Will Warren struggles and bats go quiet as Yankees fall 6-1 to Red Sox

The Red Sox took down the Yankees 6-1 to guarantee them a series split. Will Warren got the start for the Yankees and faced off against Payton Tolle

In the top of the first inning, Paul Goldschmidt, Amed Rosario and Cody Bellinger went three up, three down. 

Warren allowed a two-out triple in the bottom of the first inning. Willson Contreras followed with an RBI single into center field to give the Red Sox a 1-0 lead. 

Warren allowed a pair of singles and walked the No. 8 hitter to load the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the second inning. Tsung-Che Cheng made it a 2-0 game with an RBI fielder's choice. It looked like the Yankees had an inning-ending double play, but for the second straight night, Anthony Volpe had a bad throw attempting to turn a double play, leading to the Red Sox tacking on another run. 

With Warren ahead in the count 1-2, Contreras crushed a no-doubt shot over the Green Monster to make it 4-0. 

With two outs in the bottom of the fifth inning, Warren walked Contreras, but a couple of pitches were up and in and Contreras had some words for Warren, leading to the benches clearing and both dugouts being issued a warning. 

Spencer Jones dunked a one-out bloop single into left-center field to give the Yankees their first base runner in the bottom of the sixth inning. 

It looked like Warren picked up the first out of the bottom of the sixth inning, but Jones completely misplayed the ball and it ended up kicking off his glove. That play resulted in another Red Sox run, as a few batters later, Connor Wong came through with a sacrifice fly to make it 5-0. Ryan Yarbrough replaced Warren and picked off a runner to pick up the final out of the inning.

Final line for Warren: 5.2 innings pitched, allowed seven hits, five runs, walked three, and didn't strike anybody out on 90 pitches. He threw his sinker 30% of the time, the fastball 26%, the sweeper 22%, the changeup 17%, and the curveball 6%. Warren topped out at 95.9 mph, averaging 93.2, and had seven swings and misses. 

Jasson Dominguez and José Caballero each worked two out walks in the top of the seventh inning, but Jazz Chisholm Jr. flew out to deep center field to end the inning. 

Yarbrough came back out for the bottom of the seventh and navigated around a two-out free pass to work a scoreless inning. 

Volpe led off the eighth inning with a double off the Green Monster. Jones then grounded out to second to advance Volpe to third. Austin Wells pinch hit for Ali Sánchez and picked up an RBI groundout to cut the Red Sox's lead to 5-1. 

Yarbrough remained in the game for the bottom of the eighth and allowed a leadoff single to end his night. Yerry De los Santos took over and allowed an RBI single to Wong, making it 6-1. 

The Yankees will look to bounce back tomorrow with Gerrit Cole on the mound, facing off against Jake Bennett. First pitch is scheduled for 1:10 p.m. ET on the YES Network. 

My thoughts on the game: Tonight was the 81st game of the season, officially marking the halfway point in the season, and the Yankees are currently 48-33, so I can't complain about that start to the season, especially with some of the injuries to this team. As for tonight's game, well, that game just sucked from the very beginning. Warren had nothing tonight; he just didn't look like his usual self, as he didn't strike a single hitter out. Yarbrough and Yerry thankfully save the rest of the bullpen, so they will be well-rested and hopefully bounce back to win the next two games. The offense did basically nothing, just three hits tonight, one from Volpe, one from Dominguez and another from Jones. Wells had an RBI accounting for the Yankees' only run. Tolle completely shut the Yankees' offense down tonight. Sometimes that is going to happen in a 162-game season. On to tomorrow, as the Yankees need a good start from Cole and the offense needs to do better than tonight. Also, no quotes tonight, I dont have it in me to listen to press conferences after that game. I might stop doing quotes for losses and just do them for wins going forward; I haven't decided for sure, but just something I am considering.