Yoshida's First-Inning Double Sinks Mets, Boston Rolls 6-2
Masataka Yoshida plated two runs with a first-inning double, swinging New York's win probability from 53% to 31% in a single swing, and Boston never looked back. The Red Sox beat the Mets 6-2 on July 10, getting multi-hit efforts from four different starters.
The story of the night was how quickly Boston seized control. Yoshida's double to left in the first inning scored both Abreu and Seigler, and that 22-point win-probability crater proved to be the game's defining moment. New York clawed one run back in the third — Soto hit a sacrifice fly to left, Baty scored, and an Ewing reached third on a throwing error by third baseman Durbin — but that was as close as the Mets would get. The error kept the inning alive without actually tightening the game, which looks, in hindsight, like the last real opening New York had.
Boston then methodically buried any comeback hopes. Seigler homered to left in the seventh — 352 feet, scoring Cheng — to push the lead to 4-1. Then in the ninth, Abreu went deep to right center at 376 feet, scoring Rafaela to make it 6-1. Abreu finished 3-for-4 with a homer, 2 RBI, and 2 runs scored, and Seigler matched him with a homer, 2 RBI, and 2 runs of his own. That's a combined four RBI and four runs from two hitters who weren't even the night's most talked-about name. Baty hit a solo shot to right in the ninth at 384 feet to account for New York's final run, but it was purely cosmetic.
On the mound, Nolan McLean actually pitched well enough to keep the Mets in it — 6.0 innings, 5 hits, 0 earned runs, 7 strikeouts — but the damage came before the earned-run column could reflect it. Yoshida's double was unearned in the sense that McLean kept the deficit from growing, yet Boston's offense didn't need much more than that early cushion. Sonny Gray went 6.0 innings for Boston, allowing 1 earned run on 5 hits with 3 strikeouts. It appears Gray didn't need to be dominant; he just needed to be steady while his offense did the heavy lifting. Senga tossed a clean inning of relief for New York, and Guerrero handled one inning for Boston without allowing an earned run. The final score flatters the Mets slightly — Boston controlled this game from the first pitch of consequence.