Yankees shut out as Red Sox complete sweep in Boston
The Yankees' Aaron Judge reacts after striking out in the third inning of a game against the Boston Red Sox on Sunday in Boston. Credit: AP/Greg M. Cooper
BOSTON — Max Fried pitched like the stopper he’s been all season, but for a third straight game, the Yankees’ offense never got started.
As a result, they took a 2-0 loss to the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon at Fenway Park and were swept in the three-game series. It was the first time they have been swept this season.
“Concerning? I wouldn’t put it that way,” Aaron Boone said. “I would just say, especially when you’re playing the Red Sox, you always want to put your best foot forward, and they took us down this weekend. Back-to-back weekends.”
The Yankees (42-28), who entered the series off a three-game sweep of the Royals in Kansas City, were held to five hits on Sunday and have totaled five runs in their last four games. They have helped give life to the Red Sox (37-36), who have won eight of their last 10, including the last five against the Yankees.
“It sucks losing to the Red Sox, we never like that,” Boone said. “But that’s why teams don’t win 120 games. We’re really good. I think that’s going to show itself. But a tough weekend. We, frankly, had a chance to potentially win all the games, even back at home against them. Credit to them. They were a little bit better than us this weekend.”
Fried (9-2, 1.89) allowed two runs and six hits in seven innings, striking out eight, walking two and throwing three double-play balls. He entered the game 7-0 with an 0.83 ERA in eight starts after a Yankees loss.
Romy Gonzalez tripled to rightfield with two outs in the first and scored when Trevor Story — who had his bat sawed off on a 94.2-mph fastball that was in on him — flared a soft single with an exit velocity of 62.3 mph into short leftfield.
With two outs in the fifth, Rafael Devers, who already had grounded into a pair of double plays, hit an opposite-field shot just over the red line atop the Green Monster in left-centerfield for his 15th homer. (It was his last big hit for Boston; he was traded to the Giants later Sunday.)
Fried was outpitched by Red Sox righthander Brayan Bello (3-1, 3.49), who allowed three hits in seven innings, striking out eight and walking three.
After being outscored 27-23 by the Red Sox in three games at Yankee Stadium the previous weekend, the Yankees were outscored 8-4 this time around. They totaled one run and nine hits in 21 1⁄3 innings against Sox starters in the series, that coming on Aaron Judge’s tying homer in the ninth off Garrett Crochet on Friday night in a game the Yankees lost in 10 innings, 2-1. The Red Sox scored a two-out run in the first inning of the final two games and the Yankees never caught up.
“They did a good job. Their starting pitchers, they went deep into each game,” Judge said. “They did a good job mixing their pitches up and just kind of keeping guys off-balance where we couldn’t really string a couple of quality at-bats together to kind of start a rally. Couldn’t really get that big inning.”
Pinch hitter Paul Goldschmidt led off the eighth against lefthander Brennan Bernardino with a single to left. Trent Grisham also singled, but DJ LeMahieu, pinch hitting for the lefty-swinging Ben Rice, took a called third strike on a 92-mph sinker.
Boston manager Alex Cora then brought on Garrett Whitlock, whom the Yankees lost to the Red Sox in the 2020 Rule 5 Draft — and have been paying for ever since — to face Judge, who hit into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play to put the cap on a miserable series.
Judge, who did not start on Thursday in Kansas City but pinch hit in the eighth and struck out, is 1-for-13 with 10 strikeouts in his last four games.
The day featured a second straight confounding mistake on the bases (three if one counts Anthony Volpe getting thrown out trying to steal third with none out in the top of the 10th inning Friday night, although Boone said he does not consider that a blunder).
On Saturday it was Jasson Dominguez having a brain freeze in the seventh, caught standing between second and third, thinking Grisham had struck out for the third out when he swung and missed on a 2-and-1 pitch. On Sunday, a one-out single by Rice and a two-out single by Cody Bellinger put runners on first and second in the third, but with Jazz Chisholm Jr. at the plate, Rice, well off second base and intending to steal third, was picked off by Bello for the third out.
“That’s a play where, we can’t get caught like that on a pickoff play there,” Boone said. “That one obviously stung us a little bit today, especially when we had a little rally going.”
Notes & quotes: The Yankees' four runs matched their fewest in a three-game series at Fenway Park, from June 20-22, 1916, and from Sept. 28-30, 1922. In the finale in 1916, Babe Ruth (10-4) pitched a three-hitter for Boston in its 1-0 win.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
