The Yankees’ five-game winning streak ended Thursday night with a 6-3 loss to the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. Defensive mistakes and missed opportunities played a key role as New York committed three errors in the second inning but managed to limit the damage to one run.
Pitcher Luke Weaver gave up a go-ahead RBI double to Nathaniel Lowe in the seventh inning, and Roman Anthony added a two-run home run in the ninth. The defeat dropped New York’s record to 69-58 and narrowed their lead over Boston (69-59) in the American League Wild Card race to just half a game. The Yankees have now lost six of seven games against their rivals this season.
“I feel like we definitely gave them spots to win,” Jazz Chisholm Jr. said. “I felt like tonight was one of those nights that we beat ourselves. Sometimes you’ve got to look in the mirror and say, ‘Hey, you beat yourself tonight. Tomorrow, come out better and focus more.’”
First baseman Paul Goldschmidt acknowledged Boston’s edge so far this year: “We’ve played a lot of close games with them,” he said. “They’ve been able to make one more play, one more pitch, one more hit than us. Hopefully we can change that tomorrow.”
Ben Rice hit his 15th home run for New York in three games, marking the team’s 20th consecutive run scored via homerun. Goldschmidt and Chisholm also drove in runs for the Yankees.
A sellout crowd of 47,036 attended on George Costanza bobblehead night but saw New York waste scoring chances throughout the evening. In the seventh inning, after Rice tripled with one out, Chisholm struck out and Goldschmidt fouled out, ending the threat.
Manager Aaron Boone summed up: “Just not a real clean game… Not a great night for us.”
Camilo Doval allowed Anthony’s game-tying RBI single in the sixth before Lowe collected his second RBI an inning later. Since joining from San Francisco at the trade deadline, Doval has posted a 7.36 ERA over nine appearances for New York.
“I was being aggressive, attacking the zone,” Doval said through interpreter Marlon Abreu. “They got a couple of hits. It’s part of the game. You execute your pitch and let it go. It’s part of it. I’m just adjusting to the role here now.”
Starter Luis Gil pitched five innings under pressure, allowing two runs (one earned) while walking five batters on 93 pitches and committing one error himself.
“The most important thing is that I feel healthy and strong,” Gil said through an interpreter. “With traffic on the bases, I gave my team an opportunity to win this game.”
Boone added: “It wasn’t pretty tonight, but five innings of two-run baseball… he made a lot of good pitches and he’s not giving in.”
Chisholm and Rice were responsible for other errors in that difficult second inning—Chisholm’s high throw allowed an extra base while Rice misfired into center field during David Hamilton’s stolen-base attempt.
“Rice could have eaten it, but we were throwing through,” Boone explained about Rice’s decision-making behind home plate.
Goldschmidt made another error on a routine ground ball in the ninth which set up Anthony’s first career home run at Yankee Stadium.
“You can’t fix what happened tonight,” Goldschmidt said after the loss.” But anytime you make errors, it’s going to be hard to overcome… There’s a lot of good teams in this league… We didn’t play good enough to win tonight.”
