The lineup fielded by the New York Yankees in the nightcap of Tuesday’s doubleheader was hardly a Murderers’ Row. The Yankees surrounded legitimate big league threats Aaron Judge and Gleyber Torres with a feeble collection of rookies, minor leaguers and extras.
And yet somehow that group still managed to out-hit the Boston Red Sox.
Other than rookie Ceddanne Rafaela, who hammered his first career home run and added a double for good measure, the Red Sox offense completely no-showed in the evening’s 4-1 loss. Boston collectively went 0 for 15 with runners in scoring position and left 12 on base, squandering chance after chance in one of the most disappointing efforts of the season.
With the doubleheader sweep, the Red Sox have also fallen into a tie for last in the AL East with the Yankees.
Early on it looked as if the Red Sox were in for a long night, and Kutter Crawford a very short one. The Red Sox starting pitcher walked the first two men and allowed a single to load the bases with no outs, but from that point on he settled down, escaped the jam and remained in control most of the rest of the way.
The Red Sox jumped ahead 1-0 after Rafaela led off the first with a towering 400-foot shot high off the light tower above the Green Monster. Boston then got the next two men on to put Yankees starter Carlos Rodon on his heels, but the Red Sox couldn’t deliver the finishing blow.
Allowing New York to hang around eventually proved costly when the Yankees rallied with two outs in the fifth to tie the game on an RBI single by Estevan Florial. Crawford finished the night with one run allowed on three hits with three walks and seven strikeouts over 4.2 innings.
Josh Winckowski came on and forced Aaron Judge to pop out to end the fifth inning, but he ran into more trouble to start the sixth, putting the Red Sox into a bases-loaded, no-out jam for the second time. This time he couldn’t quite get out unscathed, allowing Jake Bauers to put the Yankees ahead 2-1 with an RBI fielder’s choice.
Boston’s defense did its part to keep it a one-run game. Luis Urias turned a nifty double play to end the sixth inning, and rookie Wilyer Abreu threw a perfect strike from left field to nail Isiah Kiner-Falefa at the plate by a mile to end the eighth. But the Red Sox bats repeatedly came up empty, and things took a turn for the worse in the ninth when Kenley Jansen allowed two quick baserunners and was pulled due to fatigue and illness symptoms.
The Yankees would cash in for two more runs in the inning, and that was all she wrote.