LONDON — Apparently, there was only one way the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox felt they could introduce baseball to the United Kingdom: with runs — plenty of them.
It took both teams very little time to flex their offensive power Saturday, plating a combined 12 runs by the end of the opening inning of this weekend’s two-game series at London Stadium. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it’s the first time in the history of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry that both teams have scored six runs in the first inning of a series game.
Nearly five hours later, when it was all over, the Yankees had held on for a 17-13 victory in a game that featured 37 hits and no errors. Aroldis Chapman was the last of the 16 pitchers used by both teams to take the mound, nailing down the win on pitch No. 422.
The game took 4 hours, 42 minutes — the third-longest nine-inning game in MLB history. The two games that took longer also were Yankees-Red Sox games, with the record being 4:45 on Aug. 18, 2006.
When it came to the scoring, it was Aaron Hicks who seemingly broke the game wide open as he launched a 386-foot two-run homer to the bleachers beyond the right field wall in the top of the first. That made it 6-0 Yankees and ended Red Sox starter Rick Porcello‘s day.
Boston battled back in the bottom half of the inning, with Michael Chavis tying the game at 6 with his 425-foot home run to center field. Deemed the short porch of this series, the wall to center is 385 feet away from home plate (and 16 feet tall) in what is traditionally a soccer stadium.
Chavis’ homer was his first against the Yankees this season, after going 2-for-10 with an RBI in three previous games against them this year.
The Chavis long ball did to Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka what Hicks’ blast did to Porcello: chased him from the game. Both pitchers combined to record only three outs, while facing 15 batters. They also gave up a combined nine hits.
Elias also reports that the combined three outs pitched by Porcello and Tanaka is the fewest ever by starters in a Yankees-Red Sox game. The previous combined low was five outs tossed by Bill Bevens (two outs) for the Yankees and Tommy Fine (three outs) for the Red Sox on May 11, 1947.
The fireworks didn’t stop there for the Yankees. Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge blasted two-run shots as the Yankees plated two in the third, six more in the fourth and three in the fifth for a 17-6 lead.
Boston made a run from there, with Jackie Bradley Jr. hitting a solo shot in the sixth and Chavin adding another three-run shot during a six-run seventh.
According to Caesar’s Sportsbook, the over/under entering Saturday’s game was 11.5 runs. Chavis’ first-inning homer cleared the over.
The first inning took 58 minutes to play. By comparison, the teams played an entire game in 2 hours, 23 minutes on April 16 at Yankee Stadium — the fastest game this season between the rivals, who are notorious for having played six-hour games in the past.
This weekend’s London Series marks the first visit by Major League Baseball to Europe.
As part of Saturday’s pomp and circumstance, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Prince Harry and his wife, Meghan Markle, participated in the pregame first-pitch ceremonies. The first pitches were thrown to Yankees pitcher CC Sabathia and Red Sox starter Chris Sale by Invictus Games competitors.