Six-run sixth carries Yankees past Red Sox 9-2 in Wild Card

Six runs in one inning. Three scoreless frames, a 2-0 grind, and then a sixth-inning avalanche at Yankee Stadium carried the New York Yankees past the Boston Red Sox 9-2 in the Wild Card Round.

The first three innings belonged to the arms: starters Max Fried and Sonny Gray kept it scoreless through three. Luis García Jr. broke the silence in the fourth, homering to center for 1-0. In the fifth, Cody Bellinger lined a single to right that brought home Austin Wells. 2-0.

The sixth flipped the night. Willson Contreras pulled Boston within one with a homer to center, and New York answered with six runs. George Lombard singled home Spencer Jones. Austin Wells lifted a sacrifice fly deep to left. Ryan McMahon's groundout brought Jazz Chisholm in. Then Bellinger buried it — a three-run homer to center that scored Ben Rice and Trent Grisham. 8-1 after six. Nick Sogard homered to right in the seventh, the Yankees tacked on one more, and innings eight and nine passed without a scratch.

Bellinger was the hammer: two hits, four RBI, the swing that turned a rally into a rout. García Jr. hit .600 with three hits and a homer, Austin Wells chipped in two RBI, Chisholm scored twice, and New York finished at .389 as a team with a .425 on-base mark. Boston's pitching closed the night with a 10.125 ERA. Contreras did his part — two hits, two walks, a homer — but the support never came.

Overcast, 20°C, a south wind at 6.44 m/s. Four hits in a knockout game — the Bronx did the math, coldly.