Yankees 0, Red Sox 4: One bad pitching inning and nine bad hitting innings doom Yanks

After a weird couple days for the Yankees, they finally started their second half on Friday night against the Red Sox. It would’ve been nicer to have gotten a few more days of not watching this team.

Before the All-Star break, the Yankees’ offense had put in some promising efforts. However, several integral parts have since had to go on the COVID injured list, leading to an array of call-ups. While it’s still too early to write off the likes of debutants Trey Amburgey and Hoy Park, they didn’t do anything to inspire a dynamic offensive output in this this game. The Yankees’ offense mustered just three hits off Eduardo Rodríguez and the rest of the Red Sox pitching.

As for the Yankees’ pitching, Jordan Montgomery put in a solid performance, allowing three runs on three hits and two walks in six innings. All of those runs came in one bad second inning, putting the Yankees in a deficit they never escape. He mostly cruised after that inning, but unfortunately for him, the offense backing him up tied a record for run support futility.

All of that combined to mark a frustrating return to action for the Yankees as they took a 4-0 loss to the Red Sox, bringing their record on the season against Boston to 0-7.

The Red Sox got all of their offense done early, and they wouldn’t get or need much more after that. Following a Xander Bogaerts leadoff walk, Rafael Devers doubled to put two runners in scoring position. Montgomery induced a groundout in the next at bat, but it was enough to plate a run and open the game’s scoring. The Yankees were on the verge of limiting it to just that, but a couple batters later, Christian Arroyo homered to tack on another two runs.

The Yankees’ first of few real threats came in the fifth inning when Chris Gittens walked and Trey Amburgey reached on an error. Unfortunately, both came with two outs in the inning and Tim Locastro couldn’t drive either baserunner home. It was a similar story in the seventh when Gittens again walked and a pinch-hitting Greg Allen singled in his first Yankees at bat. Unfortunately, Hoy Park grounded out on the first pitch of his first career at-bat.

Other than the Yankees’ few missed chances, there really wasn’t much offensive action until the top of the eighth. J.D. Martinez took a Justin Wilson pitch deep to left for a solo home run to increase Boston’s lead.

After not being used at all in the Houston series before the break, Aroldis Chapman came in for the ninth to try and get through his struggles. He ended up throwing a scoreless inning, although it wasn’t the sharpest outing. Chapman ended up throwing 23 pitches, walking one batter, allowing a fairly deep fly out to another, and threw away a pickoff attempt.

Following the aforementioned missed chance in the seventh, Red Sox pitching retired the last six Yankee hitters in order to end the game.

It’s been a frustrating couple days in Yankee land, and tonight’s performance didn’t really do anything to help. Gerrit Cole is set to go tomorrow. While he shouldn’t need to put in a repeat of his last start, at this rate, it might need to be something semi-similar.

Box Score