BOSTON – The inspiration for a new-look Yankees lineup was spurred by a clubhouse comment from Jazz Chisholm Jr., who “mentioned something about leading off,” as manager Aaron Boone explained it before Sunday night’s game. Considering the club’s offensive woes all weekend, not much more of a sales pitch was required.
Chisholm was in the clubhouse by the end of the game, stewing after a sixth-inning ejection. The rest of his teammates couldn’t solve Sonny Gray, but they did get to a different former Yankee – hanging a blown save on Aroldis Chapman and taking a late lead before Fernando Cruz coughed it up in a deflating 5-4, 10-inning loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
The Yankees led by two in the 10th, but Anthony Seigler ripped Cruz’s fourth pitch for a run-scoring single and Masataka Yoshida doubled. Tsung-Che Cheng lifted a game-tying sacrifice fly, and Jarren Duran called the game with a walk-off drive to right field that rolled forever, completing Boston’s four-game sweep of New York – its first since August 2018.
Gray held the Yankees hitless into the eighth inning, but New York’s bats showed life in the ninth against Chapman.
José Caballero opened the frame with a single off Chapman, then stole second before Anthony Volpe worked a walk. Ben Rice followed with a fly ball to right field that Wilyer Abreu caught, then threw wildly, allowing Caballero to score and Volpe to advance two bases. Paul Goldschmidt came off the bench to tie the score as Volpe slid home on a fielder’s choice.
Rosario was front and center again in the 10th, stroking a sinking liner to right field that Abreu couldn’t corral as automatic runner Max Schuemann raced home from second. Rosario scored New York’s fourth run on Austin Wells’ check-swing fielder’s choice.
It was a marked turn of events considering where things stood in the sixth, when Chisholm’s anger boiled over after being rung up for offering at a Gray curveball, earning an ejection by spiking his helmet to the dirt. Rosario broke up the bid on Gray’s 97th and final pitch, and had earlier worked a fifth-inning walk that snapped Gray’s initial string of 14 straight retired.
The Yankees haven’t been no-hit since June 25, 2022, when three Astros achieved the feat in a combined effort. Both clubs were held hitless into the fourth inning, when Caleb Durbin touched Carlos Rodón for a two-run single to center field.
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.