Victory slip-slides away
Newcomers look bad in defeat
NEW YORK — Welcome to the Red Sox-Yankees rivalry, Addison Reed. You, too, Todd Frazier. Eduardo Nunez: You should have known better.
In one of the most stunning displays of bad timing, karma, luck and execution in the history of these teams’ battles, the Red Sox experienced a uniquely painful loss to the Yankees last night.
As if blowing a 3-0 lead in the eighth by surrendering five runs weren’t bad enough for the Red Sox, adding insult to the sting was that each of the crucial plays featured a player traded for last month — two for the Red Sox (Reed and Nunez) and one for the Yankees (Frazier).
And all three of them worked in cruel cahoots to deliver a stunning trifecta TKO in what was only the first game of this suddenly even more critical weekend series.
The Red Sox still have a moderately comfortable lead in the AL East, 31⁄ games, but
2 last night was a bad, bad look for them.
The trouble started in the eighth, which Reed began by delivering a glancing flick to Brett Gardner’s toe. Only Gardner felt it, because home plate umpire Fieldin Culbreth called it a ball. A video replay proved otherwise, and Gardner took first base.
It was the first batter Reed has hit in three seasons.
Then, with the count full to Aaron Hicks, Reed left a slider over too much of the inside half of the strike zone — and Hicks pulled a high pop-up toward the right field corner. It plopped down into the first row to the left of the right field foul pole, maybe 316 feet in all from home plate. Far enough. It was now a one-run game and there were no outs.
“You never help yourself out when you’re all over the place. I put myself in a bad position by hitting Gardner, falling behind in the count on Hicks,” said Reed. “Falling behind in the count makes hitting a little easier for the other team. It’s one of those nights to forget about it.”
The new Red Sox uttered a rueful laugh about the bad timing for the hit by pitch.
“It happens but I picked a bad time for it to happen,” said Reed. “The good thing is we still have a month and a half left in the season.”
A single, a walk and a wild pitch later, manager John Farrell finally lifted Reed. In came Joe Kelly, who gave up the tying run to Didi Gregorius.
Still no outs and up came Frazier — an object of interest from the Red Sox prior to the trade deadline but one they could not land. The Yankees did, in a big deal that also netted them reliever Dave Robertson.
This was two weeks before the trading deadline, and the Red Sox let it be known that they were never that keen on Frazier anyway. He was having a so-so season with the White Sox, but now he’s been heating up with the Yankees.
Last night, he burnt the Red Sox.
He blooped a single to left that fell just in front of left fielder Andrew Benintendi, to give the Yankees the 4-3 lead.
They added a needed insurance run later in the frame, but it was Frazier that put them ahead. Of course he did.
Farrell was practically incredulous recounting the barrage.
“After they start to dump a couple of basehits just in front of Benny in left, before we’re able to get out of it, there’s five runs on the board,” said Farrell. “They’ve pitched so well for so long and you could say for the entire season, but the Yankees put some baserunners together and got a couple of key basehits.”
Bad things always happen in threes, and Nunez’ contribution should not be neglected. The Red Sox mounted a rally in the top of the ninth, when Aroldis Chapman walked the first three batters. Nunez was the second. When Benintendi lofted a fly ball to deep left to Hicks, the runner at third scored — and Nunez tried to advance to third. Hicks, who has a very good throwing arm, threw a strike to third where Frazier, of course, put down a perfect slap tag on Nunez that withstood a video challenge.
“If it happened tomorrow, I would take the chance tomorrow again,” said Nunez. “That’s how we play the game. That was a great throw, that was a great pick for Frazier, and an amazing tag. Have to give the credit to them.”