All wins aren’t equal: Beating the Yankees was huge for Red Sox

The most anxious among the many anxious moments for the Red Sox on Thursday came in the bottom of the seventh.

With Boston clinging to its newly acquired one-run lead with one out, new pitcher Steven Matz came in and surrendered a sinking liner to right to Ben Rice. When the ball took a funny hop and scooted away from Ceddanne Rafaela in centerfield, turning a double into a triple for Rice, the path to doom seemed clear.

In a park where lots of bad stuff has happened to Boston baseball teams in a week where bad stuff has happened against bad teams to this Boston baseball team, the table was set for more disappointment.

But Matz, the still mostly anonymous trade deadline addition, threw strike three by Jazz Chisholm. Then the southpaw got Paul Goldschmidt, who is hitting .405 with a 1.188 OPS vs. left-handers, to pop out harmlessly to first.

The Yankees never threatened again. After Garrett Whitlock breezed through the eighth, Aroldis Chapman pitched a perfect ninth.

In between Whitlock and Chapman, Roman Anthony added to his growing legend with a two-run home run.

“The moment’s never too big for him,” Alex Bregman said afterward.

On a day when Boston home run leader Wilyer Abreu went on the injured list and starting pitcher Lucas Giolito struggled, the Red Sox still found a way to beat the Yankees in the Bronx.

All wins count the same in the standings, but they are obviously not created equal. Whether this was a sigh of relief or wind in their sails, the Red Sox needed it.

Boston came in 4-8 in their last 12 after losing an excruciating extra-inning game to a bad Orioles team on Tuesday. A loss would have been a gut punch to a team with already bruised ribs.

Instead, they picked up ground on the Yankees and kept pace with everybody else in the tight American League wild card standings.

• BETTING: The over/under for Friday’s game between the Yankees and the Red Sox is set at 8.5 runs on BetMGM. Our BetMGM Sportsbook review provides a comprehensive guide on how to use their platform.

They’ve got three more big games against the Yankees still to come this weekend, but for a team stocked with several first-time pennant racers, getting the first one was big.

“A meaningful series, finally, late in the season,” Cora said before the game. “We haven’t had one of those here in a while. Come here, embrace the whole situation and do it and go out there and have fun.”

Don’t expect a Belichick statue any time soon

Anyone hoping for a Bill Belichick statue to pop up next to Tom Brady should expect to be waiting a while. Belichick continued setting fire to any bridges between Chapel Hill and Foxborough.

His latest verbal sucker punch at the Krafts came in the Globe on Thursday. He said there are fewer challenges to his complete authority at North Carolina than there were with the Patriots, with a not-terribly-subtle suggestion that the Krafts were the reason for the team’s downfall.

“There’s no owner, there’s no owner’s son, there’s no cap, everything that goes with the marketing and everything else, which I’m all for that. But it’s way less of what it was at that level,” Belichick said. “I’d say when we had our best years in New England, we had fewer people and more of a direct vision. And as that expanded, it became harder to be successful.”

It’s unclear whether there were any follow-up questions about drafting issues or hiring Matt Patricia and Joe Judge to coach the offense.

Put me down for Sean McDonough

The Athletic did its list of most impactful sports broadcasters this century this week. For me, there is none better than Sean McDonough. On any sport at any level, he’s informative and entertaining without getting in the way.

Real Jeopardy! Clue

Sports clues from actual editions of America’s favorite quiz show. As always, mind the date

CATEGORY: 19th CENTURY SPORTS $800 – from April 16, 2013

What’s now this tennis tournament began as an event hosted by a Newport, Rhode Island casino in 1881

— Answer below

The Top 5

The Top 5 All-Time SportsCenter Anchors

In honor of Rich Eisen’s return to ESPN.

5 – Bob Ley

4 – Linda Cohn

3 – Kenny Mayne

2 — Dan Patrick

1 – Scott Van Pelt

Today in Boston Sports History

Aug. 24 (there was very little of note on Friday or Saturday)

1940 — Ted Williams allowed a run on three hits while striking out one (Rudy York) in two innings as a pitcher in the Red Sox’s 12-1 loss to the Tigers at Fenway. Nobody said, “There goes the best pitcher to ever play the game” but he wasn’t bad.

Lightning round

• Eliot Wolf was asked hypothetically if he would trade a high draft pick if he thought it would make his team better. Is there a GM in any sport that would have said no to that question?
• There was a lot of talk about Bruins draft pick James Hagens deciding to go back to BC for another year. Don Sweeney made it pretty clear just hours after drafting him, that he thought Hagens should go back to school, which made it not really much of a decision.
• Whatever ESPN replaces Lee Corso with will be a downgrade.
• The Giants cutting Tommy DeVito would be like the Patriots cutting Bailey Zappe.
• Since it took me forever to learn how to spell Grzelcyk and Khustnutdinov, I’m practicing Jhostynxon out loud.
• J.P Riccardi has had a great career in baseball, but it’s not clear why he was inducted into the Worcester Red Sox Hall of Fame. He’d belong in a Worcester Baseball Hall of Fame (which would be a great thing for Polar Park to house) or a Massachusetts Baseball Hall of Fame, but he never actually worked for the WooSox, other than broadcasting games.
• I spend way more time thinking of what to name my fantasy football team than researching late-round sleepers.
• “Casablanca” came out 83 years ago and it took me until last week to see it. I came away so impressed that I might see “Citizen Kane” now.
• Richard Fitts is the rare Fittsy in a region filled with Fitzys.

Real Jeopardy! Question:

What is the U.S. Open?

Finally…

Happy National Tooth Fairy Day to those who celebrate.