Yankees find yet another new low with loss to Red Sox
Boston Red Sox's Masataka Yoshida, right, follows through on his two-run single in front of New York Yankees catcher Austin Wells, center, during the eighth inning of a baseball game, Friday, July 26, 2024, in Boston. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer) Credit: Michael Dwyer
BOSTON — The words mean less and less with every defeat. The faces of these Yankees, however, told the story late Friday night after a new level of despair was reached. It was a cellar below rock bottom, dug by another worst loss of the season, this time by the score of 9-7 to — who else? — the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
This House of Horrors along Jersey Street was the site where all of this recent Yankees misery began, way back on June 15, when Aaron Boone & Co. still believed that every misstep was an aberration, just a glitch in the Big Pinstriped Machine.
But no longer. Not after Friday night, when even Aaron Judge couldn’t save them by bashing one of the loudest, longest home runs ever hit at Fenway.
With the Yankees trailing 4-3, Judge destroyed a first-pitch fastball from Red Sox reliever Zack Kelly, hammering it high above the centerfield bleachers and over a TV camera ledge for a three-run homer. The estimated distance was 470 feet, according to Statcast, but it looked more like 570, and the only sound coming from the sellout crowd of 36,661 was a hushed disbelief.
Austin Wells followed Judge's 36th home run with one of his own to give the Yankees a 7-4 lead, but the bullpen couldn’t hold it, and it was Clay Holmes who ultimately caved.
In the bottom of the seventh, the cushion evaporated almost immediately as Luke Weaver teed up a two-run homer by Ceddanne Rafaela, who completely cleared the Green Monster seats. When Holmes entered for a five-out save with two runners on base in the eighth, he surrendered Wilyer Abreu's tying double and a two-run single by Masataka Yoshida that dealt the Yankees their 23rd loss in 33 games (the second-worst record in the majors over that span).
“I think everybody wants to be the guy,” Holmes said. “And we all want the ball in those situations, to be the guy to pick up our teammates. I just wasn’t able to get it done tonight. Some badly executed sinkers there.”
That’s become a disturbing trend for Holmes, the accidental All-Star, who blew his third save in the past five chances (he has blown seven saves overall, tied with the Rockies’ Jalen Beeks for the MLB lead).
The Yankees’ bullpen has been leaking oil for the past six weeks, with a 4.40 ERA during that span, and Boone just got plain desperate Friday in summoning Holmes for the five-out save after burning through three relievers previously.
“Obviously a tough spot for Clay to come in there,” Boone said. “It’s tough to get a real feel from these dugouts of the stuff, so just on the replay, maybe that sinker was not north-south like it is when it’s really good. It looks like it was a little side to side. We couldn’t get the ball on the ground there.”
General manager Brian Cashman is down to four days to recruit help for his drowning relief corps before the trade deadline. After Friday’s meltdown, he’s running out of arms fast. As Holmes struggled in the eighth, Boone had Caleb Ferguson warming up as the last line of defense — but more like a white flag. The way the Red Sox buzzsawed through Boone’s pitching staff, Ferguson would’ve been little more than a speed bump.
“Feels like when we hit, we don’t pitch, and when we pitch, we don’t hit,” said Nestor Cortes, who was ripped for nine hits and four runs in 4 2/3 innings, raising his 2024 road ERA to 6.18. “I’m sure there’s other things that people can point out. If I had the answer for you, I would obviously tell the team and make it work.”
Somebody has to. And isn’t that what the manager and coaches are for?
The Mets humbled the Yankees in every way possible during their Subway Series sweep, and leave it to the Red Sox to rip their hearts out in even more painful fashion.
Boone is always talking about the Yankees holding the pen and having the ability to write their own story. For a while there, they couldn’t have scripted Friday any better. Anthony Volpe hit a 409-foot tying homer in the second inning. The Yankees tied it at 3-3 in the fifth on Trent Grisham’s RBI double and Alex Verdugo's sacrifice fly.
Then, after the Yankees fell behind again, Judge provided the sort of moment that usually stamps a team’s revival with a home run that was breathtaking even by his Ruthian standards. Judge claimed to not watch the ball’s entire flight, but everyone else in the ballpark did, or tried to. The drive was tough to follow, nearly caroming off the centerfield scoreboard.
“I just know when he squared it up, I was like, that’s about as clean as you can hit a baseball,” Boone said. “I wasn’t sure in the end where it landed.”
After seeing such an awesome display of power, plus the home run by Wells two pitches later, it was almost unimaginable that the Yankees would lose Friday’s game. As bad as they’ve been, Judge was the right hero at the exact right time. But the Yankees had none left after those two, and Judge appeared more drained than usual after Friday’s loss, as if this brutal defeat left a mark.
Standing in the middle of a dead-silent clubhouse, with zero conversation and not a single voice to be heard among the lockers, Judge didn’t even try to come up with a silver lining.
“A loss is a loss,” he said. “I really don’t know how to describe it.”
The Yankees are past words now. But for those who witnessed Friday night's debacle, it's hard to believe things could get any worse.
David Lennon is an award-winning columnist, a voter for baseball's Hall of Fame and has covered six no-hitters, including two perfect games.
