NEW YORK — For just the third time in the last dozen games, the Yankees offense managed to score more than two runs. The problem is the bullpen that had been carrying them for the first third of the season cracked Saturday night. The Yankees’ bullpen gave up four runs as the Red Sox beat them, 7-3, in front of the largest crowd at Yankee Stadium since the coronavirus pandemic.
It was the third straight loss for the Yankees (31-28) and their ninth in the last 12, disappointing the sellout crowd of 20,019 at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox (35-23), who snapped an 11-game losing streak in the Bronx on Friday night, now have a two-game winning streak here.
The Yankees and Chad Green were one strike away from being out of the disastrous eighth inning. Enrique Hernandez snapped an 0-for-27 streak and slapped a high 2-2 fastball off Green deep to left field, scoring Rafael Devers from first to give the Red Sox a 4-3 with two outs. After a double to Christian Vazquez, the No.9 hitter, Bobby Dalbec, crushed a two-run homer to left-center field off Green.
Green, who had allowed just one run in his last nine appearances, allowed four Saturday night. It was the first outing this year that Green had allowed more than one run. He struck out one and was not able to record the third out.
The Yankees pitchers had been their saving grace so far this season, particularly their relievers. The Yankees’ pitchers led the American League with a 3.31 ERA going into Saturday night’s game and the bullpen was the best in the majors with a 2.81 ERA and 1.07 WHIP.
They had carried a Yankees offense that was struggling to score runs and going through a power outage. Gleyber Torres broke out in a big way, driving in all three runs Saturday night.
With Gio Urshela on base, Torres got all of a 1-1 fastball, crushing it 418 feet to give the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning.
Urshela’s ground-rule double in the sixth put Aaron Judge, who had drawn a walk, in position to score on Torres’ sacrifice fly to tie the game at 3-3.
It was Torres’ first home run since May 21 against the White Sox. The power drought has been a concern this season for Torres, who hit 38 homers and 26 doubles in 2019. That homer was just his third of the season and the shortstop went into Saturday night’s game with a career-low .341 slugging percentage and .693 OPS.
The underlying numbers were concerning. Torres’ average exit velocity was 85 miles per hour, the lowest of his career and in the bottom 3% of the majors.
Torres was not worried about that.
“I feel good,” Torres said after Friday night’s game. “I’m just working right now. The first couple weeks, the first month of the season, was a little bit of a struggle. But I’m getting better right now. I’m just focusing on putting the ball in play, trying to get on base and the power I think is coming.
“I don’t focus on that. I don’t worry about that. At any point of the season, I can start hitting homers,” Torres continued. “Right now I just focus on putting the ball in play and don’t do too much or strikeout myself. I don’t really worry about that. I’ve got Judge and (Giancarlo) Stanton to hit a lot of homers for us, so my moment is coming.”
The problem is, Stanton went 0 for 4 with two strikeouts Saturday night and has not hit a homer since May 6. Judge has 14 this season, but that is not enough to power this offense alone.
The offense is putting a lot of pressure on its pitchers.
Jameson Taillon was answering the challenge early Saturday. He was putting together his best start of the season through the first five innings. Then the lineup flipped for the second time and the Red Sox started timing him up. He gave up three, one-out hard hits, including a two-run double to Rafael Devers on a 3-2 fastball that was low but fat over the plate. That tied the game.
Taillon was also responsible for the go-ahead run, with Devers scoring on Marwin Gonzalez’s RBI double.
The third time through the lineup this season, opponents were hitting .350 off of Taillon.
