For Red Sox Nation it wasn’t the worst possible weekend, but it was close. The Red Sox dropped three of four weekend games to their division rival, the Yankees.
Fortunately, a win on Friday on a solid outing by Doug Fister and home runs by Andrew Benintendi, Eduardo Núñez, and Hanley Ramírez, leave the Sox with a 3½ game lead in the division.
In Thursday’s 6-2 loss, Eduardo Rodríguez matched up poorly against New York’s heavyweight, CC Sabathia. E-Rod managed just 5.0 IP of work and allowed five runs on 10 hits, including two home runs in the process. On the other side, Sabathia gave up just one run on four hits over 6.0 IP.
Saturday’s outing by Drew Pomeranz was solid through five innings, but fell apart with three quick New York runs in the sixth. The Sox mustered just one run on six hits to lose that game 5-1.
Hoping for a split seemed plausible with Chris Sale starting Sunday’s game, but the Yankees were unimpressed. They knocked Sale around for seven hits, including a season-high three home runs from Chase Headley, Matt Holliday, and Todd Frazier. It was just the sixth time in Sale’s career he’d allowed three or more HRs.
Sale is now the first starting pitcher to make at least five starts against the Yankees in a single season and not record a win since the Blue Jays’ Mark Buehrle went 0-4 in five starts of 2014.
Manager John Farrell sent Sale to the showers after 4.1 IP then paraded Boston relievers, one worse that the other, until the trio of Matt Barnes, Heath Hembree, and Blaine Boyer mopped up the last 2.1 innings of the game without allowing more damage. Joe Kelly was charged with one run, Robby Scott with two.
But it was Addison Reed who got the worst of it in the sixth inning. With two outs and the bases loaded, New York catcher Gary Sánchez, still alive despite obviously missed strikes by home plate umpire Sam Holbrook, reached safely after the Yankees challenged the out call by first base umpire DJ Reyburn. The overturned call allowed a run to score and kept the inning alive. It was 4-1, a game still in reach.
Immediately, though, Starlin Castro struck for a bases clearing double followed by an Aaron Judge blast that plated two more. Just like that, it was 9-1.
Red Sox Bats Go Dead Silent
Find fault with the Yankees, find fault with the umpires. OK. But understand that once again, the Red Sox offense simply didn’t show up. Boston has scored two or fewer runs in each of their last five losses. Sure, there were three home runs in game two of this series, but then no others.
New York outscored Boston 21-9. They outhit the Red Sox 41-22.
And perhaps worst of all, the Red Sox didn’t get a single hit with runners in scoring position until the 9th inning of the final game. For 35 innings, the Red Sox went 0-for-25 with runners in scoring position. They left 30 men on base, 12 in the first game alone.
Boston batters struck out 15 times on Sunday, tying a season-high.
And New York’s damage to Boston hasn’t come just in this series.
This season, with runners in scoring position, the Red Sox have 48 hits against the division-rival Blue Jays, 29 against the Orioles, 23 against the Rays, and just 20 against the Yankees.
Fortunately, that’s the last time the Sox will face the Yanks in the regular season. Boston finishes the 2017 series with New York on the short end, 8-games-to 11. It’s their third loss to the Bombers in the last four seasons (11-8 in 2016, 8-11 in 2015, 7-12 in
2014).
Turn The Page
The Red Sox head home to face the Blue Jays starting Monday. Toronto is 3-7 for their last 10 games. For the Yankees, it’s a road trip to face the Orioles. Baltimore is 8-2 for their last 10.