While the ball was scrutinating at Ben Rice’s first base and offered a pristine chance for the Red Sox to take the lead in the seventh inning Wednesday, Nate Eaton had already started leaving the home plate.
What a generous gift for Boston could have been instead, Red Sox fans wondered why the fast outfielder had not scored the potential go-ahead run.
And when Boston finally let the bases loaded that left inning and one running from the board in a possible loss of one run, it offered the potential “what as” moment of the series.
“It was clear that it was a big piece. We did not score,” Eaton said after the 4-3 loss of Boston in game 2. “I could clearly not see it. As I go to third place, I was told to stop and then I could not see how far the ball was gone when it got through rice.”
Game 3 from Thursday will eventually determine whether the game of Eaton is one that Red Sox fans remember for the wrong reasons forever, because it could possibly have ended the Yankees season.
The Red Sox also gave the Yankees a free run on a Jarren Duran dropped the ball in the fifth inning.
Boston had two with two out in a 3-3 game in the seventh when Masataka Yoshida hit a grounder in the middle that Jazz Chisholm dived to stop.
Chishholm chose to throw the first instead of eating the ball, and rice could not scoop the pitch.
Eaton ran to third place on the piece and Boston third base coach Kyle Hudson pointed to the bag while the right field player surrounded the base.
He had stopped his progress and actually took a step back to the bag while Rice tried to field the ball, but chose an attempt to force a play on the album.
A remarkable factor during the hecticness is that the third baseman of Yankees, Ryan McMahon, did not cover the bag during the order, which meant that Eaton did not have to worry about a rear pitch.
Red Sox manager Alex Cora apparently defended Eaton when Postgame was asked about his view of the ESPN broadcasting team that Eaton should have scored.
“That is their opinion. I think it is easy to say he should have scored -” said Cora. “You know, they are not with us there.”
The Red Sox still loaded the bases after the piece, but Trevor Story was bad luck when he hit a 102.3-MPH rocket 393 feet to the middle with a .660 expected impact average that died at the wall.
Yankees -Reliever Fernando Cruz fourth triumphantly after escaping the jam, including Ceddanne Rafaela who did not succeed in getting a bump with two and no outs.
Making the things worse for the Red Sox, the Yankees gilded the game-winning run thanks to the blazing speed of Chishholm, which scored on the two-out RBI-Single of Austin Wells in the eighth.
Chishholm eventually won the game with both his bat and glove, because he prevented Eaton from scored without hesitation by keeping the Yoshida ball in the Infield.
“He saved two points. Because JD scored on that,” said Cora. “I mean, he hit it. It went on and he dived for it.”
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