Yankees Reactions: The Yankees Score Three Runs, but a Defensive Mishap Costs the Bombers
New York falls to 1-3 without Aaron Judge in the month of June.
NEW YORK——The Yankees lost the first game of three against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium by a score of 5-3. With that, the Yankees dropped to 37-26 on the season.
Turning Point
Early in the outing, Ryan Weathers looked good. The Red Sox were getting hard contact off the bat, but they were outs. Then, the tides changed in the third inning when the Red Sox hit back-to-back one-out singles, then a walk to load the bases. An RBI groundout and a Baltimore chop later, the Yankees lost their 1-0 lead, never to regain it.
Star Performances
Ben Rice continues to punish the baseball. He took Sonny Gray deep for the second time in his career (he’s currently 4-4 career off Gray). With Judge out of the Yankees lineup, Rice is going to need to carry a lot of the heavy lifting. Rice ranks second in baseball in OPS, 1.030. He is an MVP candidate, but other Yankees bats need to wake up.
Spencer Jones had his first career extra-base hit today. Against Gray, Jones was 3-3 with two singles, a double, and an RBI. If Jones can continue to contribute to the Yankees lineup, they should be able to better tread water without Judge.
Defense/Little Things
Could this have been a double play? In the third inning, a ball on the ground off the bat of Red Sox Wilyer Abreu, fielded by Anthony Volpe looked to me like it could have been an inning-ending double play, or at least the forceout at second base, but the Yankees got neither. It led to two Boston runs.
A lazy play by Jazz Chisholm Jr. led to two Red Sox runs. It looked like Chisholm Jr. had an opportunity to catch a line drive that went under his glove. It led to a two-out, two-run home run off the bat of Wilson Contreras. Those were the deciding runs of the game. Brutal.
Box Score
What’s Next?
The Yankees will look to even up the series tomorrow against the Red Sox. For the Yankees, they will send out RHP Will Warren, and the Red Sox will send out lefty Ranger Suarez. The first pitch will be at 7:15pm on FOX and WFAN.