Red Sox reactions: Garrett Crochet, Trevor Story have milestone days in the Bronx

NEW YORK — Instant reactions as the Red Sox (71-59) beat the Yankees again, this time by a 12-1 score behind big days from Trevor Story and Garrett Crochet:

1) It was Story’s day at the Stadium. With the bases loaded in the third, he broke a scoreless tie with a well-placed double that found grass in right field and gave the Red Sox a 2-0 lead. Two innings later, he smoked an opposite-field shot off Will Warren for his 20th homer of the year. Overall, Story was 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored.

Story’s renaissance campaign is officially a 20/20 season, as he’s also a perfect 22-for-22 on stolen base attempts. He’s the 14th Red Sox player ever to accomplish the 20/20 feat — and the oldest. Story is at his best when he provides both power and speed and for the sixth time in his career, he has done so at a milestone pace.

2) Crochet’s first Yankee Stadium start as a member of the Red Sox didn’t go very well in June, but the team still won a high-scoring game. This time around, Crochet looked more like himself in a dominant outing.

Making his 26th start of the season, Crochet carved up the Yankees for seven innings, striking out 11 batters. He allowed five hits (including a Giancarlo Stanton solo homer that represented the only blip) and walked one. Crochet threw 103 pitches and lowered his ERA to 2.38.

There’s no one in baseball who would represent a more formidable draw in Game 1 of a postseason series.

3) A clean, relatively handy win turned into an embarrassing blowout when the Red Sox torched mop-up man Paul Blackburn for seven runs in the ninth and turned a 5-1 lead into a 12-1 advantage. The sequence contained a horrific airmail from Anthony Volpe, a Blackburn balk that plated a run and a two-run homer for Carlos Narváez. The Sox sent 10 hitters to the plate. The boos were loud from the Yankees faithful.

4) Crochet’s fourth-inning strikeout of Bellinger was his 200th of the season, and he joined elite company by hitting that mark. He’s the fourth pitcher in team history to strike out 200 or more batters in the first 26 games of a season, joining Chris Sale (2017 and 2018), Pedro Martinez (1999, 2000 and 2002) and Roger Clemens (1988).

Crochet then recorded his 500th career strikeout when he punched out José Caballero for the second out of a dominant seventh.

5) To cap off a week during which poor situational hitting was a big story, the Red Sox showed some improvement in that category. With the bases loaded and no outs in the fourth, Boston stretched a 2-0 lead into a 4-0 lead when Roman Anthony and Alex Bregman both lifted deep fly balls that went for sacrifice flies.

Jarren Duran, though, continued struggling in big spots. With the bases loaded and no outs against Warren in the third, he struck out — and is now hitting .091 (1-for-11) with four strikeouts in such situations this year. (He did cash in with a man at third in the top of the ninth with a bloop RBI single.)

6) The frustration of an eighth straight loss to the Red Sox manifested in a few ways for the Yankees. There were gripes about Carlos Torres’ strike zone all day (from Cody Bellinger, Austin Wells and Aaron Boone) and another befuddling play from Volpe, who’s clearly pressing. Down three runs in the fourth with a man on first and one out, the scuffling shortstop executed a sacrifice bunt back to Crochet. It accomplished little — and the ninth-inning airmail was just insult added to injury.

The Red Sox are now 1-½ games clear of the Yankees in the standings.

7) Crochet’s ability to pitch deep into the game (as well as the comfortable cushion) was important because the Red Sox went to setup man Garrett Whitlock and closer Aroldis Chapman on back-to-back days to start the series and likely didn’t have either one available for a third day.

Boston went to Greg Weissert for the eighth, then Justin Wilson to escape a jam. In the ninth, it was Jordan Hicks — after the massive rally from the offense — who protected an even-bigger lead.

8) There was production all over the lineup in the win. By the fourth inning, all nine starters had reached base.

It was a good day for the bottom of the lineup as Ceddanne Rafaela (double, RBI single), David Hamilton (three hits, including a triple) and Carlos Narváez (three hits, including the homer) all contributed. Hamilton also had a great defensive day.

9) Righty Dustin May (7-9, 4.59 ERA) will get his first taste of the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry on Sunday Night Baseball as Boston tries to finish off the four-game sweep. The Yankees will start left-hander Carlos Rodón (13-7, 3.24 ERA). First pitch is at 7:10 p.m. ET on ESPN.