Rougned Odor batted with two outs and runners on the corners.

Then, this happened:

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Home plate umpire Gabe Morales might not be the most popular guy in New York after this. A walk would have loaded the bases for Clint Frazier and forced Boston closer Matt Barnes to work out of an even tighter jam after throwing 23 pitches with two walks already in the inning. Instead, the game went into extra innings.

The Red Sox scored twice in the top of the 10th, and though the Yankees got the tying run in scoring position with two outs, DJ LeMahieu grounded out to second to end the game, as Boston won, 6-5.

The loss drops the Yankees to a mere 31-29 on the season and into fourth place in the American League East, 6.5 games behind the first-place Rays. There are over 100 games left and plenty of time for the talented squad to right the ship, but fans likely won't be forgetting about this defeat any time soon.

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Nick Selbe
NICK SELBE

Nick Selbe is a programming editor at Sports Illustrated who frequently writes about baseball and college sports. Before joining SI in March 2020 as a breaking/trending news writer, he worked for MLB Advanced Media, Yahoo Sports and Bleacher Report. Selbe received a bachelor's in communication from the University of Southern California.