Yankees 3, Red Sox 6: New York rallies late, falls short at Fenway

This was largely a terrible game for the Yankees. Sonny Gray was off from the get-go and never got back on track. To make matters worse, the offense couldn’t get anything going against Rick Porcello. It started raining around 8:00 ET, and continued to rain until they finally put the tarp on the field at 8:55. That also happened to occur right after the fifth inning ended and it became an official game. The game resumed 40 minutes later, and the Yankees finally broke up Porcello’s no-hitter in the seventh. A ninth-inning rally made things interesting, but the offense wasn’t able to do more than cut the lead in half.

The first inning got off to a shaky start after Gray hit Hanley Ramirez with a pitch inside. After last night’s brawl, both teams were on high alert, but it didn’t seem to be an intentional plunking. Ramirez left the game with a right wrist contusion and was sent for X-rays, which came back negative.

Things got ugly in the second. Eduardo Nunez hit a leadoff single, Jackie Bradley Jr. walked, and Nunez advanced to third on a wild pitch. Still with zero outs, Sandy Leon knocked in a run and Brock Holt worked a walk to load the bases. Mookie Betts hit a sac fly, then Andrew Benintendi hit a grounder to Tyler Wade. Wade was charged with an error on his throw home, and Leon was safe at the plate. With just one out, Mitch Moreland hit an RBI single to left to put the Red Sox up 4-0 before the inning ended.

Gray continued to struggle in the third. Nunez got another leadoff hit, this time a double off the wall. Bradley Jr. followed with a ground-rule double on a fly ball that looked like it was headed foul but ended up dropping next to Stanton in left. Betts knocked in another run, and the Yankees found themselves down 6-0.

The best takeaway from the game was that the Yankees bullpen was good, finally. Domingo German took over in the fourth, and tossed three scoreless innings on either side of the rain delay. He gave up just one hit and struck out three batters. Tommy Kahnle and Adam Warren also tossed a pair of clean innings, with three strikeouts between them. Boston mustered just one hit off the bullpen through five innings.

Porcello took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning, but Aaron Judge broke it up with a double into the triangle. Giancarlo Stanton followed with a single, but the Yankees left the runners stranded. Marcus Walden came out for the eighth inning. With two outs, Ronald Torreyes doubled off the wall in deep center field. Unfortunately, nothing came of that either as Brett Gardner struck out to end the top of the eighth.

The Yankees made the game interesting in the ninth after Judge worked a leadoff walk, and Stanton reached on an error. Stanton stole second, and Didi Gregorius walked to load the bases. Gary Sanchez cleared the bases with a three-run double that finally put the Yankees on the board. Boston was forced to bring in Craig Kimbrel, and he promptly put an end to the rally. Aaron Hicks grounded out, then Kimbrel struck out Neil Walker and Wade to close out the game.

This series was deflating, but maybe a change of scenery will do the Yankees some good. They’ll fly to Detroit tonight to start a three-game set against the Tigers. Jordan Montgomery will take the mound opposite of Mike Fiers tomorrow at 7:10 ET.