With Ichiro Suzuki on third base representing the winning run for the Yankees with two outs in the bottom of the ninth, Red Sox catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia visited rookie reliever Brandon Workman to discuss how best to attack Alfonso Soriano. Both were in complete agreement.
“Our game plan was to throw the fastball up on him,” Saltalamacchia said.
“We were trying to work a little bit up,” Workman said.
End agreement. From there, each guy blamed himself for the 1-0 fastball that wound up at the backstop as a wild pitch, allowing the winning run to score as the Yankees averted a four-game sweep with a 4-3 victory Sunday.
“He executed exactly what I wanted. I’ve just got to fight to get it, do the best I can and try to hold on to that,” said Saltalamacchia, who got a glove on the ball but helplessly chased it down as Ichiro easily scored.
“I just messed up too high,” said Workman (5-3), admitting it would have been less painful had Soriano hit one off the wall. “That would probably be a little easier than knowing I just threw it away, literally.”
Chalk it up as a learning experience.
“I learned not to throw the ball to the backstop with the winning run on third,” Workman said with frustrated understatement.
The wild pitch overshadowed the Red Sox rallying yet again against Mariano Rivera (5-2), who suffered a blown save when he was touched for a leadoff homer in the ninth by Will Middlebrooks. Rivera was trying for a six-out save, but was denied by Boston’s 10th home run of the series. Middlebrooks admitted his homer was special – it was against the greatest closer ever.
“For sure, he’s always a guy who’s hard to hit. He’s Mariano,” Middlebrooks said. “He gave me a real good pitch to hit, 1-0, and I swung under it. …So I expanded my zone and looked away [and] he just left it on the corner.”
For the second time in four days, the Red Sox forced a blown save on Rivera. But unlike on Thursday, the Yankees rallied, notching their lone win of the series.
“We wanted to take four, but you can’t complain taking three of four,” Middlebrooks said.