What were the odds Chase Headley and Stephen Drew would be the first Yankees to hit back-to-back home runs this year? Probably about as strong as the Yankees putting up a seven spot on Red Sox ace Clay Buchholz in the first inning on Sunday night.
Perhaps the stars were aligned, or maybe the Yankees just aren’t as bad as they looked in the season’s first five games, because The Bronx Bombers lived up to their nickname for one night, hammering Buchholz and Boston, 14-4, behind a breakout evening for the seventh- and eighth-place hitters in the lineup.
“It was great. We knew we were capable of swinging a lot better than we had been,” Headley said. “To come out and get on the board early, play with some emotion, it was fun.
“It takes the burden off. We’ve been grinding for some runs.”
Drew and Headley entered Sunday night hitting a combined .124 with one home run and two RBIs — both from the third baseman — two reasons the Yankees had scored just 3.4 runs per game over the first five, losing four times. The two infielders obliterated Red Sox pitching Sunday night to the tune of four hits, five RBIs and two homers.
“That’s great, that’s our ball club,” Carlos Beltran said. “I know that’s not going to happen every day, but we have guys that are good players. We just need to find a way to stay positive and when things go bad, try to find a way to bounce back.”
The big damage came early, as part of the Yankees’ big seven-run first inning. Following Alex Rodriguez’s three-run double into the left-center field gap, Headley laced a 2-2 curveball into the second deck in right field, expanding to a 6-0 lead.
Two pitches later, Drew followed with a homer of his own, his first of the season, a blast over the wall in right-center field. It was the first time the Yankees had gone back-to-back this season.
“There were a lot of good at-bats that inning,” Headley said. “A great inning for all of us.”
They weren’t done. Headley would add two more hits, including an RBI single in the sixth, and Drew added a deep sacrifice fly in the frame as the Yankees piled it on.
It wasn’t a perfect night for Drew, however. He committed what, at the time, looked to be a costly error, throwing wide of shortstop Didi Gregorius in the fourth, blowing a potential double play and opening the door for the Red Sox to score three runs. The Yankees responded with three runs in the bottom of the frame, rendering the visitors’ uprising meaningless. Drew had an otherwise splendid game in the field, including an unassisted double play in the eighth to get reliever Kyle Davies out of trouble.