It’s been a brutal six weeks for the New York Yankees (60-45), and it continued on Friday night at Fenway Park as the bullpen coughed up a late lead in a 9-7 loss to the Boston Red Sox (55-47).
Aaron Judge crushed a 470-foot three-run home run in the top of the seventh and Austin Wells followed it with a solo shot to extend the Yankees lead to 7-4, but Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes combined to allow five unanswered runs and Boston took the series opener.
New York did threaten in the top of the ninth as Wells and Gleyber Torres ripped back-to-back singles but DJ LeMahieu struck out and Anthony Volpe grounded out to end the contest.
Volpe cranked his eighth home run of the season to open the scoring for the Yankees in the second. Trent Grisham had a run-scoring double and Alex Verdugo added a game-tying sacrifice fly in the fifth.
Nestor Cortes’ road struggles also continued as he surrendered four runs on nine hits over 4.1 innings.
The Yankees look to get back in the win column on Saturday at 7:15 p.m. with Marcus Stroman on the hill.
Kyle leads sports coverage and hosts the Concrete Jungle podcast. Have a lead or question? Send it to kyle@fingerlakes1.com.