Sloppy Yankees fall to Red Sox in series opener
Yankees manager Aaron Boone takes the ball from relief pitcher Luke Weaver during the seventh inning against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium on Thursday night. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Things have changed since the Yankees and Red Sox last met in mid-June, a three-game sweep by Boston that altered the trajectory of both teams’ summers: a revival for Boston and a plummet by the Yankees.
But the Yankees have surged recently and the Red Sox have stumbled, setting the stage for a gargantuan four-game series with postseason implications.
In Thursday night’s opener in front of a sellout crowd of 47,036 at the Stadium, the Red Sox — despite going 3-for-19 with runners in scoring position and leaving 14 on base — continued to dominate the season series with a 6-3 win.
It was Boston’s sixth victory in seven games against the Yankees, who had their winning streak snapped at five games.
“I feel like we definitely gave them spots to win, and I felt like tonight, it was one of them nights that we beat ourselves,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “And just like [Cody Bellinger] said in the past, sometimes you just got to look in the mirror and just, ‘Hey, you beat yourself tonight. Tomorrow come out better and focus more.’ ”
Why has Boston (69-59), which climbed within a half-game of the Yankees (69-58) for the AL’s top wild card, been such a difficult opponent?
“I don’t have an answer,” Paul Goldschmidt said. “We’ve played a lot of close games with them. They’ve been able to make one more play, one more pitch, one more hit than us, and hopefully we can change that tomorrow.”
The Yankees were sloppy all-around, committing four errors for the third time this season — the most in MLB, according to researcher Katie Sharp — and issuing nine walks, their second-most in a game this season.
“Just not a real clean game for us,” Aaron Boone said. “Obviously a lot of free bases there.”
The Yankees fell 4 ½ games behind AL East-leading Toronto (74-54).
The Yankees held a 3-2 lead through five innings, but Camilo Doval surrendered the tying run in the sixth on Roman Anthony’s RBI single. Luke Weaver allowed the go-ahead run in the seventh on Nathaniel Lowe’s RBI double.
Weaver (3-4, 2.77 ERA) loaded the bases with one out in the seventh but struck out Carlos Narvaez before Tim Hill struck out Anthony on a low-and-inside sinker.
Anthony hit a two-out, two-run homer into the second deck in rightfield off Yerry De los Santos to make it 6-3 in the ninth. David Hamilton reached two batters earlier on an error by Goldschmidt. Aroldis Chapman retired Aaron Judge, Bellinger and Giancarlo Stanton in order in the bottom of the ninth.
Ben Rice (2-for-3) tripled off former Ward Melville star Steven Matz with one out in the seventh, but Matz struck out Chisholm (2-for-4) and got Goldschmidt (2-for-3) to pop to first. Bay Shore’s Greg Weissert (5-4, 3.00), a former Yankee, pitched 1 1⁄3 scoreless innings.
The Yankees took a 3-2 lead in the fifth on Chisholm’s bloop single that deflected off a sliding Trevor Story and landed in leftfield. The Yankees loaded the bases with two outs, but Ryan McMahon struck out swinging after getting ahead 3-and-0.
Luis Gil limited the damage in an unsteady five innings, allowing two runs (one earned) and four hits, walking five and striking out three. The Red Sox put a runner in scoring position in each of the first five innings but went 1-for-10 with RISP and left seven on base against Gil.
Gil loaded the bases with none out in the fifth but retired the next three, though Lowe’s sacrifice fly evened things at 2-2. “That was really important there with traffic in the bases, give my team an opportunity to win this game,” Gil said through an interpreter. “So that was the main focus right there, keep the game tight.”
The Yankees made three errors in a bizarre top of the second, spotting the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. Gil could not cleanly field a leadoff grounder by Masataka Yoshida, Chisholm launched a potential double-play throw over the Yankees’ dugout and Rice overthrew second base on a steal attempt, allowing Ceddanne Rafaela, who was on third, to score.
Rice made up for his error in the bottom of the second with his 20th homer, a leadoff shot into the rightfield bleachers that tied it at 1-1. It gave the Yankees 20 consecutive runs scored via the home run, according to researcher Sarah Langs. That tied the 2020 Yankees for most consecutive runs scored via the home run by any team in at least the expansion era (1961).
Goldschmidt’s fourth-inning RBI single ended that streak and gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
The Yankees had a 4 1⁄2-game lead in the AL East and a 9 1⁄2-game lead over the then-fourth-place Red Sox entering the June 13-15 series at Fenway Park. The series started a stretch in which the Yankees lost 29 of their next 47, and they ultimately stood in third place and 3 1⁄2 games behind second-place Boston on the morning of Aug. 6. They then won nine of 12 entering Thursday and the Red Sox lost eight of 12.
Ben Dickson is Newsday Sports' general assignment reporter. He joined Newsday’s high school sports staff in 2023 after graduating from Maryland, where he covered several of the Terrapins' teams.
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