By Patrick Whalen

The opening game of a 3 game series in the Bronx for the Sox was not a good one. The Red Sox came into tonight needing a win to officially clinch the A.L. East title but they weren’t in a champagne mood tonight. It was just an overall bad day for the Sox because the game was originally scheduled for a 1:05 first pitch but was then moved back to a 7:05 first pitch but, as the news of the rescheduling broke the Red Sox bus was already on the way over to the stadium (via NESN). It was just a long rough day in New York for the Red Sox and they figured lots of champagne to end the night wasn’t the best idea.

As for the actual game, it was a starters duel for the first 6 innings with the only run coming on a J.D. Martinez sac fly in the third. Both starters were dealing, J.A. Happ going 6 innings giving up 4 hits and 1 run and Nate Eovaldi showing that work with Pedro has paid off going 6 innings giving up just 2 hits and striking out 5.

Workman then came in for the seventh and walked two men and then with one out Ryan Braiser came in and gave up a three-run home run to Neil Walker, (reminder Yankees stadium right field is about as deep as your local little league field).

After taking the lead the Yankees the trotted out Zach Britton who almost handed the Rex Sox a win and the division (officially) but, Ian Kinsler grounded into a game-ending double play after the Yankees had errors on the first two tries because Glyber Torres is too lazy to come an inch off the bag. Plus if the Sox could do a little better than 8 runners left on and 1 for 10 with runners in scoring position they could have easily won this game but, as mentioned earlier the Yankees messed with their whole schedule so all their celebration plans were messed up.

All in all not a horrible game a 3-2 loss to the Yankees on the road with Mookie, Benny, Mitch, and Devers all getting nights off is just Alex Cora trying to make the product on the field more competitive. A 1 run loss with all those guys sitting just shows how good this team still is. Besides the fact with that loss, the Yankees cut the division lead to 10.5 games so yeah the Red Sox are already A.L. East champs they’re just waiting till everyone is mathematically eliminated to celebrate. So the Yankees can celebrate tonight but the Sox will be back in this little league park tomorrow for win 104 and the official title of A.L. East champs.

As for tomorrows game, we’re gonna get to see David Price, 15-6 3.42 ERA, go up against Luis Severino, 17-8 3.46 ERA as the Sox will look to officially clinch the A.L. East crown.