The Red Sox’s wait to clinch the American League East continues.
With the magic number still at two, Boston dropped the middle contest of its three-game set against the New York Yankees on Wednesday, falling 10-1 at Yankee Stadium.
David Price’s struggles in New York continued in the loss, but at the same time, he hardly benefitted from an offense that struggled to get anything overly meaningful going at the plate.
With the loss, the Red Sox fall to 103-49, while the Yankees climb to 93-58.
Here’s how it went down:
GAME IN A WORD
Rough.
On the mound or at the dish, it wasn’t a sterling showing from the Red Sox.
ON THE BUMP
— Though not entirely his fault in some respects, it was a tough night for Price. Over 5 1/3 innings, the southpaw gave up six runs (four earned) on five hits with four walks and two strikeouts. Three of the five hits Price allowed were home runs.
After walking one in a scoreless first inning, things went off the rails in the second. First, Price gave up a one-out solo shot to Miguel Andujar, putting the Yankees on the board first.
Price then walked Gary Sanchez and gave up a single to Luke Voit before striking out Gleyber Torres, but he loaded the bases by walking Andrew McCutchen. Aaron Judge responded with a routine grounder to third base, but it went right through the legs of Eduardo Nunez, allowing two runs to score. Neither run was charged to Price due to the fielding error, but it still upped the score to 3-0.
The southpaw allowed a double in a scoreless third, but he gave up a leadoff homer to Voit in the fourth.
Price tossed his lone 1-2-3 inning of the night in the fifth. In the sixth, however, the left-hander got taken deep by Voit again, this time a two-run shot to put the Yankees up 6-1. Voit’s second dinger of the game marked the end of Price’s night.
— Joe Kelly replaced Price with one out in the sixth and was a mess. The right-hander got a groundout off the first batter he faced, but then surrendered back-to-back singles before allowing a bases-clearing triple to Aaron Hicks, which ended Kelly’s night.
— Hector Velazquez entered for Kelly and struck out Giancarlo Stanton to end the inning, stranding Hicks at third.
The right-hander returned for the seventh and pitched a 1-2-3 inning.
— William Cuevas handled the eighth and allowed the Yankees to extend their advantage to 10-1, giving up a pair of runs.
IN THE BATTER’S BOX
— The Red Sox’s offense came and went quietly during the first four innings, but got on the board in the fifth. Nunez began the inning with a double, and Sandy Leon snapped his hitless streak with an RBI single the next at-bat to plate Nunez.
— J.D. Martinez led the Red Sox with three hits.
— Nunez had a pair of hits.
— Leon, Jackie Bradley Jr., Blake Swihart and Brock Holt all had one hit.
— Mookie Betts, Andrew Benintendi, Xander Bogaerts, Mitch Moreland and Ian Kinsler all went hitless. Pinch-hitters Brandon Phillips and Tzu-Wei Lin also went hitless.
TWEET OF THE DAY
Sandy is back.
UP NEXT
The Red Sox and Yankees will finish their three-game set Wednesday night. Eduardo Rodriguez is set to get the ball for Boston and will be opposed by Masahiro Tanaka. First pitch from Yankee Stadium is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET.
