The Red Sox offense amassed 11 hits against the Yankees, but it was getting the runners across the plate that was the issue Saturday night at Yankee Stadium.
Boston dropped its middle contest to New York 5-3, falling to .500 on the season.
The Red Sox chased Yankees starter Domingo Germán, who boasted a 9-1 record coming into Saturday’s game, after scoring three earned runs on six hits through just 3 2/3 innings. But once a runner put himself in scoring position, the bats fell silent.
Boston left a whopping 10 men on base and were just 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. It had opportunities to tie or take the lead in both the sixth and ninth innings.
Mookie Betts and Sandy Leon went back-to-back with singles, but were stranded when Andrew Benintendi flied out and J.D. Martinez ended the inning by striking out swinging.
Aroldis Chapman walked Betts to lead off the ninth and Benintendi singled to put two on with nobody out. Martinez grounded into a double play, but moved Betts to third. However, Rafael Devers ended the game with a groundout to first.
All in all, the offense had the hits, not the runs, in Saturday’s loss.
Here are some other notes from Saturday’s Red Sox-Yankees game:
— Xander Bogaerts crushed his 11th home run of the season in the second inning.
— Leon went 3-for-3 with two RBIs.
— Marcus Walden, Brandon Workman and Matt Barnes combined to throw 3 1/3 scoreless innings with five strikeouts.
— The Red Sox now are 9 1/2 games out of first place in the American League East.
“We don’t have a whole lot of time left at this point,” starter Rick Porcello said, per ESPN’s Joon Lee. “We’ve gotta go.”
— Porcello dropped to 4-5 on the season and his ERA jumped to 4.76.
