Masahiro Tanaka, in his first outing since September 18th, was one pitch away from getting out of the first inning clean last night. But Xander Bogaerts didn’t bite on the next three pitches (all balls), and eventually singled. David Ortiz walked on five pitches, and Travis Shaw gave the Red Sox an early 3-0 lead with one swing of the bat.

The Yankees, however, got a run back in the bottom of the 2nd inning when Wade Miley allowed a 2-out rally of his own. Chris Young singled, Greg Bird drew a tough walk, and Robert Refsnyder hit a ground rule double over Brock Holt’s head in right field to make it 3-1, Boston.

Dustin Pedroia hit a ground rule double of his own to start off the 3rd inning, and after a fly out by Bogaerts moved him to third base, Big Papi drove him in with an opposite field single to get back the run that Miley had surrendered.

Miley was in trouble for pretty much his entire outing after the first inning, but he got out of most of the jams with help from his defense. With 1 out in the 3rd and Chase Headley on first, Alex Rodriguez hit a ground ball down the third base line, and Devin Marrero made a sweet pick to get his glove on the ball. By the time he turned to fire to second base, however, it was too late to get Headley. He got a second chance to nab Headley two pitches later, though, and made the most of it with a line drive double play to get out of the inning.

In the top of the 5th, Tanaka had maybe the nastiest strikeout of the season against Bogaerts. I have nothing but good things to say about Bogaerts’ performance this year, but if there’s an area he needs to improve, it’s not swinging at ridiculous pitches. He looks like an absolute idiot here.

After allowing two consecutive 2-out singles in the 4th inning without consequences, Miley wasn’t so fortunate in the 5th. Jacoby Ellsbury hit a first-pitch double and advanced to third on a wild pitch. A-Rod walked with 1 out, and then the hits kept coming: Carlos Beltran hit a ground rule double into the Yankees bullpen (4-2). Brian McCann grounded out to Shaw at first, who elected to tag the base rather than throw home to get A-Rod (4-3…also, I can’t find an angle of this that explains why Shaw wasn’t able to throw out Rodriguez, who is slow as molasses at this point). And Young hit a ground ball down the line that Marrero did well to stop (preventing a double by knocking it into the 3rd base umpire), but it was enough to go down as an infield single to score Beltran (tie game, 4-4).

Miley walked the next two batters (Bird and Refsnyder) to load the bases before getting Didi Gregorious to fly out and end the inning.

David Ortiz missed a home run by maybe two feet in the top of the 6th, settling for a leadoff double off reliever Justin Wilson. But he was stranded at second, and in the bottom half of the inning, A-Rod did him one better, hitting a two-out bomb to left field off Matt Barnes to give the Yankees a 5-4 lead.

With two outs in the top of the 7th, and perhaps realizing the gravity of the situation (wait a second, we have a lead at home and our magic number is 1!), Joe Girardi elected to bring in force of nature Dellin Betances to face Mookie Betts. Game over, right? Wrong. As dominant as he is, he started Betts off with two balls, and even the best pitchers will still try to even up that count with a fastball. He left it high and inside and in the zone.

If you listen closely, you can hear Betances’ cry of agony. So sweet, so sweet, the tears of unfathomable sadness.

Heath Hembree walked the leadoff man, McCann, in the bottom half of the inning. Rico Noel ran for him and promptly stole second and advanced to third on a fly out. But Tommy Layne managed to strand him there with a strikeout of John Ryan Murphy and another Gregorius fly out (with an intentional walk of Refsnyder mixed in).

Layne retired the leadoff man, Ellsbury, the long way in the 8th: by walking him and picking him off.

The second out of the inning was equally impressive (I know we’re getting pretty granular here): after two more walks (another by Layne and one by Noe Ramirez), Jean Machi came in to face Carlos Beltran. Machi got Beltran to ground a ball down the first base line, which might have been a double, but turned out to be a tremendous play by Shaw to get the out at second base.

With men on the corners, Machi walked Dustin Ackley on five pitches before getting Brett Gardner to ground out with the bases loaded.

Jean is far from the best.

But he got the job done, so what can I say? Oh Jean, you got me again!

The 9th and 10th innings passed with little drama, with Alexi Ogando and Andrew Miller both pitching two strong innings. In the 11th, however, New York was forced to turn to Andrew Bailey instead. Travis Shaw immediately hit an infield single, and despite Holt’s failed bunt attempt, he advanced to third with one out on a hit and run with Blake Swihart. Marrero got to be the hero, driving in the game-winning run on a single up the middle. 6-5, Red Sox.

Chasen Shreve relieved Bailey, but only fared worse. Jackie Bradley, Jr. laid down Jerry Remy’s favorite – the safety squeeze – past the pitcher to score Swihart from third. 7-5.

Given the opportunity, Mookie Betts thought, “Why not?” and hit his second home run of the game to put the game effectively out of reach. 9-5, Boston.

Robbie Ross, Jr. did a typically unclean yet scoreless job in the 11th, giving the Red Sox their 6th straight win and keeping the Yankees out of the playoffs for another day.

But what was the real reason for Mookie Betts’ double home run performance tonight? Mookie, any thoughts?

The secret behind Mookie Betts’ two-homer game? Giving a homeless guy a pizza. pic.twitter.com/MgpFWOfv0W

— Zack Cox (@ZackCoxNESN) October 1, 2015

Oh boy.”I guess giving pizza to homeless people is…good, I guess.” Absolutely legendary, and if you think I’m not giving a pizza to a bum on the street before I play softball this weekend, you’re crazy. I mean, I’m not superstitious or anything, but I am a little stitious. Definitely stitious enough to try this.