NEW YORK – Over the past several days, one Yankees voice after another has offered versions of this thought: No one can replace Aaron Judge. That might be true, but Spencer Jones seems willing to try.
The Yankees once again had a 6-foot-7 right fielder in the lineup on Friday, and Jones was productive in his return to The Show, going 3-for-3 with his first Major League extra-base hit in a 5-3 loss to the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.
On a night when Ben Rice hit his 18th home run, overtaking Judge for sole possession of the team lead, Jones made the most of his late-night return to the bigs. He singled in the second inning, stroked a run-scoring double in the fourth and added a single in the sixth.
All of Jones’ hits came off Boston veteran Sonny Gray, who held the Yankees to three runs over 6 1/3 innings. It was Gray’s first start against the Yankees since he said that he was glad to go to a team where “it’s easy to hate the Yankees.”
Jones was 4-for-24 (.167) with 12 strikeouts in his first taste of the Majors last month.
Ryan Weathers was knocked for five runs and seven hits over six innings, including a pair of homers. Andruw Monasterio launched a solo shot into the left-field bleachers in the fourth inning, and Willson Contreras drilled a two-run homer into the second deck in left field in the fifth.
Trent Grisham hit his eighth homer in the loss.