YANKS STUFFED

Fall 9 games back in AL East with another loss to Boston

BOSTON — After a little improbable run of fun and winning baseball coming out of the All-Star break, the Yankees have fallen back into reality. The Bombers’ offense stalled with runners in scoring position, they were dealing with yet another key injury and their ace Gerrit Cole couldn’t hold off the Red Sox. After a gut-punch, devastating loss on Thursday, the Yankees were beaten soundly 6-2 at Fenway Park on Friday.

Gary Sanchez, who was not in the lineup Thursday night because he was “banged up,” left the game after the fifth inning. The team later said he was having mid-back spasms. The Yankees are thin at catcher with Kyle Higashioka on the COVID-19 injury list along with Aaron Judge. He along with Aaron Judge are not expected to rejoin the team until Sunday and then not be activated until possibly early next week.

This was a crucial stretch in the Yankees’ season, with eight out of the first 10 games after the All-Star break against the Red Sox (60-38) and then the next three against the Rays, who are battling Boston for the lead. With the second straight loss, the Yankees (50-46) dropped to nine games back in the American League East and at least five behind in the American League Wild Card race.

Sanchez had scored the only run the Yankees got for Cole. Sanchez worked a walk to lead off the second and scored on Brett Gardner’s double, which gave the Yankees runners on second and third with no outs, and could not bring more than that one run across the plate.

The Yankees had runners in scoring position again in the seventh as Greg Allen hit by a pitch and DJ LeMahieu singled, but Giancarlo Stanton flew out to end the inning scoreless.

Rougned Odor doubled to score Stanton with two out in the ninth.

After going 1-for-8 with runners in scoring position in Thursday night’s extra-inning nightmare of a loss, the Yankees were worse (1-for-9) on Friday. The Yankees went into the game hitting .219 with a .651 OPS with runners in scoring position which is 29th worst in MLB.

The Yankees managed just six hits against the Red Sox bullpen after starter Eduardo Rodriguez left the game with migraine symptoms in the second inning.

And Cole wasn’t able to carry the Yankees alone Friday night.

Cole had escaped trouble in the third, when he issued two one-out walks. He worked around a one-out double in the fourth and got lucky on the first two hits he gave up in the fifth. Enrique Hernandez hit a ball hard off the top of the Green Monster and Jarren Duran’s likely triple bounced into a grounds-rule double.

But, the luck ran out quickly.

With two outs, Rafael Devers crushed his 25th home run of the season to score Hernandez and Duran and give the Red Sox a 3-1 lead.

The Red Sox, who had crushed Cole in his last visit here, just tried to grind him down Friday night. Cole had to work hard to get out of those jams he could. When he coaxed a fly out from J.D. Martinez in the fifth, he was at 104 pitches.

Cole has been focused on getting himself back on track after a month-long slide, which included a brutal loss here last month. Cole gave up a season-high tying five earned runs in Fenway against the Red Sox on June 27.

And there were encouraging signs in his two previous starts, which included six innings in a 3-1 win over the Red Sox in his last start. Cole is 2-0 with a 0.60 ERA, giving up just one earned run in 15 innings of work, including a shutout of the Astros on July 10.

And Friday night was better than the slump he had before those two starts.

That was part of a six-start period where Cole was adapting to MLB’s enforcement of the sticky substance rules. From June 3 to July 4, during which Cole said he was making adjustments now that MLB was checking pitchers for any substance other than rosin, he pitched to a 5.24 ERA, giving up 10 home runs, walking 11 and striking out 38 over 34.1 innings pitched.

It has been a dramatic dropoff from his incredible start to the season. In his first 11 starts of the season, opponents hit .198 with a .530 OPS against him. He struck out 97 in 70.2 innings pitched, gave up five homers and walked nine. He had a 1.78 ERA.