Brock Holt had one thing in mind: He was swinging for the fences.
After all, the game was decided long ago and everything else went Boston’s way all night, so why not this?
The part-time utilityman on Monday put the finishing touch on a Red Sox blowout, becoming the first player to hit for the cycle in a post-season game as Boston routed the New York Yankees 16-1 to seize a 2-1 lead in their best-of-five American League Division Series.
Photo: AP
“This one I’ll remember for a long time,” said Holt, unaware of his achievement until told by a television reporter right after the final out. “Obviously, you don’t go into the game expecting to make history or do anything like that, let alone score 16 runs.”
Andrew Benintendi lined a three-run double and Holt tripled home two more times in a seven-run fourth inning that quickly turned the latest playoff between the longtime rivals into a laugher.
Handed a big early lead, Nathan Eovaldi shut down his former team during New York’s most lopsided defeat in 396 post-season games.
“An embarrassing day,” Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius said.
Game 4 was yesterday in the Bronx, where the 108-win Red Sox could put away the wild-card Yankees for good and advance to the American League Championship Series against Houston.
Rick Porcello was scheduled to pitch against New York lefty C.C. Sabathia.
Boston battered an ineffective Luis Severino and silenced a charged-up Yankee Stadium crowd that emptied fast on a night when Red Sox rookie manager Alex Cora made all the right moves.
By the ninth inning, backup catcher Austin Romine was on the mound for New York and he gave up a two-run homer to Holt that completed his cycle.
“You get a little antsy when a position player is on the mound. I told everyone: ‘Get me up. I need a home run for a cycle,’” Holt said. “I scooted up in the box a little bit, and I was going to be swinging at anything and try to hook anything. Obviously, you don’t expect to hit a home run, but I was trying to. I was trying to hit a home run. That’s probably the first time I’ve ever tried to do that. I rounded the bases and seeing everyone going nuts in the dugout was a pretty cool moment for me.”
His teammates, too.
“He wasn’t shy about it,” Benintendi said. “Everybody was rooting for him.”
Making his first playoff start this year, Holt opened the fourth inning with a single off Severino and capped the 26-minute outburst with a triple to right field.
The 2015 All-Star also doubled home a run in the eighth and finished with five RBIs.
Holt also hit for the cycle against Atlanta on June 6, 2015.
“He’s been swinging the bat well for a while now,” Cora said. “We felt the matchup was good for him.”
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