Yanks swept in 'obviously terrible' Fenway set after near no-no

BOSTON – It took until the eighth inning for the Yankees to register their first hit on Sunday, and Amed Rosario watched from first base as Sonny Gray basked in a standing ovation following that pitch, making any Fenway Park comeback feel like a long shot.

“Sometimes,” Rosario said, “you’ve just got to take off your hat when someone is performing like that.”

By the ninth, the bats had come to life, rallying to force extra innings by tagging a different former Yankee – Aroldis Chapman – for a blown save.

Fernando Cruz saw it all transpire from the visitors' bullpen, his right arm readying when a Rosario single gave New York its first lead of the evening. There would be no cap-tipping after the Red Sox peppered Cruz for three runs, sealing a nightmarish series with a 5-4, 10-inning loss.

“It has been a tough weekend for us, especially this game,” said Cruz, who surrendered Jarren Duran’s walk-off hit. “I’ve just got to be better next time.”

Yankees manager Aaron Boone called their Boston visit “obviously terrible,” and he’d get no arguments inside his clubhouse: the Red Sox swept New York in a four-game series for the first time since Aug. 2-5, 2018.

Having arrived in their hotel rooms with a two-game lead in the American League East, the Yankees boarded their charter jet home staring up at the Rays from second place, having been outscored 21-9 by the last-place Red Sox.

Asked how his team can keep this from snowballing, Boone replied: “That’s what we do, baby. You’ve got to love this stuff. You’ve got to eat this stuff up. It’s a sickness. That’s what the grind is. We’ve got a really good freaking team. We played crappy on this trip, kind of. It feels bad.

“Kind of pissed off, right? It’s what we do. It’s what you signed up for. We’ll dig ourselves out of it and get it going here in short order. Bottom line is, we didn’t play well this weekend, and we’ve got to do better.”

Given their offensive woes, Boone tried a new-look lineup that plugged in Jazz Chisholm Jr. as the leadoff hitter. Chisholm wasn’t around to see how it all turned out, ejected by first-base umpire Todd Tichenor after throwing his helmet following a sixth-inning checked swing.

Anthony Volpe came off the bench to replace Chisholm, and Volpe wound up playing a key role in the game-tying rally. José Caballero greeted Chapman in the ninth with a leadoff single and stole second, with Volpe working a walk.

Ben Rice lifted a fly ball to right field that Wilyer Abreu caught, then threw wildly for an error that allowed Caballero to score and advanced Volpe two bases. Volpe then slid home on Paul Goldschmidt’s pinch-hit fielder’s choice.

Rosario gave the Yankees a lead in the 10th with a sinking liner that Abreu couldn’t corral, sending Max Schuemann home as the automatic runner. Austin Wells knocked in another run with a fielder’s choice, giving Cruz a two-run lead to protect after David Bednar recorded six outs in relief.

“I loved the fight; the comeback there,” Boone said.

The trouble started quickly. Anthony Seigler ripped Cruz’s fourth pitch for a run-scoring single and Masataka Yoshida followed with a double, sending Cody Bellinger into a slide out near the right-field wall just to save a base.

Tsung-Che Cheng lifted a game-tying sacrifice fly and Duran called game with a liner to right field that rolled forever. The Yanks have lost eight of their last 11, dating to June 18.

“Great teams go through this,” Cruz said. “I think the best teams go through stretches like this. Champions and great teams in history go through stretches like this, and especially games like this.”

The final innings produced a lot of action for a game that, as of about an hour earlier, had shaped up as a pitching duel. Both clubs were held hitless into the fourth inning, when Caleb Durbin touched Carlos Rodón for a two-run single.

The runs were unearned, as third baseman Oswaldo Cabrera – playing his first Major League game of the season after a gruesome left ankle injury last year – booted a Willson Contreras grounder earlier in the inning.

“When we’re not scoring, we just didn’t play clean enough here,” Boone said.

It was the only hit Rodón allowed over five innings, though a 37-pitch fourth that included three of his four walks accelerated his departure.

“We got outplayed,” Rodón said. “Even though they’re last in our division, they’re still a solid club. They played good baseball and made things happen. They’re aggressive. It wasn’t our best weekend.”