NEW YORK _ Well, that good feeling didn't last very long.
After beating the Red Sox on Thursday night to start a series Joe Girardi called the biggest of the season, the Yankees went quietly 24 hours later in a 4-1 loss in front of 43,332 at Yankee Stadium.
The Yankees (71-63), who had 14 hits in Thursday night's 6-2 victory, managed only four against Doug Fister, Addison Reed and Craig Kimbrel in falling back to 5{ games behind the AL East-leading Red Sox (77-58). They took a 1-0 lead two batters into the bottom of the first on doubles by Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge but did little after that.
After Jacoby Ellsbury's two-out single in the second, Fister didn't allow another hit until Chase Headley bunted for a single with two outs in the seventh.
Sonny Gray's streak of starts in which he allowed two or fewer earned runs ended at 11 as he allowed four runs and five hits in seven innings, matching his longest outing as a Yankee. Gray, who walked one and struck out nine, allowed home runs by former Yankee Eduardo Nunez _ who irritated CC Sabathia the night before when he laid down a bunt _ Andrew Benintendi and Hanley Ramirez.
Gray (8-9, 3.36) entered the night having allowed 10 homers in 127 innings in his previous 21 starts. He allowed only two homers in 30 innings in his first five Yankees starts. He hadn't given up multiple homers in a game since May 2, his first start of the season, when he surrendered three to the Twins.
The Red Sox came in ranked 26th in the big leagues in homers with 142.
Fister came in with unimpressive numbers _ 3-7 with a 4.43 ERA _ but had been better of late, going 3-2 with a 3.41 ERA in his previous five starts. The right-hander, with a fastball-curveball-cutter combination the Yankees never timed consistently, allowed one run and four hits in seven innings. The 6-8 right-hander, who walked one and struck out five, retired 16 of the last 18 he faced and did not allow a runner to get in scoring position after the first inning.
Reed pitched a perfect eighth and Craig Kimbrel worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 32nd save. Gray, Aroldis Chapman and Adam Warren struck out 13 Boston batters, with Chapman striking out three in the eighth.
Gardner led off the first inning by driving a 2-and-1 fastball into the gap in right-center for a double, giving him 20 hits in his last 52 at-bats. Judge, dropped to sixth in the order Thursday but hitting second Friday, laced a full-count cutter into the gap in left-center for an RBI double.
The Red Sox took the lead for good in the third. After Gray struck out Sandy Leon with a slider, he walked No. 9 hitter Brock Holt. Nunez then golfed a 2-and-2 fastball on a line over the wall in left for his eighth homer and a 2-1 lead.
Gray struck out the side in the fourth and retired the first two batters in the fifth before Benintendi crushed a first-pitch fastball to right field _ it landed just short of The Judge's Chambers _ for his 19th homer and a 3-1 lead. The blast improved Benintendi to 9 for 18 with four homers and 11 RBIs at the Stadium this season.
Ramirez homered to right-center on Gray's second pitch of the seventh to make it 4-1.
