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.

The Red Sox, before losing to the Rays 4-3 on Sunday, continued to shuffle their roster. Rick Porcello was placed on the 15-day disabled list with a “right triceps strain” aka “he stinks.” Rumor has it that Henry Owens, he of the gigantic hands, will be replacing Porcello in his first major league start on Tuesday in Yankee Stadium.

Sunday’s game started out in the usual way: Wade Miley served up a full count fastball to light-hitting Brandon Guyer, who, of course, took it over the Green Monster and into the AAA-Mapfre Insurance sign for an immediate 1-0 lead.

But in holding true to another recent trend, the Sox quickly bounced back from an early deficit in the bottom of the 1st. Hanley Ramirez took the first pitch he saw from Jake Odorizzi off the right edge of the Monster to double in Xander Bogaerts, who’d singled and stolen second. And Mike Napoli gave Boston the lead with a ground ball RBI single through the left side on a high fastball. 2-1, Boston.

David Ortiz padded the Sox’ one-run lead with an RBI double of his own in the bottom of the 3rd, this one hitting the top of the scoreboard and scoring Bogaerts again, who came around from first after being hit by a pitch.

Miley, meanwhile, was on a hot streak after his game-opening mistake. He’d retired 11 out of 12 batters (having only given up an infield single in the 3rd) when, with 2 outs in the 4th, he gave up a single to Asdrubal Cabrera and a double to James Loney. Cabrera came around from first and the score stood at 3-2, Boston.

The score remained 3-2 when Kevin Kiermaier hit a two-out triple off Miley in the top of the 7th. Miley had thrown 120 pitches (!) at this point, so he got the hook in favor of Robbie Ross, Jr., who proceeded to do Robbie Ross, Jr. things. He hit catcher Curt Casali to start, then walked Guyer before mercifully striking Joey Butler out to escape the bases-loaded situation he’d manufactured.

After the Sox went down in order in their half of the 7th, Junichi Tazawa came in to relieve Ross and, well, things just aren’t going well for Taz right now. My theory that I threw out the other night that he’s better when he has a clean inning to work with didn’t get a lot of support here. Evan Longoria doubled on the second pitch he saw from Tazawa, and after a Logan Forsythe popout, Asdrubal Cabrera hit a ground rule double over Rusney Castillo’s head to tie the game. The real bummer, though, came when James Loney hit a blooper to center between Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, Jr. It dropped for a single and brought Cabrera around to score. Giving up a bloop single to lose a game never feels quite right.

Because they did lose from there. Five out of the last seven Boston batters struck out swinging, which is a fine and honorable way to go down, but it’s no less of a loss for the trying.