sox swept bY Yankees
Give up four homers in loss
Mired in an already rough five-game slide, the Red Sox called a team meeting Saturday to address their struggles. Then they lost three more in a row.
The Red Sox have looked more competitive the past few nights, but the results were the same. The Yankees were without three of their best hitters, but it hardly mattered as they homered four times, handing the Red Sox a 6-3 loss to complete a four-game sweep at Yankee Stadium.
On a night when the Celtics
and Bruins pulled out playoff victories, the Red Sox continued their losing ways, extending their losing streak to eight games as they return home today. Here were the takeaways as the Red Sox dropped to 6-17 this season:
Another early hole: Martin Perez got a bit lucky in the first inning, surrendering three consecutive two-out walks before Jose Peraza barely handled Miguel Andujar’s bid for a grand slam deep to left to end the inning. But the Red Sox lefty wasn’t as fortunate in the second.
Perez again retired the first two batters of the inning, but then he plunked No. 9 hitter Tyler Wade with a pitch to bring up the top of the Yankees’ order, and they made him pay. Aaron Hicks executed the hit-and-run with Wade to score him on an RBI double before Luke Voit hit his first of two homers of the night to give the Yankees a quick 3-0 lead.
For the Red Sox, it continued what’s been a troubling theme in which they’ve dug themselves into early deficits. It was the 16th time in 23 games the Sox have given up multiple runs in the first three innings. Their 60 runs allowed in innings 1-3 this season is the most in baseball.
It’s not winning baseball, and the Red Sox offense couldn’t keep up again.
Bad timing: The Red Sox were rallying in the fourth, stringing together three consecutive two-out hits, including an RBI single from Christian Vazquez that made it 3-1. But then they were suddenly stopped.
Immediately after
Vazquez’s hit, the tarp rolled out, and a rain delay that lasted one hour and 23 minutes sapped any momentum the Red Sox were creating. Michael Chavis drew a walk in the first at-bat after the delay to load the bases, but Alex Verdugo struck out to end the threat, which remained as the Red Sox’ most dangerous of the night.
Verdugo went on to extend his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI double in the sixth, but the Red Sox couldn’t keep the line moving.
Long way to go: Of all the reminders the Red Sox had of their current struggles over the last week, one of them was how much more ground they need to make up to compete in the division.
With back-to-back fourgame sweeps at the hands of the Rays and Yankees, the Red Sox dropped to 10K games back of first place. They certainly won’t be competing in the division this year, and less than two years after winning the AL East, it’s hard to envision when they will again.
The Red Sox will be glad to leave the Bronx and not come back until 2021. Since the beginning of last season, the Red Sox are 1-15 against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium, which includes 11 consecutive losses. And this season, the Red Sox dropped to 1-12 against the Yankees and Rays, with seven games left between the two.