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 caught me by surprise,” Suarez said via interpreter Carlos Villoria Benítez. “I didn’t think I was going to come out with 70 pitches in that inning.”

Through five starts, he has a 4.00 ERA.

RIVERA DEBUTS

On Sunday night, Eduardo Rivera got the call that he was being promoted to Triple-A Worcester. He immediately phoned his father, Eduardo, to share the news, one step closer to his childhood dream of pitching at Fenway Park.

Less than 48 hours later, Rivera made another call home. This time, it was to say he was heading to the big leagues without ever throwing a pitch above Double-A.

Hours after speaking with reporters in the Red Sox clubhouse, Rivera made his major league debut, striking out Jazz Chisholm Jr. in the sixth inning.

"At the beginning, I felt a little bit nervous and a lot of emotions going on, but after I threw the first pitch, I felt good," said Rivera after the game.

"It was really good," Cora said of Rivera's outing. "It was efficient, threw strikes... good stuff. He's been throwing the ball well. I'm very happy for him." 

Speaking before the game, Cora expressed confidence that Rivera had been throwing the ball well and could provide innings out of the bullpen. The big left-hander delivered, entering in the sixth inning in relief of Zack Kelly and tossing 3 1/3 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit with no walks while striking out three. He also generated eight swings and misses.

Rivera, an imposing presence at 6-foot-7 and 275 pounds, showcased a fastball that topped out at 97.5 mph, throwing it 28 times while mixing in nine sliders and four changeups across 41 total pitches.

Andrew Bailey noted that Rivera’s experience in the World Baseball Classic this spring should help the towering left-hander as he transitions to the major leagues beyond his debut.

“I think like that type of environment is only conducive to success in like environments,” Bailey said to Boston Sports Journal before the game. “The adrenaline and pressure and all that is real in WBC and to be able to have guys like Rivera experience that, but others included, is just as great for their overall development and experience.”

It’s rare for a pitcher to make this kind of leap, bypassing Triple-A and jumping straight to the major leagues. Rivera rewarded the Red Sox on Wednesday night with a stellar performance out of the bullpen.

“The stuff is great, it’s a lively fastball, and he’s got a couple of auxiliary pitches in the arsenal as well,” Bailey said. “Big dude coming in, throwing the ball really hard and fills up the zone.

“It’s a credit to the work that he’s put in over the last few years to get here,” Bailey said. “The performance this year has been great. I think he’s learned a lot. Over the winter ball years and the innings he’s been able to pitch and the WBC and then carrying that over into a really strong performance in Double-A.”

YANKEES ARE JUST SUPERIOR TO SOX (RIGHT NOW)

The Yankees' starting pitching almost tossed three consecutive shutouts for the first time in 60 years. 

Fried began that stretch and then finished off this one, scattering three hits and two walks while striking out nine. The left-hander retired 14 straight to end the night, punctuating it by striking out Willson Contreras on his 100th and final pitch. 

Fried wrapped up his night with eight shutout innings, three hits, two walks and nine strikeouts.

“We better be better,” Cora said. “Everybody here believes we have a good team and good teams have to find ways to score runs against good pitching.”

After issuing walks in each of the first two innings, Fried settled in, making a key adjustment after speaking with his pitching coach, Matt Blake. 

“The windup is something I’ve always been really comfortable with and I really like,” Fried said about pitching from the stretch. “For whatever reason this year I’ve walked a ton of guys in the windup. I haven’t walked anyone from the stretch, so when you look at the numbers like that ... I just said: ‘You know what, you’ve got to suck up your pride,’ and just said: `Whatever’s working.’''

Amed Rosario jump-started the Yankees’ offense with a three-run homer off Suárez in the first inning, crushing a hanging changeup 416 feet over the Green Monster onto Lansdowne Street. He went on to drive in all four of New York’s runs.

In the third, after Giancarlo Stanton smoked a double off the Monster to put runners on second and third, Rosario added a sacrifice fly to extend the lead to 4-0.

The outburst came a night after Stanton carried the Yankees’ offense, driving in three runs in a 4-0 win in the series opener. Entering Tuesday, the veteran DH had been just 1-for-21 overall and 0-for-17 against left-handed pitching.

The Red Sox have yet to name a starter for Thursday’s series finale against the Yankees, though all signs point to Payton Tolle as they look to snap their losing streak.

New York will counter with right-hander Cam Schlittler (2-1, 1.95 ERA), a Walpole, Mass. native set to make his Fenway Park debut.