After a devastating overtime loss on Thursday, the Red Sox outdid themselves, collapsing in the seventh inning and imploding against the Yankees on Friday night.
Despite a strong start by Richard Fitts, the Boston bullpen collapsed, leading to a grand slam by Aaron Judge to take the lead. Judge hit his 52nd home run, the most in the major leagues, and his first since hitting two home runs against the Colorado Rockies on Aug. 25, ending a career-best 16-game home run drought. The dramatic blow gave the Yankees the 5-4 victory, their sixth in eight games, and a three-game lead over the second-place Baltimore Orioles, New York’s largest lead since June 14.
Boston (74-74) will try to stay above .500 for the first time since June 11 with Saturday’s matinee. The Red Sox have lost seven straight road games and are 4½ games behind the Minnesota Twins, who hold the third AL wild-card spot.
Lineups
RED SOX (74-74): Duran CF, Devers 3B, O’Neill LF, Yoshida DH, Abreu RF, Casas 1B, Story SS, Jansen DC, Valdez 2B.
Set up: RHP Brayan Bello (13-7, 4.70 ERA)
YANKEES (86-62): Torres 2B, Soto RF, Judge DH, Wells C, Chisholm 3B, Dominguez CF, Rizzo 1B, Volpe SS, Verdugo LF.
Set up: RHP Gerrit Cole (6-4, 3.36 ERA)
Time: 13:05
Television, radio: NESN, WEEI-FM 93.7
Red Sox vs. Cole: Wilyer Abreu 0:3, Triston Casas 3:5, Rafael Devers 13:39, Jarren Duran 3:15, Danny Jansen 2:10, Tyler O’Neill 1:2, Ceddanne Rafaela 0:2, Rob Refsnyder 0:6, Trevor Story 3:17, Enmanuel Valdez 1:1, Connor Wong 2:3, Masataka Yoshida 1:7
Yankees vs. Bello: Jon Berti 0-2, Oswaldo Cabrera 3-15, Jazz Chisholm Jr. 1-6, Trent Grisham 1-1, Aaron Judge 2-11, Anthony Rizzo 1-9, Juan Soto 1-6, Giancarlo Stanton 2-10, Gleyber Torres 6-18, Jose Trevino 2-10, Alex Verdugo 3-5, Anthony Volpe 5-10, Austin Wells 0-2
Statistics of the day: Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers, who hit 1-for-3 last night, hasn’t hit a home run in his last 15 games. Devers has a .175 batting average (10-for-57) since his last home run on Aug. 25. No hitter has hit more home runs against Yankees Saturday starter Gerrit Cole than Devers, who has hit the right-hander to a home run eight times. Devers has hit 13-for-39 (.333) with 18 RBIs against Cole.
Notes: Cole is 7-5 with a 4.84 ERA in 18 regular-season starts against the Red Sox. He received a no-decision against Boston on July 6 after allowing four runs on seven hits in 4 ⅓ innings. … Boston’s Brayan Bello (13-7, 4.70 ERA) will try to win two straight starts for the first time since his last three wins before the All-Star break. Since those wins, Bello is 3-2 with a 3.75 ERA in 10 starts. … Bello surpassed his win total from last season on Monday, when he allowed two runs on three hits in 5 ⅓ innings in a 12-3 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. … The right-hander is 2-3 with a 2.66 ERA in seven career starts against the Yankees. This year, however, New York has credited him with eight runs (seven earned) and 11 hits in 9 2/3 innings in two starts in Boston.
Cam Kerry can be reached at [email protected].
