NEW YORK — Aaron Judge and Matt Carpenter each crushed two home runs. Jameson Taillon only gave up a run over six innings. The defense was solid.
So many things went right in the Yankees’ 14-1 beatdown of the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Saturday night.
But don’t sleep on the contributions of Ryan Weber, whose three scoreless innings to finish the game nabbed him his first MLB save and saved something else: The Yankees’ bullpen.
“More of what we’ve seen,” Boone said of Weber, who struck out one, walked one and gave up a hit.
“Did a good job for us in spring training. He’s kind of fearless out there, pounds the strike zone, especially a tough matchup for righties with the sinker and he’s just got really good feel on the pitch. The ability to command the ball is his calling card and that’s what you love to see when you send somebody out there with a big lead and you want him to cover some innings to come in and pound the zone, move the ball around. He’s able to do that.”
Weber’s clutch pitching shielded the Yankees from needing to use anybody else in what was an already-gassed bullpen. Manager Aaron Boone had pushed his relievers hard in previous games and the Yankees needed the length that Weber provided.
The 31-year-old Weber has a 1.17 ERA in three appearances with the Yankees this season He’s played in parts of eight MLB seasons with six teams. At Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, he was 2-2 with a 2.55 ERA in nine games, including five starts.
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Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com.