The Yankees lost their series against the Red Sox
In the series finale on Sunday Night, in front of a national audience on ESPN, the Yankees were shutout by the Red Sox 3–0. After having 14 hits and going 6–10 with runners in scoring position in their 14–4 win on Saturday, the Yankees had just four hits and went 0–4 with runners in scoring position on Sunday.
The Yankees are now winless in their last seven series and they have 6–16 record since June 13, which is worst record in MLB in that span. The Yankees were 17–3–2 in their first 22 series this season. They are now 13–16 against their AL East opponents and 42–21 against rest of MLB. They were shutout for the sixth time this season. They have scored four runs or less in 10 of their last 15 games and three runs or less in eight of their last 15 games.
Under manager Aaron Boone, the Yankees lows have been very low and they have very much struggled to get out of their timespans when they have not been playing well. It has become a trend for the Yankees to start the season off playing well and then struggle for a sustained amount of time.
In 2020, they started 16–6, then went 5–15 in the pandemic shortened 60-game season. In 2021, they started the season 28–19, then went 23–28. In 2022, they started 61–23, then went 18–31. In 2023, they started 36–25, then went 26–43. And this season, their 49–21 was the best record in MLB to start the season and now they are in a disappointing 6–16 stretch.
The Yankees could not in this series and have not been able to contain Rafael Devers. Devers is 18–37 with seven homers, a .525 OBP in nine games at Yankee Stadium since last season. In the series finale on Sunday, Devers went 3–4 with two solo homers and in the 3-game series Devers went 5–12 with three homers and four RBI.
Devers has the second most go ahead homers against the Yankees at Yankee Stadium in the live ball area. Boog Powell had 13 go ahead homers in 102 games and Devers has 11 in just 57 games. Devers has an elite ability to drive the ball the other way.
In Devers’s second at-bat Luis Gil struck him out on a devastating slider after Gil shook off the catcher about four times. In Devers’s next at-bat, Gil did not throw his slider and Devers ended up hitting an opposite field home run on a cutter.
The one real positive from this game was that Gil pitched well after really struggling in his previous three starts. He allowed 16 earned runs in previous three starts in 9.2 innings with nine walks allowed and pitched 6.2 innings on Sunday with zero walks and one earned run allowed on that homer by Devers.
Gil pitched at least 6.0 innings for the first time since June 4 when he pitched 6.0 innings and allowed just one hit and no runs. He had nine strikeouts in this game on Sunday after having just six strikeouts in his previous three games combined.
He had a dominant 2.03 ERA through his first 14 starts of this season but then after allowing 16 earned runs in his next three starts his ERA went up to 3.41. His ERA went down to 3.27 after his gem of a start on Sunday Night Baseball.
Gil’s first pitch of the game was 98 mph. Gil had 15 swing and misses, which was his most since June 9 when he allowed three earned runs in 5.1 innings pitched. Boston was 1–10 against his slider, his slider was much better tonight. His fastball was also located very well and he threw it better than he had in recent starts.
Gil has now allowed one run or fewer in 11 starts this season, which is tied for most in MLB with Brady Singer of the Royals. Gil said he kept it simple and was able to execute more pitches than in his three recent starts where he struggled.
“Strike throwing was excellent,” Aaron Boone said about Gil. “His delivery was good. He had a great profile on his fastball. Slider, which is a pitch he has been working on, was really good.”
In the series finale, Juan Soto had a leadoff double in the 7th inning but the Yankees could not score in the inning as the Red Sox got the next three batters out in a row.
Devers made an outstanding bare handed play on a DJ LeMahieu grounder to end the 8th inning. Kenley Jansen struck out Judge on a nasty 94 mph cutter to end game. Jansen, who is from Curacao, has 18 saves and an excellent 2.01 ERA this season and his 438 saves are fifth most in MLB history. Craig Kimbrel currently has 440 saves and he is the only active pitcher ahead of him on the list. Lee Smith has the third most saves with 478, Trevor Hoffman has the second most saves with 601 and Mariano Rivera, who is the best closer of all time, has the most saves with 652, which all came with the Yankees.
Red Sox had solo homers in the 7th, 8th and 9th innings. Devers had his solo homer in the seventh off of Gil, Ceddanne Rafaela hit a solo homer off of Luke Weaver in the eighth inning and Devers hit his second homer of the game this time off of Mike Tonkin in the ninth inning. Rafaela, who is also from Curacao like Jansen, has 50 RBI out of the №9 spot for the Red Sox, which are the most RBI for a player who in the nine spot in MLB. Rafaela is still a rookie after only playing in 28 games last season. He is just 23 and the Red Sox have already signed him through the 2031 season.
The Yankees 1 through 6 hitters combined to go just 1–21. Ben Rice went 0–4 with two strikeouts the day after going going 3–5 with three homers and seven RBI and becoming the first Yankees rookie with three home runs in one game.
Devers hit his 16th career homer at Yankee Stadium. His first homer went into first row in left and second homer went into bullpen.
During the stretch that the Yankees have gone 6–16, they have had a few instances where they have not hustled running the bases, they have not worked the count like they should have and they have had some costly errors and/or fielding mistakes. The were the best team in baseball on June 13 before the 6–16 stretch began and now they are three games behind the Orioles in the AL East.
The Orioles have gone 7–3 in their last 10 games to surge ahead of the Yankees, who have gone 3–7 in their last 10 games. The Yankees have an off day on Monday before starting a series against the subpar Tampa Bay Rays at Tropicana Field. The Rays are just two games under .500 after going 11–7 in their last 18 games.
The Yankees have won their previous two series against Tampa Bay this season and they need to continue that trend with another series win against the Rays. In the other series they have played against the AL East, the Yankees have one series win, one series tie and four series losses.
