Bronx, NY—The New York Yankees have been without slugger Aaron Judge since June 4th and run production has been a premium since the superstar been out of the lineout.
Judge sprained his toe while slamming into the wall at Dodger Stadium — the reigning AL MVP still does not have a timeline for a return, with plenty of swelling remaining in his toe — the Yankees have scored just 21 runs in seven games, going 3-4 in that stretch.
Kiké Hernández smoke a tiebreaking single in the 10th inning, Red Sox beat the New York 3-2 with the help of Gleyber Torres’ late error.
The Bronx Bombers (38-29) could muster only three hits off Red Sox right-hander Brayan Bello and none off their pen, with Boston (33-33) taking the rubber match game in the teams’ first series of the season.
The Bombers received three quality outings from their starting pitchers in the series — with Gerrit Cole, Domingo German, and Schmidt combining for 17 ¹/₃ innings and giving up just four runs but came away with just one win for the series.
“It’s obviously frustrating — you don’t want to drop a series, especially at home, and obviously to these guys,” Schmidt said. “It’s definitely frustrating, but we pick our feet up and continue to move on and get ready for another big series coming up with the Mets.
“Obviously it’s a tough pill to swallow, but we got [the Red Sox] again in five days so we’ll be ready to go.”
The BoSox took the lead in the top of the 10th inning off right handed reliever Ron Marinaccio when Kiké Hernandez single through the left side to score Adam Duvall from third with one out.
The Yankees had the same situation in the bottom of the 10th, but Chris Martin fanned Jose Trevino and Anthony Volpe to close it out.
Kenley Jansen (2-3) worked a 1-2-3 ninth for the victory.
Yankees starter Clarke Schmidt threw 5 1/3 strong innings, retiring his final eight batters, and New York had a 2-1 heading into the eighth inning.
“Hopefully we can build off of this,” manager Alex Cora said. “If we keep doing this from the mound, then, we know we’re going to hit. That’s just a matter of time.”
Justin Turner blast a homer in the second and Brayan Bello pitched seven quality innings for the BoSox, matching his career high.
Jose Trevino’s early two-run single that took a lucky bounce off second base was one of only three hits for the Yankees — and all the offense they could muster off Bosox pitching.
Torres error proved costly for the Bombers. King walked Reese McGuire, Reyes’ sacrifice bunt advanced two runners and Hernández scored the tying run on Jarren Duran’s RBI groundout.
“Overall I thought we had some decent at-bats, but not enough to really ding Bello,” Yankee Skipper Aaron Boone said. “He was kind of in control of the game and we just weren’t able to add on there.”
UP NEXT:
Red Sox: Return home to begin a three-game series Monday night against Colorado. LHP James Paxton (2-1, 3.81 ERA) faces former Boston RHP Connor Seabold (1-2, 5.10).
The New York Bombers travel to Queens Tuesday night to play the Mets at Citi Field for the opener of a two-game Subway Series absent Judge and injured Mets slugger Pete Alonso. RHP Luis Severino (0-1, 5.75 ERA) makes his fifth start of the season against three-time Cy Young Award winner Max Scherzer (5-2, 3.71). Severino has served up three homers in each of his past two outings.
