BOSTON — Of all the pitchers with at least 10 starts against the Yankees in the last 25 years, no one had a better ERA against the Bombers than Brayan Bello.
The Red Sox righty entered Saturday’s game with a 1.95 mark over 10 outings and 60 innings. Bello had been especially dominant this season, holding the Yankees scoreless and striking out 13 over 14 innings and two starts.
“Hopefully that regresses to the mean a little bit,” Aaron Boone said Saturday afternoon as the Yankees prepared for another showdown with Bello.
The manager’s hopes became reality, as Bello allowed the Yankees’ first three batters to reach base when he hit Trent Grisham, surrendered a ground-rule double to Ben Rice and walked Aaron Judge. Cody Bellinger proceeded with a sac fly, while a dribbler off the bat of Jazz Chisholm Jr. gave the Yankees a second run.
The Yankees’ two-run first paved the way for a 5-3, series-winning victory at Fenway Park. The Yankees are now 2.5 games ahead of the Red Sox with both teams looking up at the Blue Jays in the American League East.
Toronto remains three games ahead of the Yankees.
Chisholm added another RBI in the third, shooting a single through the vacated shortstop hole, before pulling a solo homer to right off Bello in the fifth. With 29 home runs this season, the speedster needs just one more to enter the Yankees’ two-man 30-30 club, which also includes Bobby Bonds (32 HR, 30 SB in 1975) and Alfonso Soriano (39 HR, 41 SB in 2002 and 38 HR, 35 SB in 2003).
Another exclusive club welcomed Chisholm on Saturday, as he played in his 162nd game with the Yankees, a full season’s worth. He has totaled 40 home runs over that span, making him one of just six players to do so over their first 162 games with the Yankees, per Stathead’s Katie Sharp.
The others are Judge, Gary Sánchez, Jason Giambi, Roger Maris and Babe Ruth.
Chisholm also has 48 stolen bases over that stretch, which spans two seasons after he was acquired from the Marlins on July 27, 2024. While those 162 games won’t grant Chisholm access to the baseball’s prestigious 40-40 club, it’s certainly reasonable for him to think that he can get there after an oblique strain cost him a month before a nagging groin injury limited his running for 39 games this year.
“He probably feels like he could be more than that,” Boone said with a laugh, alluding to Chisholm’s uber-confident personality.
Max Fried also felt like he could do more on Saturday, as the lefty talked Boone into staying in the game in the sixth inning after allowing two one-out singles. Fried got his wish, but Connor Wong knocked him out with another single, putting Boston down, 4-2, with two men on.
Fortunately for the Yankees, Luke Weaver took control of the situation and picked up two huge strikeouts. Having stopped the bleeding, he let out one of his “jungle cat” roars as he made his way back to the dugout.
Boston scored its first run off Fried in the fifth when Alex Bregman homered off the Pesky Pole. All in all, the Yankees’ ace logged 5.1 innings, nine hits, two earned runs, two walks and six strikeouts over 105 pitches while his arsenal enjoyed a spike in velocity.
The Red Sox did score again in the eighth when Jarren Duran hit a pinch-hit solo home run off Fernando Cruz, but the Yankees managed to hold on after Bellinger won a nine-pitch at-bat against Aroldis Chapman with an RBI double in the ninth.
This is the first time the Yankees have won a series against the rival Red Sox, as Boston began the day with an 8-3 record in head-to-head play. But after getting swept at Fenway back in June, the Yankees can now return the favor.
Doing so won’t be easy, as Garrett Crochet is scheduled to start Sunday’s series finale for the Red Sox. Rookie right-hander Will Warren will take the ball for New York.
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