Early implosion dooms the Yankees in a 6-4 loss to the Red Sox

Boston—The Yankees dropped the final game of this three-game series 6-4 to finish off their 12-game gauntlet. Will Warren got the starting nod for the Yankees and faced off against Cy Young contender Garrett Crochet. 

Austin Slater, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger went down in order for the Yankees in the top of the first inning. 

Warren served up a leadoff triple on a ball that Giancarlo Stanton couldn't come up with in left field. The next batter, Alex Bregman, came through with an RBI single to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. A couple of batters later, Nathaniel Lowe delivered an RBI single of his own to make it a 2-0 game before Warren could record an out. The next batter, Romy Gonzalez, lined an RBI double into the right field corner to make it five straight hits for the Red Sox to start the game and a 3-0 ballgame. A sacrifice fly from Masataka Yoshida finally gave the Yankees their first out as well as made it a 4-0 game. Rob Refsnyder made it a 5-0 game on an RBI groundout, as this seems like it is going to be a long game for Yankees fans. The next batter, former Yankee Carlos Narváez, launched a solo home run to make it a 6-0 game. 

"I didn't think he was throwing it that bad," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "I think it was kind of not going his way, and he couldn't get the swing and miss going. So, settled in and didn't let it affect the rest of his outing, and he, you know, gave his chance."

In the top of the fourth inning, Stanton hit a single to left field. Amed Rosario followed that with a two-run home run, his first bomb as a Yankee, to make it a 6-2 ballgame. 

Aaron Judge crushed his 48th home run of the season in the top of the fifth inning to cut the Red Sox's lead to 6-3. 

Warren gave up back-to-back one-out singles in the bottom of the fifth inning, but picked up a strikeout and groundout to help work into and out of trouble. 

Camilo Doval replaced Warren in the bottom of the sixth inning and worked an easy 1-2-3 inning with a pair of punch outs. 

Will Warren's final line: five innings pitched, 10 hits allowed, six earned runs, one walk, 11 swings and misses, and two strikeouts on 89 pitches. Warren threw his fastball 45% of the time, the sinker 25%, the sweeper 21%, the curveball 4%, and the changeup 4% of the time. Warren really struggled in the first inning, giving up six runs, with three of them coming before he could even get an out. However, he was able to settle down after that and at least give the Yankees five innings tonight. 

“Yeah, I don't think anything changed," Warren said on the difference between his first inning and the last four. "Obviously, they came out and were aggressive. Some balls went their way. Narváez had the big homer there. But I don't think anything changed. Mindsets stayed the same. I think I executed well. For the most part, in that first inning, they just put some good swings on the ball, and they found holes." 

"Obviously, a tough first inning didn't really bounce his way," Boone said. "I mean, they stung a few balls, but, you know, a few that just kind of found holes on them. But buckled down, you know, and gives us five innings and lets us hang around and keep creeping back into it." 

José Caballero clobbered a ball over the Green Monster for a solo home run, making it a 6-4 ballgame. 

"I'm just trying to help the team win," Caballero said. "At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what I do. It's what the team does. And as long as we keep winning games, I'm going to be really happy, and I'm going to do my best to try to help the team win."

Mark Leiter Jr. took over for Doval in the bottom of the seventh inning and faced the minimum, thanks to a 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. 

Judge led off the top of the eighth inning with a rocket single off the Green Monster. However, Cody Bellinger, Stanton, and the pinch-hitting Grisham all went down on strikes to strand Judge. 

Paul Blackburn replaced Leiter on the bump in the bottom half of the eighth inning and put together a scoreless inning thanks to a beautiful play from Caballero to save a run. 

In the top of the ninth inning, the Yankees went down in order against former Yankee Aroldis Chapman to end this one 6-4. 

The Yankees will now head to Minnesota to take on the Twins in a three-game series starting tomorrow. Carlos Rodon will take the ball for the Yankees and face off against Simeon Woods Richardson. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:40 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: The Yankees ended their 12-game gauntlet going 7-5. It would have been nice to come away with a sweep, but it's hard to win when your starter gives up six runs in the first inning. The offense showed some fight, cutting the deficit to two runs, but ultimately ran out of outs. Judge, Caballero, and Rosario all went deep tonight. The bullpen was also excellent. Tonight was the best Doval has looked as a Yankee. Leiter worked a clean inning, and Paul Blackburn also looked solid. Warren just did not have it today, as his road and first-inning struggles continued. As Warren now has a 5.43 ERA on the road and a 4.80 ERA in the first inning. Unfortunately, the Blue Jays also won today, so the Yankees are now four games back and five since the Jays have the tiebreaker with 13 games left; the chances of winning the division are looking bleak. On to tomorrow as the Yankees will start their final 13 games against the Twins, Orioles, White Sox, and Orioles again to end the season.