Yankees 1, Red Sox 14: Boston, Mookie Betts humiliate New York

Tuesday night’s game for the Yankees could only be described as humiliating. The Boston Red Sox outplayed the Bombers in every area of the game. The result? New York dropped the series opener by a score of 14 - 1.

Luis Severino fell flat on his face tonight. It was clear in the first inning that he didn’t have his good stuff working. After putting two runners to start the fame, Severino quickly served up an RBI single to Hanley Ramirez. It got worse from there, as he soon found himself in a bases loaded jam. It took 27 total pitches, but Severino escaped the inning by striking out Jackie Bradley Jr.

He wasn’t so lucky in the second, though. With one out and two runners on, he left a slider in the wheelhouse for Andrew Benintendi. He turned on it for a two-run triple. Ramirez followed with another RBI single, and just like that, the Red Sox had a 4 - 0 lead.

Boston picked up one more run off Severino — of course it was on a Ramirez sacrifice fly — before his night ended. All told he allowed five runs across five innings, surrendering eight hits in the process. He walked three and struck out six.

Somehow that wasn’t the worst pitching performance for New York tonight. That belonged to the bullpen. The Yankees’ vaunted relief corps continued its season-long meltdown, turning in its worst performance to date. The damage came in the sixth inning, when the Red Sox put nine more runs on the board. Tommy Kahnle allowed three runs before Chasen Shreve surrendered six of his own. The final blow came in the form of a Mookie Betts grand slam. That made it 14 - 1, turning this one a total laugher.

As for the Yankees offense, it was a one-man show. Aaron Judge hit a long, solo home run in the fifth inning off Chris Sale to put the Bombers on the board. That’s it. They managed plenty of baserunners on the night, including 10 hits — eight of which came off Sale! The lineup just couldn’t capitalize.

This game captured everything that has gone wrong with the Yankees in 2018. The dynamic offense, so feared over the winter and in spring training, couldn’t plate runs. The bullpen, billed as perhaps the most formidable relief corps in baseball history, let the game turn into a joke. I would include Severino’s performance here, but the starting pitching has held its own for the most part. The Yankees, in short, are playing awful baseball.

Of course, that doesn’t mean the team itself is bad. That type of thinking is shortsighted and reductionist. Nonetheless, things aren’t clicking and changes need to be made. You can’t let this slump snowball into something worse.

These two teams are back at it tomorrow night. It will be another marquee pitching matchup, with Masahiro Tanaka against David Price. Here’s hoping the Yankees got all of the losing out their system.

Box Score