Verdugo returns to Fenway with 1st-pitch HR, 4 RBIs, Yanks' 50th win

BOSTON -- Alex Verdugo was mad. The outfielder admitted that he could have handled the news of his trade to the Yankees much better this past December, having expressed his disbelief shortly after learning that the Red Sox had sent him to New York.

It was one thing to be dealt, but Verdugo couldn’t believe Boston would deal him to a division rival -- and a historic one, at that. But introductory phone calls with captain Aaron Judge, first baseman Anthony Rizzo and manager Aaron Boone soon had Verdugo ready for a fresh start.

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So Verdugo shaved his beard and carried a brash, gritty persona to the Yankees, who had spoken privately over the past several months about needing a player with exactly those qualities. Verdugo extracted a measure of revenge on Friday, homering in a four-RBI performance as the Yankees defeated the Red Sox, 8-1, at Fenway Park.

“It was pure adrenaline, man. Just fired up,” Verdugo said. “To put it out of the ballpark and give us an early lead was big. I let a little yell out around first, and when I saw my dugout going crazy, all the guys barking, I lost it again.”

With the victory, the Yankees became the Majors’ first team to notch 50 wins this season. It is the 10th time in franchise history that the Bombers have won 50 of their first 72 games; seven of the previous nine resulted in a World Series championship (most recently in 1998).

“These guys have played outstanding baseball to start the season, but we know that’s all it is,” Boone said. “We’ve got a long, long way to go.”

Verdugo said he anticipated it would be “a weird day” facing the Red Sox in his new uniform, and that he expected to be greeted “like a Yankee” by fans who had once cheered him. Jeered loudly in pregame introductions, Verdugo responded by belting a two-run shot on the first pitch he saw from Brayan Bello in the first inning.

“I wasn’t really expecting to swing first pitch,” Verdugo said.

But he did. His ninth home run of the season cleared the center-field wall, a Statcast-calculated 406-foot drive that came off his bat at 104 mph. Chains jangling, Verdugo pumped his fists and screamed as he rounded the bases, firing up his “dawgs” in the dugout, the phrase Verdugo coined during a season-opening series in Houston.

“We were all on him coming in, flying in, on the bus,” Rizzo said. “He’s such a spark for us. It’s hard to bring that type of energy every day. He does a good job, and helps us do a good job of that as well. So I’m sure it means a lot more to him, as it should, just playing somewhere for that long.”

Verdugo played four seasons in Boston after arriving in the Mookie Betts trade with the Dodgers. He had emerged as a change-of-scenery candidate after a pair of public run-ins with Boston manager Alex Cora, once for a perceived lack of hustle and once for reporting late to Fenway for a Red Sox home game.

Boston acquired three right-handed pitchers in exchange for Verdugo: Richard Fitts, Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice.

“Dugie is a good kid,” Cora said before Friday’s game. “I think people are making too much about it, to be honest with you. He's a good player. He got traded, we got three good pitchers, that's the business of it.”

Though Boone couldn’t recall the first time he’d lobbied to fit Verdugo in pinstripes, the manager said that he brought up Verdugo’s name several times with general manager Brian Cashman. So did Judge and Rizzo; this spring, Judge said that he had been “preaching for years that we’ve got to get that guy.”

“He likes the action,” Boone said. “He’s a gamer. That’s what I’ve admired about him from the other side the last few years, and that’s what he’s brought over here.”

Verdugo banged a run-scoring double off the left-field wall in the fifth, helping to support starter Luis Gil, who navigated five innings of one-run ball without his usual command. Gil tossed a career-high 104 pitches.

“There was a lot of adrenaline tonight,” Gil said through an interpreter. “Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve been watching Yankees-Red Sox.”

Jose Trevino hit a ninth-inning homer for the Yankees, a frame that also featured Judge’s run-scoring double and Verdugo’s fourth RBI of the night, a clean single to right field.

“There’s no secret that this was a big series for me,” Verdugo said. “I’ve just got to keep going day by day. We’ve got to go out there and do it again tomorrow.”