Didi socks 2 home runs vs. rivals at Fenway
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BOSTON -- Didi Gregorius helped the Yankees jump out to a quick lead in the first inning at Fenway Park on Thursday night, but the Red Sox stormed back and dealt the Yanks a 15-7 loss.
With Aaron Hicks on second and Giancarlo Stanton on first, Gregorius stepped up to the plate with no outs for the Yankees, and he crushed a three-run home run on Brian Johnson's 88.3-mph fastball on a 2-0 count, giving New York a 3-0 lead.
Mookie Betts chased the ball as it sailed a projected 383 feet, per Statcast™. But it flew too far for him to catch -- landing in the Red Sox's bullpen.
It was Gregorius' 19th home run of the season. The hit also marked his first home run since his three-run blast against the Royals on July 26.
Hicks added to the Yanks' lead by blasting a solo homer in the second inning, his 18th of the season. With the home run, Hicks reached a career-high 34 extra-base hits this season.
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Despite the early offensive sparks, the Yankees could not overcome their struggles on the mound.
"We just didn't play well," Brett Gardner said. "We came out and got an early lead, a big lead. Obviously, couldn't hold on to it. And from there, they just kept pounding the baseball, and we kept trying to run it down and throw it back in. ... Sometimes you've just got to tip your cap and say they had a really good game offensively tonight, and they ran away with it."
After the Red Sox surged ahead with an eight-run fourth, Gregorius did it again in the fifth, crushing a solo home run to right field to cut the Yanks' deficit to 10-5. The blast marked Gregorius' fifth multihomer game of his career, his fourth this season and his first since the Yankees defeated the Nationals, 3-0, on June 12.
Stanton was the last of the Yankees to contribute a homer on Thursday. In the seventh inning, he sent the ball soaring a projected 432 feet with a 114.9-mph exit velocity over the Green Monster, according to Statcast™. It was Stanton's 25th home run of the season -- his fifth straight campaign hitting 25 or more homers.
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"We'll continue to compete, like we did yesterday," manager Aaron Boone said. "When we didn't do a couple things well, we fought our way back. The guys competed all the way tonight, so I have zero issue with the mindset of our guys and know that we'll be focused and ready to go."