After last weekend’s 1-2 series in New York, the Yankees’ three-game rematch from Friday through Sunday at the Boston Red Sox was worse.
Sunday’s 2-0 loss saw the Red Sox (37-36) return above .500 for the first time since May 24 while the Yankees (42-28) continue to struggle against Boston, which delivered New York’s season-first sweep.
“Coming here, obviously, you want to win,” said New York ace Max Fried (9-2, 1.89 ERA), whose seven-inning gem — two runs allowed on six hits while striking out nine and walking two — went to waste in Sunday’s finale. “So, obviously, we’re disappointed and definitely wish the outcomes were different.”
The Yankees remain atop the AL East, leading by 3.5 games after the Tampa Bay Rays improved to 39-32 with a three-game sweep of the Mets, but are now 1-5 against Boston and 8-11 in the division this season.
“Concerning? I mean, I wouldn’t put it that way,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone. “I would just say you always want to — especially when you’re playing the Red Sox, you always want to put your best foot forward. And they took us down this weekend, and back-to-back weekends, so you hate that.
“But we have a really good club, and just didn’t play our best here this weekend — obviously had a hard time putting runs on the board. Overall, I thought we pitched pretty well and did enough run prevention-wise to keep them in check to hopefully win some games. But we just didn’t get much going.”
The latest Red Sox series included a 1-for-12 showing from captain Aaron Judge, who hit his MLB-lead-tying 26th home run of the season late in this past Friday’s 2-1 (10-inning) loss but was bottled up otherwise.
“Move past it, learn from it, get ready for the next series — and we’ve got a big one with the Angels coming in for four,” said Judge, who is slashing .378.473.756 with 60 RBI through 70 games.
As Judge referenced, a four-game set against the Los Angeles Angels (33-37) — starting with Monday’s 7:05 p.m. series opener — brings the Yankees back to the Bronx for a seven-game homestand that includes the Baltimore Orioles (30-40) this coming Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
“It’s 162, man,” Boone said. “It sucks, losing to the Red Sox. We never like that, right? But it’s why teams don’t win 120 games.
“Like, we’re really good — I think that’s going to continue to show itself — but tough weekend and, frankly, had a chance to potentially win all the games, even back home against ’em.
“So, credit to them. They were a little bit better than us this weekend. So, look forward to turning the page and getting after it (Monday).”
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