I don’t know what it was about last night’s game. Maybe it was the fact that we’d been destroyed the night before, or that I’m gradually coming to grips with the idea that this season is a complete lost cause. But I REALLY wanted the Sox to win. Very, very badly. I wanted them to ruin Luis Severino’s major league debut and his entire career. I wanted Steven Wright to embarrass the Yankees one by one, leaving them tangled in knots and wondering where the ball had gone. One of these, fortunately, actually came true.

Things started off well for Severino, as he put the Red Sox down in order in the 1st inning (including perhaps the most frustrating shift-robbery of a hit that David Ortiz has had all year). But the Red Sox’ patient approach with the rookie showed its face early on, as Holt, Bogaerts, and Ortiz saw 17 pitches in the first frame. In fact, every Boston starter got two looks at Severino tonight, and every one of those eighteen at-bats started with either a ball or a non-swinging strike. The count-bleeding paid off: Severino threw 94 pitches through 5 innings before Joe Girardi elected to pull him.

Wright did Severino one better in his half of the first, and had a better 2nd inning than his counterpart too. Each of the first five outs he recorded was a strikeout. He also walked a batter in each inning, but they were the only free passes he’d allow all night. Meanwhile, in the top half of the 2nd, Hanley popped out, Sandoval grounded to first, and Mike Napoli grounded out to third—whoops, no he didn’t. Chase Headley short-armed the throw to first and gave Mark Teixeira no chance to scoop it. Napoli advanced to second and Alejandro De Aza made sure to make the mistake count, smacking a double to the wall in right-center to drive in the go-ahead run. Blake Swihart ended the inning with a runner in scoring position for the first of three times on the night.

After an uneventful 3rd inning (probably most notable for containing the first of three unimpressive Jackie Bradley, Jr. at-bats), Ortiz took two Severino balls and then CRUSHED a middle-in fastball to right-center:

Things went in order from there, with the Red Sox lineup taking just enough pitches to end Severino’s night after 5 innings. In Wright’s half of the 5th, the knuckleballer finally ran into some real trouble, giving up singles to both Didi Gregorius and John Ryan Murphy. But he got Jacoby Ellsbury to strike out for the third time on the night to escape the situation.

Adam Warren came in for the Yankees in the 6th and gave them 3 innings of scoreless relief. He did give up a double to Sandoval in the top of the 6th and hit Napoli, but neither De Aza nor Swihart could do anything about it, and the runners were stranded harmlessly.

Wright made his only real mistake of the night in the bottom of the 7th, giving up a leadoff solo shot to Carlos Beltrán. It was definitely the product of the short porch in New Yankee Stadium’s right field. But even though Wright was getting away with high knuckleballs all night, it was inevitable that one would come back to bite him. The damage done, the former second-round pick retired the side from there.

He gave up a single to start the 8th, but what might have been the second consecutive hit of the inning became a momentum-killing double play when an Ellsbury ground ball kicked off of Wright’s foot and directly to Xander Bogaerts, who stepped on the bag and made a good athletic play to get Ellsbury at first.

Boston made a good two-out effort to get some insurance in the top of the 9th against lefty and terrible name-haver Chasen Shreve. Sandoval hit his second double of the night, this one a ground-rule job. Napoli intentionally walked (after two non-intentional balls) and Rusney Castillo, pinch-hitting for the lefty De Aza, walked to load the bases. Unfortunately, after a good 8-pitch at-bat, Swihart couldn’t find the right ending for it, striking out looking to move to the last frame of the night.

Koji Uehara came in for the save, relieving Wright after eight strong innings from the knuckler. The closer ran into some trouble, giving up a 1-out single to Teixeira that Castillo trapped and tried to sell:

Chris Young pinch-ran for Teixeira and advanced to second on a splitter gone wrong. Koji got Beltrán to fly out to Bradley in center, walked Chase Headley on five pitches…and finally got a pinch-hitting Brian McCann to fly out to center to end the game.

Only 8.5 games back of a wild card spot…

Notes:

• You should watch this highlight reel of Steven Wright’s performance, but mostly you NEED to skip to 0:34 in the video to see the break on strike three to Didi Gregorius. It’s probably one of the nastiest knuckleballs I’ve ever seen.

• At some point (the 7th?), John Farrell had Robbie Ross, Jr. start to warm up in the bullpen, and one of the ESPN announcers suggested that it was to dissuade the Yankees from pinch-hitting Brian McCann. Pretty cool move.