The Yankees got another strong start against the Red Sox from C. C. Sabathia, who beat them for the fourth time this season, while benefiting from 14 hits, four walks and a hit batter. But the Yankees received the bulk of their offense from Bird, as the rest of the lineup continued to struggle with situational hitting.
With the Yankees clinging to a 2-1 lead — which came when Red Sox second baseman Eduardo Nunez lost a pop-up in the Bronx breeze — Bird lofted a two-run homer into the right-field bleachers off the Red Sox left-hander Eduardo Rodriguez in the sixth inning. Bird extended that cushion to 5-1 in the seventh when he laced a 3-2 pitch from the right-hander Heath Hembree through the left side of the infield to score Judge.
It was Bird’s third homer of the season, and one that carried much greater weight than his cosmetic three-run homer in the ninth inning of Cleveland’s rout during the second game of a doubleheader on Wednesday.
Bird, who made a strong debut at the end of 2015 before missing all of 2016 with shoulder surgery, said he would take the rest of the season as it came.
“I don’t think you can expect anything,” he said. “You just kind of…
