Errors and walks doom the Yankees in series opener vs. the Red Sox

New York—The Yankees dropped game one to the Red Sox 6-3 due to sloppy defense and the bullpen struggling. Luis Gil took the mound for the Yankees and faced off against Lucas Giolito.

In the top of the first inning, Gil worked around a couple of walks to put together a scoreless frame and recorded his first strikeout of the ballgame. 

Cody Bellinger lined a two-out single to right field in the bottom of the first inning. However, Giancarlo Stanton grounded out to strand Belli. 

Three errors from the Yankees in the top of the second inning, Gil with an E1, Ben Rice with an E2, and an E4 from Jazz Chisholm Jr., allowed the Red Sox to take a 1-0 lead. 

"It just slipped out of my hand," Jazz said. "It doesn't really concern me, I feel like we have great fielders on the team, we've got a bunch of Gold Glovers in the infield."

In the bottom of the second inning, Ben Rice quickly responded with a solo home run, his 20th of the year, to make it a 1-1 game. 

Jazz led off the bottom of the fourth with a single to right, then stole second base and was able to move up to third on a throwing error from the Red Sox catcher. Paul Goldschmidt then poked an RBI single to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. 

Gil walked the leadoff batter in the top of the fifth inning, then gave up back-to-back singles to load the bases with nobody out. A couple of batters later, Nathaniel Lowe picked up a sac fly to tie the game up at 2-2. 

In the bottom of the fifth inning, Aaron Judge and Ben Rice both worked walks. Then, with two outs, Jazz dunked in an RBI bloop single to left field to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. The Yankees had a chance to tack on another run with the bases loaded and two outs; Ryan McMahon was ahead in the count 3-0, but then ended up striking out on a fastball outside of the strike zone. 

Camilo Doval took over for Gil in the top of the sixth inning and gave up an infield single. Doval then disengaged three times, leading to a balk and moving the tying run into scoring position. Roman Anthony then tied the game up at 3-3 via an RBI single as Doval's struggles with the Yankees continue. Mark Leiter Jr. replaced Doval with two runners on base and one out picked up the final two outs to keep it a tie game. 

"Just getting ready earlier, you know, preparing myself earlier to go into the game earlier," Doval said on how he is adjusting to his role in the Yankees bullpen. "Obviously, at the end of the day, I want to give 100% out there on the field. Sometimes the ball bounces your way, and sometimes it doesn't." 

Luis Gils' final line: five innings pitched, four hits allowed, two runs allowed, only one earned due to the three errors in the second, five walks, six swings and misses, and three strikeouts on 93 pitches. Gil threw his fastball over half the time at 53%, the slider 29%, and the changeup 18% of the time. Gil did not have his best command tonight, leading to five walks, but he did a great job limiting the damage and holding the Red Sox to just two runs. 

"The most important thing is I feel healthy and strong and just trying to give the best I have right now," Gil said.

Judge picked up a ground ball single to left field with two outs in the bottom of the sixth inning. But Belli grounded out to shortstop to strand Judge. 

The birthday boy, Luke Weaver, came in to replace Leiter in the top of the seventh inning and gave up a leadoff single followed by an RBI double to Lowe to give the Red Sox a 4-3 lead. With two outs and the bases loaded, Tim Hill came in to replace Weaver and picked up a huge strikeout to keep it a one-run game. 

With one out in the bottom of the seventh inning, Rice laced a triple into the right-center gap. However, Jazz struck out and Goldy popped out to strand Rice at third base. 

Hill remained in the game for the top of the eighth inning; Hill allowed a single and walked a batter, as well as picked up the first two outs of the inning. Yerry De Los Santos took over for Hill and picked up the final out of the frame to strand two runners on base. 

McMahon, Volpe, and Grisham went down in order for the Yankees in the bottom half of the eighth inning. 

In the top of the ninth inning, De Los Santos remained in the game, and an error from Goldy, the Yankees' fourth error of the game, cost them two runs as Amthony launched a two-run bomb with two outs to make it a 6-3 game. 

In the bottom of the ninth inning, former Yankee Aroldis Chapman picked up the final three outs to give the Red Sox game one of this four-game series. 

The Yankees will look to bounce back tomorrow after a humiliating game one, with Max Fried getting the start for the Yankees, facing off against Bryan Bello. The first pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m. ET on Prime Video. 

My thoughts on the game: The Yankees' pitching and defense were awful tonight, costing them this game. They walked nine batters and had four errors. You can't expect to win games like that; it was just a miserable performance. Gil did not look good at all with five walks; the fact that he only gave up two runs is mind-blowing. Doval had a walk and just continues to struggle as a Yankee. Weaver also walked a batter, and Hill walked a batter of his own. The offense just left too many guys on base tonight, leaving 10 runners on base. Rice stayed red hot with a home run, and Jazz and Goldy each picked up RBI singles. Need more offense than that. This series is not going to get any easier. On to tomorrow, the Yankees have to find a way to play better and at least split this series. 

"Yeah, just not a real clean game for us," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. "You know, obviously, you know, a lot of free bases there. So, you know, for the most part, in the first half of the game, we're able to overcome them. You know. Louis made a lot of big pitches when he needed to. We were able to get out of a lot of jams. And then, you know, they made us pay on the last air there with the Homer. But just, yeah, just, not a great night for us."