All you need to know, in quickie form, about the Red Sox' loss to the Yankees, complete with BSJ analysis and insight:
HEADLINES
Sox can't solve Cortes: The last time Nestor Cortes faced the Red Sox, he drew attention with a single pitch to Rafael Devers in which he twisted himself in the middle of his delivery, inspiring Devers to label the move "the pretzel.'' That's pretty much how all of the Red Sox hitters felt Sunday night. They were unable to get anything going against the lefty. Through six innings, Cortes pitched to three batters over the minimum -- two walks and one hit. The lone hit was a two-out double by Rob Refsnyder in the fourth inning. In the other five innings, the Sox failed to get a baserunner as far as second base. And wasn't it just the Red Sox' luck? As soon as Cortes hit 100 pitches and was headed for the clubhouse with a chance for the Sox to try their luck against another New York pitcher, the rain came and, 90 or so minutes later, the game was called. The defeat officially eliminated the Red Sox from the postseason.
Bello sharp again: Rookie Brayan Bello absorbed his seventh loss of the season, but the outing was a very strong one. Bello got no offensive support at all, and of the two runs the Yankees scratched out against him, only one was earned. That came in the fourth inning when a leadoff double by Oswaldo Cabrera, a stolen base and a sharp single past the dive of Bobby Dalbec gave the Yankees the only run they would need. Just for good measure, they added another in the sixth. Bello seemed on the verge of getting out of a one on, two-out mess when, with the rain intensifying, Refsnyder completely missed on a routine flyball to right, allowing Aaron Hicks to score all the way from first. But there was, again, a lot to like about Bello -- the quality of the stuff, the swings-and-misses, and the poise.
Sox shut out Judge: The Red Sox would have liked to win a game or two in the Bronx this weekend, and were instead, unceremoniously swept in four close games. But they did manage to prevent Aaron Judge from making history against them. Judge has just two hits in the four games, and the closest he came to hitting No. 61 was a long flyout to the warning track in the ninth inning of the series opener. On Sunday, he lashed a leadoff double to left in the first, walked in the third and flied to left in the fifth. He would have been due up first in the bottom of the seventh, but the game was called after a delay of more than 90 minutes. In fact, the prospect of Judge getting at least one more at-bat is likely the reason Major League Baseball elected to wait for an hour and 38 minutes before finally giving up.
TURNING POINT
The lone scoring chance for the Red Sox came in the fourth. Tommy Pham drew a leadoff walk and took third when Refnsyder lined a double to left. (The ball bounced into the stands for an automatic double, with Pham forced to stop at third. Had the ball not left bounced into the stands, Pham likely would have scored). That left things up to Triston Casas, in a tough left-on-left matchup with Cortes, and ended with Casas taking a called third strike.
ONE UP
Xander Bogaerts: On an otherwise uneventful night for the entire Red Sox roster -- Bello notwithstanding -- Bogaerts worked a first-inning walk and also turned a couple of nice plays in the field, both as he was shifted over to the right of second base,
TWO DOWN
KikΓ© Hernandez: Hernandez keeps getting the occasional chance to hit leadoff, and keeps fumbling his opportunities. He was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts on Sunday night.
J.D. Martinez: Martinez had just two plate appearances, but both times, there were runners aboard, and both times, he was retired on routine flyouts.
QUOTE OF NOTE
"We felt we had a good team coming into the season but we just didn't perform. We were very inconsistent in a lot of aspects of the game and we just got to get better.'' Alex Cora, whose team was officially eliminated from playoff contention with the loss.
STATISTICALLY SPEAKING
* The Red Sox finished the season 6-13 against the Yankees.
* Fourteen of the 19 meetings between the teams were decided by two runs or fewer.
* The shutout loss was the sixth of the season for the Sox.
* The Sox finished 2-8 at Yankee Stadium this season.
UP NEXT: The Red Sox return home for their second-to-last home series of the year Monday, hosting Baltimore at 7:10 p.m. It will be RHP Connor Seabold (0-3, 10,97) vs, RHP Jordan Lyles (11-11, 4.50).