YANKS GAMEDAY

BOSTON — Aaron Judge has had his worst struggles against the Red Sox.

Judge went 0-for-4 with a strikeout and a rare mental lapse in the field on Sunday afternoon, and the Yankees lost 5-1 to Boston in the rubber game of their three-game series at Fenway Park.

The Bombers are now five games behind the Red Sox in the AL East standings.

Judge went 1-for-12 with five strikeouts in the series — and is 3-for40 with 17 strikeouts against Boston in the second half, with no homers and no RBI. His MLB-record strikeout streak stands at 37 straight games.

Joe Girardi said on Saturday that he isn’t considering removing his 25-year-old rookie from the No. 3 spot in the batting order.

In the seventh, Mookie Betts deked Judge into throwing to the cutoff man after he caught a fly ball in right, as Betts advanced to third. The Red Sox executed a similar play against Judge on Saturday.

Sonny Gray labored through five innings, requiring 106 pitches. He allowed two runs on six hits with two walks. Gray had gone at least six innings in his previous nine starts. He allowed Jackie Bradley Jr.'s tworun triple with two outs in the second.

As usual, since being traded to New York, he got no run support. In Gray’s four starts, the Bombers have scored seven runs — five of them on Aug. 15.

Brett Gardner got the Yankees within 2-1 when he cracked his 20th homer of the year around Pesky’s Pole in right. But that was it, as Bradley Jr. added an RBI single with two outs in the sixth while Sandy Leon provided a two-run double in the eighth.

Demoted closer Aroldis Chapman entered after Bradley Jr.’s runscoring hit and recorded four outs for his first scoreless appearance since Aug. 5. Chapman did walk Betts leading off the seventh and uncorked a wild pitch that really should've been a passed ball against Gary Sanchez.