The Boston Red Sox are rolling, as they completed a sweep of their longtime nemesis, the New York Yankees, on Sunday afternoon. In perhaps the biggest play of their 2-0 win to close out the series, Garrett Whitlock got the better of Aaron Judge.It was a rough series overall for Judge, who hit just 1-for-12 with nine strikeouts, three of which came on Sunday. Stepping up to the plate in the eighth inning, Judge had a chance to wipe the slate clean, as there were two runners on base with only one out in the inning.
With the game in the balance, manager Alex Cora made a call to the bullpen and summoned Whitlock to face Judge. As was the case all weekend long, Judge could not solve Boston’s pitching, as he grounded into an inning-ending double play.
Given Judge’s pedigree as arguably the best hitter in the game today, much has been made about the Red Sox success against him over the past few games. After earning the save against New York on Sunday, Whitlock was complementary of Judge, even though he struggled to help his team out much against Boston.
“He’s one of the greatest hitters in the world,” Whitlock said per Chris Cotillo of MassLive. “It’s special to watch him play and everything. Luckily, we tried to execute and had some execution this weekend. We’ll take it.”
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Whitlock has been one of Boston’s best high-leverage relievers in recent seasons, so it wasn’t much of a surprise to see him get the ball against Judge. And like every pitcher used before him in this series, he had success limiting the reigning American League MVP.
With this win, the Red Sox have pushed their record back above .500 at 37-36. Considering where things were just 10 days ago, before they rattled off seven wins in nine games, it’s been quite an exciting turnaround.
There’s still a lot of baseball left to be played, though, which is good because if the season ended today, Boston would miss the playoffs. They will look to pick up their sixth straight win when they kick off a three-game series against the Seattle Mariners on Monday night.
