Things went from bad to worse for the Red Sox Tuesday night, who opened a five-game road trip with an embarrassing 8-0 shutout loss to the Yankees.
Chris Sale showed better velocity and better stuff overall, but still allowed four runs in five innings. Sale fanned six but also gave up a homer and two doubles. Erasmo Ramirez, called up earlier in the day, was shelled for four more runs over three relief innings.
James Paxton struck out 12 and allowed just two hits -- a double to Xander Bogaerts in the fourth and another to Jackie Bradley Jr. in the eighth. He became the first Yankee starter to throw eight shutout innings in his Yankee debut against the Sox since Tommy John in 1979.
WHO: Red Sox vs. New York Yankees
WHEN: 6:35 p.m.
WHERE: Yankee Stadium
SERIES TO DATE: First meeting of the year
STARTING PITCHERS: LHP Chris Sale (0-3, 9.00) vs. LHP James Paxton (1-2, 6.00)
TV/RADIO: NESN/WEEI 93.7 FM
IN-GAME OBSERVATIONS:
8:21 Not much of a debut for Erasmo Ramirez - he's faced four hitters and three have scored, including a three-run homer to Tauchman. Did we mention that he's the No. 9 hitter? Two extra-base hits tonight and four RBI so far.
8:12 Sox lineup unable to get anything going against Paxton, with just three baserunners -- two walks and a double -- through the first six innings.
8:08 Lack of hustle out of the box by Mookie Betts, who wasn't running at full force when the ball down the third base line looked like it might be foul. Cost him a step at first, and the out.
7:46 Another rough inning for Sale, who allows some damage from the bottom two spots in the order - a single by No. 8 hitter Austin Romine and now a double by No. 9 hitter Mike Tauchman.
7;:40 Baseball a game of inches? The ball by Bogaerts hits the top of the wall and came back; the ball hit by Clint Frazier hits the top of the RF wall and bounced over for a solo homer.
7:31 Opposite field double by Xander Bogaerts, who came literally within an inch of a game-tying two-run homer. Instead, Sox have two in scoring position and no out.
7:21 Tough pitch from Sale - a fastball on the outside lower half at 96 mph -- but Voit does a nice job serving a soft liner into center, scoring LeMahieu
7:19 Sale gets ahead of Aaron Judge 1-and-2, but then can't put him away, throwing three straight balls to put him on base.
7:11 First career hit for Brett Gardner off Sale, who missed location with his fastball. Sale went too far in, and Gardner laced it into the RF corner.
7:07 Paxton has been dominating the Red Sox, and this is the second straight game in which the Sox have not collected a hit in the first three innings.
6:55 James Paxton looks impressive in the first two innings, with an explosive fastball that's running 98-99 mph.
6:47: Sale's fastball that struck out D.J. LeMahieu was at 94 mph -- his fourth pitch of the game, and a good sign that the velocity is better tonight.
LINEUPS
RED SOX
Betts RF
Bogaerts SS
Martinez LF
Pearce DH
Moreland 1B
Nunez 2B
Devers 3B
Leon C
Bradley CF
YANKEES
LeMahieu 2B
Judge RF
Voit 1B
Torres SS
Frazier DH
Urshela 3B
Gardner CF
Romine C
Tauchman LF
WHAT'S UP: The Red Sox are coming off a 3-3 homestand, during which they split series with Toronto and Baltimore...Their 6-11 record is their worst 17-game start to a season since 2011...This is the first meeting of the season between the Red Sox and Yankees, who both won 100 games last season. Tonight marks the first time they've met with both teams owning losing record since early in 2014, when they both were 5-6 on April 12 of that season...It's been 27 years since they both were under .500 after at least 15 games...The Sox won the season series last year, 10-9...The clubs also met in the 2018 ALDS, which the Sox won in four games...LHP Chris Sale enters tonight with 1,797 strikeouts in 1,495.1 innings, eclipsing Pedro Martinez for most strikeouts in 1,500 career innings...In 17 career games against the Yankees, Sale owns a 1.71 ERA, the lowest figure for any pitcher against them with a minimum of 75 innings in the Live Ball Era...J.D. Martinez has reached base safely in all 17 games to date and has hit safely in all but one...Mookie Betts, meanwhile, is struggling, going just 3-for-21 with just one RBI pn the recent homestand...Rafael Devers has reached base nine times in his last six games...Jackie Bradley Jr. enters the series hitless in his last 11 at-bats...Xander Bogaerts has reached base 12 times in his last 25 plate appearances batting .400 in that span with six RBI...Mitch Moreland has cooled of late, going hitle4ss in his last nine at-bats, but still has six extra-base hits in his last seven games with at least one at-bat....Sale hasn't a allowed a homer to any of the last 200 lefty hitters he's faced...Since the start of 2018, lefty hitters have just a .241 slugging percentage against him....Sale has had success against Aaron Judge (3-for-18) and Austin Romine (2-for-17) while three hitters in the New York lineup tonight have never faced him in their careers...Martinez is 4-for-8 against Paxton while Pearce is 2-for-5...Meanwhile, Betts is just 3-for-12.
PRE-GAME NOTES:
- Like most everyone else, Sandy Leon was caught by surprise by today's turn of events. "I was just playing my game,'' Leon told reporters. "I wasn't expecting the call, just playing my game, getting ready. I'm happy just to be here and unhappy that one of our guys (Blake Swihart) is gone. He's a friend, too. But there's nothing I can do to change that. Just play my game and try to help the team.'' Leon said he found about his promotion Monday night. Asked what he might be able to do to help the Sox turn things around, Leon responded: "Nothing crazy -- just play my game, try to help the pitchers, call my game and see what happens.'' Leon said he hadn't yet reached out to Swihart, but would probably give him a couple of days, noting that he himself went through the same difficult time at the end of spring training. "I wasn't expecting that to happen,'' Leon said. "I've been working to get better, but I think my strong point is being behind the plate. If I hit, that's going to be a plus and I'm going to try to do my best, better than last year.'' He'd been focused on trying to re-discover his 2016 swing -- "be short, be simple, put the ball in play and try to not strike out that much. Nothing crazy. I can't hit 30 homers, but I know I can do a better job than I did last year.'' Leon said he was unsure what had gone wrong with the pitching staff. "It's my first day,'' he said.
- President of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski said the organization had a "split camp'' on which catcher to keep -- Leon or Swihart. "We debated it long and hard,'' said Dombrowski, who noted that part of the calculus was based on the theory that Leon would get through waivers, allowing the Sox to retain him for depth purposes. He also emphasized that the Sox weren't blaming Swihart for the team's poor start. "Our guys haven't pitched very well,'' Dombrowski said. "We just felt at the time we'd bring up a veteran-type catcher to handle a veteran pitching staff.'' Dombrowski said he expected Leon and Christian Vazquez to split playing time.'' Dombrowski said it wasn't tenable to carry three catchers, as they did a year ago. He also said that Swihart's trade market last year wasn't better than it is now. Dombrowski added that Swihart would benefit from playing more elsewhere to help his development. "We like him a lot,'' said Dombrowski of Swihart. "But it's just that right now, we think Sandy Leon's a better catcher.''