Richard Fitts Shows Boston Yankees He Won Alex Verdugo Trade

Boston Red Sox starting pitcher Richard Fitts was not in an enviable position Friday night.

Less than an hour before first pitch at Yankee Stadium, the Red Sox had cut Tanner Houck and turned to Fitts to make his second MLB start. Getting very late notice to face the Yankees’ vaunted lineup under the bright lights of Yankee Stadium usually spells trouble for young pitchers.

But not for Fitts.

The 24-year-old was another impressive performer on the mound in the majors, pitching five scoreless innings while allowing two hits, three walks and two strikeouts. The two he eliminated? New York’s top hitters Juan Soto and Aaron Judge, who drove Cam Booser deep for a monumental and decisive grand slam in the bottom of the seventh inning in the Yankees’ 5-4 victory.

The opportunity to play against the Yankees gave Fitts a chance to show them what they had lost. New York selected the right-hander in the sixth round of the 2021 draft before sending him and two other pitchers — Greg Weissert and Nicholas Judice — to the Red Sox for Alex Verdugo during the offseason.

Fitts’ first inning was a tightrope game. He got two outs before the bases were loaded, but he got out of trouble when he forced a fly out from Jazz Chisholm Jr. to end the threat. Fitts settled in nicely after that, striking out nine of 10 batters from the second through the fourth.

“At some point a few years ago, he knew he was going to pitch at Yankee Stadium,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said during an interview during the Apple TV+ game. “He’s competitive, he’s got good stuff, and hopefully he can get us five (innings).”

Fitts gave the Red Sox the five innings they were hoping for and ended his outing by forcing Soto to look at a splitter in the zone. It seemed that Fitts, who threw 90 balls, might have given the Red Sox maybe one more inning, but Cora didn’t press.

Fitts also faced Verdugo twice that night and struck him out both times. It’s been a dismal season of pinstripes for Verdugo, who is teetering on the edge of being moved out of New York’s outfield rotation. Verdugo was 0-for-3 from the No. 9 spot in the Yankees’ order Friday and is batting a career-low .236 with 12 home runs and 58 RBIs. It’s been such a strange season for Verdugo that he feels some of his problems stem from an allergy to the material of his batting gloves.

Verdugo will be a free agent at the end of this season and will likely leave New York. The Yankees won’t miss him.

Meanwhile, the Red Sox have the best acquisition in this trade, and it looks like Fitts could go some way to bolstering Boston’s starting rotation for years to come.

Here are more notes from Friday’s Red Sox-Yankees game:

— Someone wake Zack Kelly up when September ends. It’s been an ugly start to the month for the Red Sox reliever, and it got even uglier against the Yankees when he issued two walks and allowed three runs without recording an out. Kelly has given up 10 earned runs in 4 1/3 innings (seven appearances) this month.

“These last few weeks, and this whole month, have been truly the most difficult period of my entire career” Kelly told reportersaccording to Gabrielle Starr of the Boston Herald.

— Houck had his start pushed back to Friday but was still not ready to play because of right shoulder fatigue. Cora said the Red Sox wanted to proceed cautiously with Houck rather than force the right-handed player into his 29th start of the season.

“We have done some tests and the shoulder is weaker than yesterday” Cora told reportersper Starr. “…We don’t think it’s going to last much longer. …This guy is very important to us, not only now but for the future, and if he left the way he did, there will be consequences.”

— Trevor Story showed some energy in his bat as he hit his first home run of the season in the loss. Story hit an opposite-field home run two runs off Mark Leiter Jr. as part of a 2-for-4 night at the plate.

— It doesn’t seem like a coincidence that the Red Sox offense showed a little more life than it has recently, as Jarren Duran showed signs of emerging from a slump. Duran, who entered September with a .192 average (9-for-47), had three hits.

— Standings Watch: The Red Sox squandered a key opportunity to gain an advantage over the Minnesota Twins, who lost to the Cincinnati Reds on Friday night. Boston remains 4 1/2 games behind the Twins for the third and final American League wild-card spot.

— The Red Sox and Yankees continue their series from the Bronx on Saturday, with Brayan Bello and Gerrit Cole set to face off in a matchup. First pitch from Yankee Stadium is set for 1:05 p.m. ET, and the game, as well as an hour of pregame coverage, can be watched on NESN.