Sox find no answers
Losing skid hits seven with DH sweep
NEW YORK — The Red Sox had no complaints about the strike zone last night.
All they had were no answers for how to beat the New York Yankees.
Also missing: Clues on how to stop their season from disintegrating.
The 6-4 loss to the Yankees in the nightcap of a doubleheader sent the Red Sox reeling to their second loss in a day, their third since arriving in town, their 10th in 14 tries against the Yankees this season and their seventh loss in a row overall.
The first loss of the day featured multiple expressions of anger over the judgment of the home plate umpire, two ejections and one poor start from Chris Sale in the 9-2 defeat.
The evening tilt was tied at 4 entering the seventh, but the slow-working Matt Barnes allowed a two-run single to Mike Tauchman after Barnes had loaded the bases on a double and pair of walks.
Red Sox starter Brian Johnson gave up three runs in three innings.
The Red Sox scored first, courtesy of Rafael Devers’ two-run shot deep into the left-field bleachers in the third inning.
Johnson wasted little time and then some reversing the lead. First, Gleyber Torres hit the first of his home runs on the night, a solo shot with one out in the third to tie the game.
Two singles later, Johnson gave up a two-run single to Cameron Maybin that put the Yankees on top, 3-2. Inexplicably, the veteran Maybin took off on a fly ball to center field with one out. He was easily doubled up at second base by center fielder Andrew Benintendi.
The Red Sox offense got right back in the action in the fourth, starting with a walk to Sam Travis and then a double by Christian Vazquez. All that leadoff goodness was about to be wasted when the next two batters made outs but Mookie Betts singled in the two base-runners to allow the Red Sox to take back the lead, 4-3.
Torres, however, led off the fifth with a solo home run off of Josh Taylor to even the game back up.
In the afternoon debacle, the players beefed, they pleaded, they scoffed, they cursed, they got ejected — they even held a postgame players-only meeting.
All to no avail as this team hasn’t figured out yet how to stop its own bleeding.
“Obviously we’re not playing the way we want, but we take a lot of pride and we respect each other and we love each other — we grind together, we win together, we lose together, and when something comes up or someone has something to say, we have enough respect for each other to get together as a group and go over some things, that’s just how it goes,” said Sale, who along with manager Alex Cora got tossed for arguing too colorfully about home plate umpire Mike Estabrook’s strike zone, a difference in professionalism that did not mask another losing effort from the left-hander against the Yankees this year: 0-4, 9.90 ERA in four starts.
“We’ve just got to turn it around. Like I said, can’t try to wash it. There’s a lot of things going on. This game isn’t easy, but we just have to look forward. There’s nothing two hours ago, nothing yesterday, nothing a month ago or three months ago is going to help us with 7 o’clock tonight or tomorrow or the next day. Get rid of the distractions, put our head down, keep fighting, and that’s all we can do.”
Nobody wearing a Red Sox uniform likes to use the word “frustrated” when it comes to describing the feeling of not acquiring a reliever before the trade deadline or not being able to make up ground on the three teams ahead of them in the American League wild card race.
Cora, who admitted he held a mound meeting in the fateful seven-run fourth inning for the express purpose of luring Estabrook out from behind the plate in order to offer his frank opinion face to face with the umpire and in earshot of his players.
Not that it made any difference, of course.
“That’s six in a row and we’re not playing good baseball — it seems like it has flip-flopped from last year, where they’re at right now, where we are right now,” Cora said. “We’ve just got to get better. We have to show up in the second game. I mean, try to put pressure on them offensively. We kind of slowed down the last few days.”
They never got up to speed in the nightcap either and now carry a seven-game losing streak into another prime time affair against the Yankees tonight