All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' 6-4 loss to the Yankees, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
BOX SCORE
HEADLINES
Barnes gives it up: Matt Barnes had pieced together 10 straight scoreless appearances before Saturday night, allowing just three hits and three walks in eight innings of work. But that hot run ended in a hurry at the worst possible time for Barnes and the Red Sox. Barnes came into a 4-4 game in the bottom of the seventh and promptly allowed five of the six hitters he faced to reach base, three of them by walk. With the bases loaded, he threw a curveball to Mike Tauchman, who drilled a single to the opposite field, scoring two runs and providing the Yankees with the winning margin. Barnes had straightened out after a horrible June and together with Brandon Workman, had given the Sox two trustworthy high-leverage arms for the late innings. But with the team going off the rails in the last week, it's somehow fitting that what appeared to have been fixed in the troublesome bullpen also became broken during the Lost Weekend in New York.
Lineup limited: The same Red Sox lineup that averaged 11 runs per game in the series at Fenway against the Yankees has suddenly regressed a great deal. In Friday's opener, the Sox managed all of three hits and didn't score after the first inning. In the first game of the doubleheader Saturday, the Sox had five hits, but the only two runs came on solo homers. In the nightcap, the Sox scored four times, but the damage was limited to two at-bats: a two-run homer by Rafael Devers in the third, and a two-run single by Mookie Betts in the fourth. Over the final five innings, with the game still well within reach, the Sox produced just three more hits -- all of them singles. The 3-4-5 portion of the Boston batting order -- consisting of Xander Bogaerts, J.D. Martinez and Andrew Benintendi -- combined to account for exactly one hit. That's a far cry from last weekend when the team looked to be constantly taking batting practice against the Yankees.
Depth starting remains an issue: For the better part of the season, the Red Sox auditioned a parade of pitchers for the fifth spot left vacant by Nathan Eovaldi's elbow injury. The combined ERA for those spot starters hovered just under 7.00, which is a big reason that the team moved ahead of the deadline to obtain Andrew Cashner, who's himself has continued the trend with one good start in five outings so far. With the doubleheader, the Sox needed an extra starter and brought Brian Johnson off the IL where he had spent more than the last month with an undisclosed non-baseball medical issue, believed to be an intestinal problem. Johnson got out trouble in each of the first two innings, leaving two baserunners stranded both times. But in the third, it finally caught up to him as he gave up a solo homer to Gleyber Torres and a two-run double to Cameron Maybin. He also needed 70 pitches to get those first nine outs, meaning he was done after three innings, putting additional stress on the bullpen, beginning in the fourth inning.
TURNING POINT: In the eighth inning, trailing by two, the Red Sox took advantage of some control issues by reliever Zach Britton, who loaded the bases with a couple of walks. That brought Devers to the plate, but the team RBI leader quickly fell behind 0-and-2, then swung at a pitch in the dirt for strike three, stranding three baserunners in what easily was one of his worst at-bats in some time.
ONE UP:
Christian Vazquez: Vazquez has been slumping fiercely of late, hitting below .200 since the All-Star break and frequently chasing pitches out of the strike zone. But he took a more measured approach Saturday night and came up with three hits -- a single and two doubles.
ONE DOWN:
Xander Bogaerts: The most consistent on the roster since the start of the season, Bogaerts had a rough night, going 0-for-5.
QUOTE OF NOTE:
"It's been like that the last five or six days, we've regressed. It's kind of like early in the season.'' Alex Cora on the team's struggles with runners in scoring position.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
- The doubleheader sweep was the first for the Yankees over the Red Sox since 2006
- The Red Sox are hitting just .212 as a team in eight games at Yankee Stadium this season.
- The team's starters have posted a 9.70 ERA in the seven-game losing streak.