The Yankees fell flat at the plate as the Boston Red Sox completed a three-game sweep of their AL East rivals with a 2-0 win at Fenway Park.
New York squeezed out just five hits, but went 0-for-5 with runners in scoring position, left six runners on base in the final, and struck out 11 times on the afternoon. The Yankees, swept for the first time on the year, never led in the series and fell to 42-28 as the Red Sox improved to 37-36.
Max Fried pitched well, scattering six hits over seven frames, but a pair of two-out extra-base hits proved to be his side’s downfall.
And while it was Father’s Day, as the game progressed, it became evident Sunday was also Pitcher’s Best Friend Day as the two teams combined to bounce into five double plays.
Here are the takeaways…
– Aaron Judge struck out the first three times he came up against Boston starter Brayan Bello: swinging when he couldn’t hold up on a cutter off the plate with a runner on second in the first, swinging through a fastball on the outside corner with a runner on first in the third, and swing at a down-and-in sinker to leadoff the fifth.
His biggest chance of the game came with runners on first and second and one out in the top of the eighth. After swinging through a 96.7 mph fastball above the zone from Red Sox reliever Garrett Whitlock, Judge rolled over on a slider to hit into a 5-4-3 inning-ending double play.
He finished the series 1-for-12 with nine strikeouts. The one hit, was a solo homer in the ninth of Friday night’s loss.
– Anthony Volpe booted a grounder on the second pitch of the game for his eighth error of the year. But he made up for it by fielding a 6-3 double play on the very next pitch. He made another good play, picking a short hop on a 96.5 mph hit starting at 6-4-3 double play to end the fourth.
At the plate, things didn’t go his way: He grounded out the first three times he was up, including a 6-4-3 twin killing in the fourth and struck out swinging for the game’s final out.
– An error on the bases cost the Yanks for the second straight day. With runners on first and second and two out in the third, Ben Rice was caught off second by Bello and nabbed at third to end the inning.
– Up 2-0, Boston went to the bullpen for the eighth, and Aaron Boone went to his bench. At first, the Yanks’ manager got the edge when Paul Goldschmidt (batting for Oswald Peraza) singled on the first pitch reliever Brennan Bernardino threw. And after Trent Grisham singled to bring the go-ahead run to the plate DJ LeMahieu (for Rice) went down looking at a 3-2 sinker right over the plate before Judge couldn’t capitalize.
– Fried needed three pitches to get two outs in the first, pitching around an error with a double-play off Rafael Devers’ bat. Romy Gonzalez then lined a triple into the corner in right as the ball bounced past Cody Bellinger. (Gonzalez stayed in the game despite face-planting on his head-first slide.) The lefty made a good pitch to Trevor Story, but he muscled the ball off his hands just into the left field grass for a two-out RBI single. A slow curve to Abraham Toro for strike three ended the inning.
Fried got Jarren Duran swinging on a 96 mph sinker and Ceddanne Rafaela swinging at a 95.7 mph fastball in a 1-2-3 second. After the 11-pitch inning, the lefty issued a leadoff walk on a 10th pitch to start the third. Rob Refsnyder‘s first-pitch single through the left side gave Devers a big opportunity, but the Sox’s slugger bounced into another double-play, this time 5-4-3. After walking Gonzalez to put two on, pitching coach Matt Blake was out for a visit. But Fried’s slow curve froze Story to strand two runners on his fourth strikeout of the afternoon.
Fried allowed a pair of singles to right sandwiched around a strikeout in the fourth, but got another double play on a hard-hit ball to end the threat. After getting the first two in the fifth on eight pitches, Devers finally cracked the Yanks’ lefty, driving a 369-foot home run that just snuck over the Green Monster. Fried’s first-pitch 93.6 mph fastball down and over the plate was jumped on for Devers’ 15th of the season to the opposite field. A homer in just two parks, Wrigley Field the other.
Fried retired his final seven batters after the dinger to finish the day with a final line of 7.0 innings, two runs, six hits, two walks, nine strikeouts on 106 pitches (72 strikes). He got 15 whiffs on 56 swings and another 16 called strikes on the day.
– Grisham clanked a double off the Green Monster scoreboard in left center to lead off the day, but he was left stranded. He finished the day 2-for-4, reaching on error with two down in the fifth, as well.
Rice popped out to short in the first with a runner on second, and cracked a one-out single in the third through the right side of the infield before his costly base running mistake. He went 1-for-3.
– Bellinger took a four-pitch walk in the first and nabbed an infield single off the pitcher’s glove with two down in the third. Finished 1-for-3 with a strikeout and a walk.
– Jazz Chisholm Jr. grounded out to second to strand runners on first and second in the first, worked a walk to start the fourth, struck out looking at a sinker on the inside corner to end the sixth, and was caught looking again in the ninth.
– Jasson Dominguez Jr. went 0-for-3 with a strikeout swinging on a down-and-in cutter to end the fourth.
– J.C. Escarra came a half foot from a double into the left-field corner, but worked a walk with two out in the second. Finished 0-for-2 with a strikeout and a walk.
– Giancarlo Stanton worked out at Yankee Stadium on Sunday and faced the Angels’ pitching staff on the Trajekt machine, Boone said before the game. The expectation is that Stanton will be back in the lineup on Monday or Tuesday.
Game MVP: Brayan Bello
Bello allowed just three hits and three walks over seven innings with eight strikeouts on 114 pitches (72 strikes).
What’s next
The Yanks return to The Bronx for a four-game set against the Los Angeles Angels.
Right-hander Clarke Schmidt (3.60 ERA, 1.236 WHIP in 55.0 innings) will climb the hill for his 11th start. He will go against José Soriano (3.86 ERA, 1.500 WHIP in 79.1 innings), making his 15th start of the season for the visitors.
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