NEW YORK — Masataka Yoshida’s translator Yutaro Yamaguchi was even more pumped up than Yoshida.
“You should see Yutaro. He was going nuts in the dugout,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said.
With a full count and two outs in the ninth inning, Yoshida connected on a 96.1 sinker from Yankees closer Clay Holmes and sent it 405 feet to right field for a game-tying two-run homer. Ceddanne Rafaela then hit a go-ahead homer in the 10th. The Red Sox won 5-3 at Yankee Stadium on Friday.
“I was fired up,” Yamaguchi said.
The 30-year-old DH added through Yamaguchi, “He’s a part of the team so I’m grateful we were able to share that moment.”
Yoshida’s homer was just his third blast this season and his first since April 20 at Fenway Park vs. the Angels. It came after Dom Smith’s two-out single.
“Situation-wise and the stadium, here at Yankee Stadium, I think that’s one of the biggest highlights of my career with the Red Sox,” Yoshida said.
Yoshida connected on the eighth pitch of the at-bat. All eight pitches were sinkers.
“I faced him last year and he’s a tough pitcher to face obviously,” Yoshida said. “So I tried to foul it off, foul it off and I was able to get that one. So it felt great.”
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Yoshida is heating up with the bat but he said he sees room for improvement. He’s 12-for-33 (.364 batting average) with a .417 on-base percentage and .515 slugging percentage in his past nine games dating back to June 24. He has a .259/.327/.361/.688 line 42 games (162 plate appearances) this season. He missed time 37 games on the IL from April 29-June 11 with a left thumb strain.
“It’s huge obviously to be able to hit a home run in that clutch situation and just share the happiness with the teammates,” Yoshida said. “That was big.”
Yoshida didn’t want to get too excited as he rounded the bases.
“I was obviously happy and excited but as I was running around the bases, it was still tied in that situation,” he said. “So maybe later we’ll kind of get excited more.”
Cora added, “He’s putting good at-bats. We know he can hit. A lot of people get caught up in the power numbers and all that. I’ll take the hitter. This guy can hit .300 at this level. His on-base percentage should be around .400. And you look at him, he’s trending in the right direction.”
