BOSTON — The Yankees came into this weekend wanting to get themselves back into the mix for the American League East. Saturday night, it was clear they will need help to do that. More mistakes and a nearly non-existent offense led to a 4-2 loss to the Red Sox at a packed Fenway Park.
It was the fifth straight loss to the Red Sox for the Yankees and Boston clinched their second series from the Bombers. The Yankees dropped to six games in back of the division-leading Rays and 5 1/2 behind the second-place Red Sox.
“I look at it as we know we’re a good club. We know we’re kind of fighting to find that consistency and really find our groove and I think everyone in that room understands that,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone said when asked if the Red Sox just have their number this season. “When we play our game we can beat anybody. ... It’s not something I worry about becoming an issue. We’ve got a good team that’s ahead of us in the standings that we got to play better against.”
Nathan Eovaldi baffled the Yankees for 7 2/3 innings, scattering the first six hits, until DJ LeMahieu homered off him with two outs in the eighth. He also had the benefit of the Yankees grounding into two double plays, tied with the Astros for the most in the majors.
Former Yankee Adam Ottavino, who GM Brian Cashman sent to the Red Sox in a salary dump this winter, gave up an RBI single to LeMahieu with two outs in the ninth. With the tying runs on first and second, Ottavino struck out Aaron Judge to end the threat.
Jordan Montgomery was able to give the Yankees six innings, holding the Red Sox to three runs on eight hits and two walks. He struck out five. He managed to do that without much help behind him. Hunter Renfroe easily stole two infield hits against the Yankees’ shift. The first came after Xander Bogaerts beat out a nice throw by Gleyber Torres in the third, which was initially called out. The call was overturned and Montgomery had to throw 12 more pitches and gave up one more run.
Before Saturday night’s game, Yankees GM Brian Cashman noted the little things that have been causing the Yankees struggles this season.
“And we have to find a way to tap into that on a more consistent basis, because there’s too many games where there’s a lot of frustration that you’re like ‘Wow, how, why did that happen? ‘or How did that happen?’ We left too many runners on base. We’ve had a lot of traffic without results, missed opportunity ... where you just go home unhappy,” Cashman said. “But at the same time the flip side is more recently it’s obviously been a lot better. So that we know what we’re more than capable of, but trying to consistently get that we’ve closed the gap. I know that the teams in front of us now are like, ‘Wow, here they come,’ or they’re expecting us to come, but we just got to do it. I believe we will, and I believe we can, but it doesn’t matter saying it, you gotta do it.
“I’ve gotta do some things on my end to help them.”
He could start with the offense that is sputtering.
Saturday night, the Yankees stranded seven base runners and went 0 for 2 with runners in scoring position. They grounded into an inning-ending double play in the first one and in the eighth, they drew three straight two-out walks only to have Luke Voit ground out.
Gleyber Torres snapped an 0-for-19 streak with a one-out single in the ninth. He is 3 for 43 with 16 strikeouts. He has not driven in a run in 15 straight games. The Yankees’ production at center field, with 37-year-old Brett Gardner having to carry more of the load than expected, has been the worst in the American League. They are the worst in the big leagues in OPS (.590), batting average (.183) and slugging (.307). With Corey Kluber expected out until September and Domingo German having struggled in his last three starts, the Yankees lack of starting pitching depth is another concern that Cashman could get the Yankees some help.
“I want to address certain areas that we spoke about already. And that’s going to be my effort. ... We have a lot of great individual players that just haven’t collectively put it together as a team on a consistent enough basis,” Cashman said.
