Chapman blows it in ninth as Yankees lose crusher to Bosox

Second half begins with brutal choke vs. Bosox

BOSTON — As demoralizing as Friday night’s ninth-inning loss to the Red Sox was, it wasn’t the worst thing to come out of Fenway Park for the Yankees.

No, as the Yankees slinked out of New England’s living room and into a September-like evening wearing a hard-to-swallow 5-4 loss witnessed by 37,570, this was on their mind: Chris Sale starts for the AL East leaders late Saturday afternoon and possibly with the help of shadows.

Can a team that has dropped 19 of 26 and started a make-orbreak 11-game road trip by absorbing a big punch below the belt find anything good about facing the best pitcher in the American League?

Leading by a run thanks to Gary Sanchez’s two-run homer in the fifth off Drew Pomeranz and four dominating innings of relief by Chad Green, Adam Warren and Dellin Betances, who combined for nine strikeouts, the Yankees turned to Aroldis Chapman to get the final three outs.

Instead, the closer gave up two infield singles, watched second baseman Ronald Torreyes botch a ground ball, walked Hanley Ramirez intentionally and walked Andrew Benintendi to force in Dustin Pedroia with the game-winning run.

“It’s frustrating because we have put ourselves in position to win some games and we haven’t been able to close them out for whatever reason. It’s not always in the ninth inning,” manager Joe Girardi said after his club fell 4 ½ games behind the AL East-leading Red Sox. “You have to win those games. If you want to win championships, you have to win those games.”

And you can’t have your closer unable to put hitters away early in counts.

Chapman, who absorbed a third blown save and the loss, gave up infield singles to Mookie Betts and Pedroia to start the fateful ninth. A 2-2 pitch to Xander Bogaerts — with runners on second and third via stolen bases — glanced off Torreyes’ glove and scored Betts to tie the score, 4-4.

Ramirez was walked intentionally to load the bases for Benintendi and he walked on a 3-1 pitch to win the game.

Chapman still pushes speed guns to triple digits, and Girardi says he doesn’t see a sign that the lefty is ailing, but hitters aren’t overmatched by his heat, and he doesn’t have a reason for having to get into long counts.

“Actually, that’s a good question,” Chapman said. “I am going to go back and try to look at footage because honestly I don’t know why.”

Chapman wasn’t alone on the culprit list. The usually surehanded Torreyes committed two errors that helped the Red Sox score two runs. In his first game off the disabled list, Matt Holliday went 0-for-4 (three strikeouts) and killed a third-inning rally by banging into a 3-2-3 double play. Newcomer Garrett Cooper went 0-for-4 and whiffed three times in his Yankees debut. Thanks to throwing 55 pitches in the first two innings, starter Jordan Montgomery lasted just four innings in which he gave up three runs and six hits. The brief outing forced Green to work two innings (five strikeouts), Warren one and Betances (three strikeouts) one.

Which gave Chapman a 4-3 lead to work with and start an 11-game cross-country crusade in the right direction. Even though the loss was to the Red Sox and in terrible fashion, Girardi didn’t see it for anything but one defeat for a 45-42 club.

“One game doesn’t make a good start [to a road trip]. It would have been really nice to win, but I don’t think you can make too much of it,” Girardi said. “I will wake up [Saturday] and I don’t know if it will be sunny but the sun will come up.”

And standing in the middle of the inferno will be Sale.