Last weekend America’s “favorite pastime” moved overseas, as the New York Yankees took on the Boston Red Sox in London for the very first time. The games are part of a two-year MLB London Series arrangement, and both teams came out swinging.
Boston and New York had a combined 50 runs between the two games. On night one, both scored six runs in just the first inning, something that had not occurred between any two teams since 1989. The Yankees went on to win 17-13 and closed out the second night 12-8.
The intensity of the games kept fans on the edge of their seats throughout all 18 innings. On the first night, the Yankees held a comfortable 17-6 lead going into the sixth. However, things started to look hopeful for the Sox when they scored one run in the sixth and six in the seventh inning. Yet they could not finish the job, with the last two innings remaining scoreless.
Boston came out ready for redemption night two, scoring four runs in the first inning. But they were still no match for the Yankees, who scored 9 runs in the seventh and 1 in the eighth, surpassing the Sox for a weekend sweep. About 120,000 fans came out over the course of two days to root on the teams, including royals Prince Harry and Meghan Markle.
While MLB has already planned a weekend for next year between the Cubs and the Cardinals, they hope to go beyond this and play even more games in Europe. Win or lose, everyone can agree that London got a special showing of what it is like to be taken out to an American ball game.
Image Courtesy of MLB (YouTube)