BOSTON – With the elusive rally at last mounting in the bottom of the seventh inning for the Red Sox on Tuesday night at Fenway Park, Caleb Durbin, who had a successful ABS challenge earlier in the at-bat, took another shot at it.
The crowd rose with some anticipation, hoping Durbin could run the count to 2-2 and keep hope alive.
But upon review, Brent Headrick’s pitch was in the strike zone by 0.1 inches. Two runners were stranded. There would be no comeback.
And so it goes for the Red Sox, who fell to 9-14 with a 4-0 defeat to the Yankees in the first rivalry match of the season.
Offense, or lack thereof, was again the issue for Boston on a chilly night. Luis Gil, who entered the contest with a 7.00 ERA in his first two starts, stifled the Sox, allowing two hits over 6 1/3 scoreless frames.
Rookie lefty Connelly Early, the Red Sox’s No. 3 prospect per MLB Pipeline, kept his team in the game for a while. Early turned in another competitive start, allowing five hits and three runs over 5 1/3 innings while walking three and striking out four.
But his lone nemesis in the contest – Giancarlo Stanton – was simply too much.
The Yankees’ slugger hit a towering (41-degree launch angle) solo homer over the Green Monster to open the scoring in the second.
It stayed that way until the sixth, when Stanton mashed a two-run double to left-center. Early’s undoing that inning was command, as he walked the first two batters to open the frame.
Of small consolation for the Sox was Ceddanne Rafaela’s sensational catch against the wall in center to take another extra-base hit away from Stanton in the eighth.