Red Sox crush Yankees, who lose eighth consecutive game to AL East rival
Yankees starting pitcher Will Warren reacts after Red Sox shortstop Trevor Story hit a two-run double during the third inning at Yankee Stadium on Saturday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Quick, get the Twins, Cardinals and/or Rays back on the schedule.
The Yankees won seven of eight games against those three also-rans the last two weeks, but this weekend, reality returned in the form of a contending team. That would be the Red Sox, who continue to embarrass them in 2025.
The Yankees lost to their AL East rival for the eighth straight time on Saturday, 12-1, in front of 45,512 disgusted fans — at least those who weren't rooting for the Red Sox — at the Stadium.
After hitting 14 home runs in two games against the Rays, the Yankees (69-60) have lost three straight to open this four-game series and have been held to one run in the last 22 innings. They fell to 1-8 this season against the Red Sox (71-59), who moved 1 1/2 games ahead of them for the American League's top wild-card spot.
“Unacceptable,” Giancarlo Stanton, who accounted for the Yankees’ run with his 16th homer, said of the 1-8 mark. “We all know that.”
Said Aaron Judge: “We’re definitely angry, especially against your rivals. Don’t like the showing we’ve [had] here at home. We’ve got to step up . . . today’s over with, so we’re focusing on the next game tomorrow. We can’t focus on anything slipping away. We’ve got a big game against the Red Sox to end the series tomorrow and that’s all we can do. We just focus on that.”
The Yankees fell to 11-20 against the AL clubs who would be in the postseason as of Sunday — the Blue Jays, Tigers, Astros, Red Sox and Mariners — and slipped to 16-22 vs. the AL East (the Red Sox are 23-15 against division opponents).
“Feels real crappy,” Aaron Boone said. “We’ve got to play better. We’ve got to play better against these quality opponents in our division, but we can’t erase what’s been a really crappy weekend so far for us other than putting our best foot forward tomorrow.”
The Red Sox poured it on in a slapstick ninth, taking advantage of recently signed righthander Paul Blackburn and yet another error by shortstop Anthony Volpe to score seven runs and make it 12-1. The Yankees, who lost on Thursday, 6-3, and on Friday, 1-0, were outhit 17-7 on Saturday. Before Stanton's opposite-field homer in the fourth inning, they had been held scoreless in the previous 16 innings.
Garrett Crochet (14-5, 2.38) further burnished his AL Cy Young Award credentials, allowing one run, five hits and a walk in a 103-pitch outing in which he struck out 11, one shy of his season high.
“He’s one of the best pitchers in the game for a reason,” Judge said. “He can run it up to 100 miles per hour. Great feel for his secondary pitches, too.”
Yankees rookie righthander Will Warren (7-6, 4.47) didn’t have a feel for any of his pitches. He lasted only four innings, allowing five runs, seven hits and three walks. “Just didn’t really get the off-speed going, so I was trying to rely on my heater, and they took advantage of it,” he said.
Warren got through two relatively uneventful innings before the Red Sox scored twice in a 31-pitch third.
Former Yankees farmhand Carlos Narvaez singled with one out and went to third on a sharp single to right-center by Roman Anthony. After catcher Austin Wells was unable to catch Alex Bregman's playable foul pop near the screen, Bregman walked to load the bases.
Warren struck out Jarren Duran on a curveball for the second out, but Trevor Story sent a 1-and-0 sweeper into the leftfield corner for a two-run double to make it 2-0.
Ceddanne Rafaela led off the fourth with a ground-rule double, David Hamilton singled and Narvaez was hit by a pitch to load the bases with none out, and sacrifice flies to the warning track by Anthony and Bregman made it 4-0.
After Stanton's homer (he has hit 12 in his last 25 games and 16 in his last 37), Story launched a first-pitch, down-the-middle sinker to right-center for his 20th homer and a 5-1 lead in the fifth.
The Yankees had a chance to get back in the game in the eighth, but after Judge doubled and Cody Bellinger singled to put runners on first and third with one out, Greg Weissert struck out Stanton and Justin Wilson struck out pinch hitter Jazz Chisholm Jr. Then Boston put together seven hits against Blackburn in the ninth, including RBI singles by Duran, Nathaniel Lowe and Rafaela and a two-run homer by Narvaez, along with a run-scoring balk.
“We just have to play better,” Warren said of the record vs. Boston. “I don’t think it’s a worry or concern, it’s just we’ve got to beat them. We’re capable of beating them. We’re just not playing like we should.”
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
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