Bronx, N.Y., August 4, 2015; Yankees 13, Red Sox 3 — Enthusiasts looking at the box score for Tuesday’s 13-3 Yankees win over the visiting Red Sox will come away with several obvious impressions as to who had the best game. Chris Young reached base four times, and scored each time, with three rbi’s; while Brian McCann had two extra base hits, and knocked in four. Masahiro Tanaka got the win, and young Sox lefty Henry Owens lost the first major league game he pitched. The Yankees played error-free baseball, while Boston mishandled a key ground ball in the seventh.

Nothing there is untrue, or at least partially so. Defensively, Boston infielders were a step short on some huge ground-ball base hits, but Xander Bogaerts’s poor throw on a Jacoby Ellsbury grounder leading off an inning was the game’s lone error. Still, while Tanaka was perfect in the second inning, Young and Jacoby Ellsbury let a fly ball fall safe between them for Boston’s first hit. And more important, in a later key inning, Tanaka collided with third baseman Chase Headley on an attempted sac bunt that should have been handled. Then Young threw to the wrong base on an ensuing base hit, with the sloppy play giving the Sox two runs and their only lead of the game.

The offensive achievements by Young and McCann were real, and each gets extra credit for having hit a three-run home run against a hurler throwing from the same side, Chris off Alexi Ogando, and Brian against Craig Breslow. But until the bottom of the seventh this was a tightly fought contest, and the biggest at bats for the Yanks came from the usual suspects, Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez. Tex drove in the Yanks’ first two runs with singles, giving Tanaka an early lead in the first after A-Rod’s walk set it up, and knocking in the game-tying tally in the sixth after Boston had taken their only lead. Alex got the sixth inning heroics going with a blast to the left field wall that drove the surprisingly effective Red Sox rookie starter from the game. McCann does get more mention because his following single put the Yanks up for good, but Rodriguez, again, singled in the first of nine 7th-inning Yankee runs that blew the game wide open in his next at bat.

Tanaka was very good, at least at the start. He made no mistakes the first four frames when the only hit should have been caught. His 56/32 strikes/balls ratio was decent, and he only gave up five hits, unfortunately three of them in a row in the fourth that, along with a sac fly, gave the visitors their 2-1 lead. Still, he went six effective frames, and battled Pablo Sandoval gamely to start the top of the seventh until the switch hitter turned on a fastball and homered to narrow the score to 4-3. It got hairy then, as lefty reliever Justin Wilson came on and retired two, then allowed a soft single. But when a stolen base put the tying run on second, Joe Girardi summoned his setup man. Dellin Betances struggled to throw strikes, issuing a walk, and throwing a wild pitch, which could have been two, but the runner was going so this second advance of one base was ruled another steal. But “Marshal Dellin” got his man swinging, and three batters later the rout was on.

Though he got the loss, Owens was good, once he survived a 34-pitch, one-run first inning. He retired 12 in a row, with four strike outs, to get through the fifth with a 2-1 lead. But his next (his 90th) pitch was a single, and the young southpaw was removed after a double; when those runners scored, he became the losing pitcher.

That’s the way it is in baseball. Thirty years ago this day, the Yankees and their fans gathered together to celebrate the life and career of a great Yankee, the Scooter, shortstop and broadcaster Phil Rizzuto. All kinds of gifts were bestowed upon Phil, even including a cow, as “Holy cow!” was one of the expressions he was most known for. Phil, who would make many great stadium appearances over the years before passing away not that long ago, would eventually be enshrined in baseball’s Hall of Fame. But on August 4, 1985, he was immortalized in in some ways a more special place, Monument Park in Yankee Stadium.

Fate had other ideas though and, on the day Phil was honored, another New York baseball great, one-time Mets ace Tom Seaver, pitched for the visiting White Sox in the game that followed the ceremonies. It was no surprise to the huge crowd that he was trying to earn his 300th victory, and even many Yankee fans rooted him on (though not this one, I assure you). So Phil’s day became Tom Terrific’s day. Still a great day, poor Rizzuto came in second place.

Young Henry Owens walked just one and struck out five with three hits in five innings this August 4. But he pitched to two more batters, who had hits and scored. The only number that stands out after his major league debut is that he has no wins and one loss.

Noteworthy Numbers.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!