MLB Playoffs: Red Sox score record rout over Yankees

Red Sox hand Yankees their worst MLB playoffs defeat in history; Holt hits for cycle, Eovaldi is superb

Like ants swarming a picnic, the Boston Red Sox pestered the Yankees to the brink of ruination Monday night at Yankee Stadium. When the Sox were through, they had a 16-1 victory, a 2-1 lead in their American League Division Series rivalry showdown, and they were within one game of advancing to the American League Championship Series in the MLB playoffs.

The two teams will play the series fourth game Tuesday night, again at Yankee Stadium.

The challenge for New York will be to attempt to control a 108-win regular season Red Sox team that came at them from every direction Monday. The Sox got 18 hits from all 9 of their starters plus a reserve, seven of whom also produced one or more RBIs. Second baseman Brock Holt hit for the first cycle in the history of post-season play to headline the carnage.

Then to complete the picture, Red Sox stater Nathan Eovaldi  allowed New York just one run — it came after the Red Sox had scored 10 times — and just five hits over seven innings of work.

The 15-run margin marked the worst defeat ever administered the Pinstripers in their storied post-season history. The previous worst was a 15-2 beating at the hands of the Arizona Diamondbacks in Game 6 of the 2001 World Series.

The outcome must have been especially sweet for Eovaldi, who was just 1-1 in his four regular season starts against the Yankees, three of them Red Sox losses.

Yankee starter Luis Severino had compiled a 2.36 earned run average in four regular season starts against Boston, two of them wins. But the Sox picked and plucked relentlessly against Severino Monday,  knocking him from the mound in a fraction more than three innings.

Severino’s problems started in the second when Rafael Devers singled and stole second. Two outs later Christian Vazquez slipped an infield hit past Severino that brought Devers home.

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One inning after that, Mookie Betts singled and Andrew Benitendi got him to third with a hit-and-run single through second base. J.D. Martinez’s line fly to left easily brought Betts home, and Xavier Bogaerts’ single produced Benitendi as well.

The swarm struck with full force in the fourth. Holt began his march to the cycle with  an inning-opening single, Vazquez followed with the same, and when Severino walked Jackie Bradley Jr. to load the bases Yankee manager Aaron Boone called to the bullpen for Lance Lynn.

This just in: Lynn was not the answer. He walked Betts to force Boston’s fourth run home, then Benitendi slammed a double down the line in right to clear the bases. One out later, Bogaerts singled to score Benitendi with Boston’s eighth run. Steve Pearce added the inning’s fifth hit, then Holt capped the outburst with his triple, pushing Bogaerts and Pearce across. The seven-run inning made it 10-0.

Singles by Giancarlo Stanton and Luke Voit followed by an infield out produced New York’s only run in the bottom of the fourth.

Boston added a gratuitous run in the seventh and three more in the eighth, that inning highlighted by Holt’s double. By the ninth, things were so bad that Boone sent reserve catcher Austin Romine to the mound to save his pen further MLB playoffs effort. Romine gave up Holt’s cycle-sealing two-run home run plus his fourth and fifth RBIs.