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Article snippet: On July 15, Matt Holliday hit a home run off Boston Red Sox closer Craig Kimbrel in the ninth inning at Fenway Park, sending the game into extra innings. It wound up lasting 16, and Holliday played every one of them. The next day, Holliday played all 18 innings of a Yankees-Red Sox doubleheader, and he played nine more the day after that against the Twins in Minnesota. In his next 58 at-bats, Holliday collected just eight hits, and within three weeks, he ended up on the disabled list, missing 25 games because of a lumbar strain. That solo shot against Kimbrel remained his last home run — until Saturday afternoon. Back in the designated hitter’s spot for his first game since he came off the D.L., Holliday turned around a Drew Pomeranz fastball and sent it into the left-field seats at Yankee Stadium — a blast measured at 443 feet. The three-run shot, Holliday’s 17th homer of the season, broke a 1-1 tie and led the Yankees to a 5-1 victory over the Red Sox in as close to a must-win game as a team can play with about a month of the regular season to go. “We missed that from Matty,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “He was such a great run producer in the first half. We weren’t sure when he’d be back, but we knew we had to be patient because of what he’s meant to our club and what he’s done in the past, because he’s been in so many playoff runs before.” Holliday has played in the World Series three times, winning with the 2011 St. Louis Cardinals, and losing with the Cardina... Link to the full article to read more