5 Takeaways: Max Fried dominates cold bats doom Red Sox in 4-1 loss to Yankees

BOSTON — The Red Sox offense remained ice cold for a second straight night against the Yankees, falling to 9-15 with a 4-1 loss behind a dominant outing from ace Max Fried.

Boston’s slow start is becoming increasingly concerning. The offense looks lifeless, the pitching has been inconsistent, and the team has shown little fight once falling behind.

Here are five takeaways from Wednesday night’s loss, which pushed the Sox further behind the first-place Yankees.

COLD AS ICE

Boston’s lineup continues to look anemic, struggling to generate any kind of spark. 

After quickly falling behind 3-0, Max Fried took full control.

The Red Sox showed a brief pulse in the second inning when Andruw Monasterio walked, and Jarren Duran doubled to put two runners in scoring position. It didn’t last. Fried needed just 12 pitches to strike out the bottom of the order, Caleb Durbin, Connor Wong, and Isiah Kiner-Falefa; with Kiner-Falefa chasing a two-strike curveball in the dirt to end the threat. Each hitter saw just four pitches.

Boston was on the verge of being shut out for the second straight night before Duran delivered an RBI single for the club’s only run. The Red Sox finished with just five hits, three from Duran, and managed only three total before the ninth inning, when Brent Headrick entered in relief of Fried.

“I think we’re just trying to do too much,” Duran said. “We’re trying to dig ourselves out of a hole, but at the end of the day we’re not really in a hole, it’s still early, we still have so much time to play baseball and I feel like that’s when we’re at our best.”

The Red Sox now rank fifth-worst in MLB, averaging just 3.75 runs per game, and are tied for last in the league with 13 home runs through 24 games.

The power outage has been especially alarming. Boston has hit just five home runs over its last 17 games since April 4, after launching eight in its first seven games of the season.

Even more concerning, dating back to last October’s AL Wild Card Series, the Red Sox went 29 consecutive innings without scoring against the Yankees, with their last runs prior to Duran’s ninth-inning RBI single coming in the sixth inning of Game 2.

The Red Sox now have five starters hitting below the Mendoza Line. 

Trevor Story sits at .192 after a 1-for-4 night with two strikeouts. Monasterio went 0-for-3 with a walk and is at .194. Even with his three-hit game, Duran is still hitting just .194. Durbin has dropped to .147 and is nearing the point where Boston may need to consider a reset in Triple-A Worcester, while Kiner-Falefa has provided little offensively, hitting .179.

Boston can’t realistically expect to compete if the lineup continues to produce like this. Right now, the offense lacks impact, too many empty at-bats and not enough hard contact or power.

DURAN WAS THE OFFENSE 

Duran is starting to show signs of life at the plate, turning in arguably his best performance of the season with three hits and Boston’s lone RBI in the ninth.

He ripped two opposite-field doubles, both with exit velocities of 100.3 mph, and added a third hit by driving in Story late.

It marked Duran’s third multi-hit game of the season. He entered the night hitting just .162 with a .490 OPS and three doubles, and was 0-for-13 with six strikeouts in his career against Fried.

“We want to produce for the fans and produce for ourselves and for the team. The Red Sox have a big legacy that, even if you try not to put that pressure on you, it’s there. It’s just part of it,” Duran said. 

“But we have a hard-working team, it (stinks) you guys don’t get to see what we do behind these walls every single day but I know everybody is working. I know people are going to say, 'Oh, they should work harder.' Well, we are, we’re working hard as much as we can to make everybody proud. So sometimes we’ve just got to stop trying to please everybody and make ourselves proud of ourselves, and I think we’re going to do that."

SUAREZ LIFTED EARLY

Ranger Suárez entered Wednesday riding a 14-inning scoreless streak and coming off his best start of the season, eight shutout innings against the Tigers, but didn’t look like the same pitcher. He struggled to command his pitch mix, particularly his changeup.

Suárez allowed four runs over 4 2/3 innings on five hits, with two walks and four strikeouts. He exited after 71 pitches and admitted afterward that the quick hook caught him off guard.

“To be honest it