10 crazy facts about Red Sox's Game 3 blowout

Before Monday night, the last time the Red Sox played a postseason game at Yankee Stadium was in the 2004 ALCS, when they became the only MLB team to overcome a 3-0 deficit in a playoff series. And in their return to October baseball in the Bronx, the Red Sox put together another historic showing in their 16-1 rout of the Yankees in Game 3 of the American League Division Series to take a 2-1 series lead.
Here are 10 crazy facts you should know about Boston's notable blowout win:
1. Red Sox infielder Brock Holt put together the first cycle in postseason history, going 4-for-6 with three runs and five RBIs. Holt singled off Luis Severino and tripled off Chad Green in the fourth inning, doubled off Stephen Tarpley in the eighth, and homered off catcher-turned-mopup man Austin Romine in the ninth.
Holt also has a regular-season cycle under his belt, having first accomplished the feat on June 16, 2015, at Fenway Park against the Braves. He also completed the job in his final at-bat in that one, tripling in the bottom of the eighth. Holt now joins Hall of Famer Bobby Doerr (May 17, 1944, and May 13, 1947) as the only players to cycle multiple times in a Red Sox uniform.

2. Romine became only the second position player to take the mound in a postseason game, finishing up the blowout for the Yankees by giving up two runs on one hit and a walk in one inning of work. Romine followed in the footsteps of Cliff Pennington, who in Game 4 of the 2015 AL Championship Series got the last out of the top of the ninth inning in the Blue Jays' 14-2 loss to the Royals in Toronto.

3. As first noticed by researcher Doug Kern, Romine joined some incredible company. The backstop became just the second Yankees position player to allow a home run from the mound, following the great Babe Ruth on Oct. 1, 1921, against the Philadelphia A's. Ruth, an ace pitcher during his tenure with the Red Sox, was a full-time left fielder by the time he coughed up a dinger to Philly's Frank Welch in a relief appearance.
4. This was the year of position players pitching -- a record 48 took the mound in 2018, according to Elias -- but the Yankees were one of only five clubs not to use one. In fact, the Yankees had the Majors' second-longest active streak of not putting a position player on the mound, trailing only the Rockies. The last before Monday was Brendan Ryan on Aug. 25, 2015, against Houston.
5. Boston's 16 runs stand as the franchise's most in a postseason road game, and its second-most in any postseason game, trailing only a 23-7 win over the Indians in Game 4 of the 1999 ALDS at Fenway Park. The Sox are the fifth road team in postseason history to score at least 16 runs, and the first since the Cardinals in Game 3 of the 2011 World Series at Texas.
6. Boston now has three wins over the Yankees by double-digit margins this season, having beaten the pinstripes 14-1 on April 10 and 11-0 on June 30. The only other time the Red Sox notched three double-digit wins over their hated rival was way back in 1959.

7. The 15-run margin of victory ties the second-largest in postseason history, behind only Boston's aforementioned 23-7 victory in 1999. Monday night was the most lopsided road win in the playoffs, passing 14-run blowouts by the 1996 Braves (NLCS Game 5 vs. Cardinals) and '36 Yankees (World Series Game 2 vs. Giants).
8. In the Yankees' long postseason history, the club had never before allowed 16 runs in a game. Their previous high came in a 15-2 loss to the D-backs in Game 6 of the 2001 World Series at Arizona. Their previous high at home came in a 14-3 loss to the Mariners in Game 3 of the 2001 ALCS.
The 15-run margin also made for the most lopsided postseason defeat in Yankees history. The last time the Yankees lost any game in the Bronx by at least 15 runs was April 18, 2009, a 22-4 blowout at the hands of the Indians.
9. New York trotted out six pitchers (including Romine), and all of them gave up at least one run. That tied five other teams for a postseason record, including the Red Sox against the Yankees in Game 3 of the 2004 ALCS.
10. The red-hot Red Sox offense smacked 16 batted balls of at least 100 mph and 21 of at least 95 mph -- the minimum qualifier for hard contact, according to Statcast™. Seven of those 100-plus mph shots came off Severino, tying for the most the Yankees right-hander had allowed in any game this season. That included Rafael Devers' 115.7 mph line-drive single to the right-field wall in the second inning, the highest exit velocity on a base hit in Devers' career. It also was the third-highest exit velocity posted by any player this postseason, and the fourth highest in any postseason game since Statcast™ began tracking in 2015.