Yankees 3, Red Sox 7: It’s not what you want

It’s getting tough to find new ways to describe how lackluster the Yankees have been playing of late. They let the Red Sox hang around all night after getting an early lead, and imploded late to hand their rivals another win and a series victory in the first matchup between the two foes this season. This time the loss came in a 7-3 final score, which is marginally worse than yesterday’s 5-2 result, but it felt like they had a greater chance of coming away with a win in this one.

Gleyber Torres got the Yankees off to a good start in the fourth inning, launching a two-run home run to left-center:

Torres’ shot came off of Eduardo Rodriguez, a pitcher who Torres has been very successful against in his career. Torres had a career batting average of over .300 with a pair of bombs heading into the night, and his shot in this game was a no-doubter.

The lead did not last long, however. Jameson Taillon had been fairly effective through five innings of work, preventing any more than a single Sox runner from reaching base in an inning, but things fell apart in the sixth. Alex Verdugo lined a single with one out to start the rally, and then Xander Boegarts lifted a ball to left field that Miguel Andújar couldn’t handle well enough (to be polite), putting runners on second and third. Rafael Devers converted the RISP opportunity into runs with a two-run single, and Marwin Gonzalez doubled him home two batters later to give Boston the lead.

The Yankees tied things up in the bottom half of the frame, with Torres again driving the offensive effort by lifting a sacrifice fly, but from there the Yankee offense failed to show much of anything.

The Sox weren’t done swinging by any means, striking again in the eighth inning. Chad Green entered the game looking to keep things stable for a potential Aroldis Chapman save, but got into immediate trouble thanks to a Devers single. Green pumped in some fastballs to earn a strikeout and a pop up and nearly escape the inning, but Kiké Hernández drove a double out to left and Christian Vázquez followed him with a double out to right. The finishing blow came off the bat of Bobby Dalbec — a three-run bomb to straightaway center that put the Sox up 7-3.

A pair of walks in the ninth would force a pitching change out of Boston, but the Yankees couldn’t do anything with the opportunity and closed the night out with a strikeout. They fall to 31-28 after dropping their third straight game, and the gap between the top two spots in the AL East and the next two has continued to widen.

The series will conclude tomorrow on Sunday Night Baseball, which will surely be an enjoyable experience and not be a four-hour slog as per usual — Domingo Germán will get the ball while Garrett Richards goes for Boston, and first pitch will be at 7:08 p.m. EST.

Box Score