Red Sox Offense Feeling Losses Into Crucial Yankees Series

BOSTON — The Yankees didn’t out-class the Red Sox on Friday. A small gap separated them, 2-0 early, due to a home run by Aaron Judge and a catching mistake by Carlos Narváez. Yet against New York’s talented Luis Gil, Boston couldn’t bridge the difference between the two offenses — and extended hitting lulls across the lineup now have the Red Sox increasingly unlikely to narrow the Yankees’ advantage over them in the standings.

Reinforcements loom. Wilyer Abreu should return next week. Romy Gonzalez‘ 12-game hitting streak helped before he fell injured earlier in the week. Roman Anthony could return for the playoffs, however unlikely. But a 4-1 loss put the Red Sox in a difficult position on Friday, 1.5 games behind the Yankees with two remaining head-to-head on Saturday and Sunday. Two of those players won’t help immediately after Boston hit 0-8 with runners in scoring position, squandering opportunities Yankees mistakes handed them in the fifth and sixth innings.

“We have to go out there and execute,” Alex Cora said. “Nate (Eaton) put a good at-bat with first and second, 3-2 count, then he hit the homer. Ceddanne took the two walks, Alex walked and got the base hit, so there’s a few signs out there that tells me that some guys are gonna get hot, but as a unit we have to be better.”

After Judge blasted his 47th home run and third in two days to pass Joe DiMaggio in Yankees career home runs, Gil held the Sox hitless for his six innings and 93 pitches. New York was far from perfect. In the second, Jose Caballero let Masataka Yoshida reach on an error and Gil threw a wild pitch to send Carlos Narváez to second after a fielder’s choice. In the fifth, Narváez advanced again after walking, which Boston did four times against Gil. He balked to advance both runners after David Hamilton’s walk, then three straight Sox went down.

An Alex Bregman leadoff walk in the sixth and Jazz Chisholm toss into the dugout gave the Sox more chances in the sixth that they couldn’t take advantage of. As did Aaron Boone pulling Gil with his no-hitter intact, Fernando Cruz allowing a two-out home run to Nate Eaton in the seventh and Ceddanne Rafaela walking in the following at bat. But Jarren Duran, leading off on Friday, ended the inning in the seventh as he did with two RISP in the fifth. Three straight Sox batters went down after Bregman’s single in the eighth.

“In any game, you have to cash in. It really doesn’t matter who you’re playing,” Cora said. “It’s something that I think the last few days we’ve been lacking production with runners in scoring position. We just gotta be better.”

While the Sox have emerged as one of MLB’s stronger offenses, ranking fifth in average and sixth in runs for the season, they’re 15th in average and 14th in OPS with runners in scoring position. Over the past week, around the time they’ve been missing Roman Anthony, they’re 18th in average and 17th in runs.

On the other side, execution cost the Sox an opportunity to keep it close later. New York’s second run came after a catcher’s interference call on Narváez, a play that originally was a Ben Rice inning ending fly out. Judge scored on Cody Bellinger’s ensuing single. Justin Wilson allowed a double to Caballero in the seventh, Narváez let him steal third then couldn’t connect on an infield-in tag play with Hamilton on the following play. Rice made it 4-0 only two batters later after the decision to intentionally walk Judge, and it probably should’ve became 5-1 in the eighth on a close sacrifice fly attempt by Chisholm, albeit Eaton firing home a great throw from right.

There’s time to get hitters back, win the series and rally for a postseason run. But each loss has hurt an offense that’s increasingly relying on minor league call-ups and moving hitters higher in the order to sustain. They’ve made it work for five months already. Much of that came following Anthony’s emergence atop the lineup.

“We had a few walks, but we didn’t square the baseball up as much as we should have today. I thought Jarren took some good swings, hit some balls hard, especially with 1st and 2nd, he hit the ball on the screws twice. I think we come back tomorrow ready to go and execute better tomorrow. Tip your hat to (Gil) tonight, he threw the ball really well and get back after it and keep going … you flush tonight and you focus on the next pitch. We’ve been talking about that for the last month.”

• LHP Brennan Bernardino (lat strain) is uncertain to pitch again this season after feeling something while playing catch in Sacramento earlier this week. The Red Sox placed him on the 15-day injured list and recalled LHP Chris Murphy (2-0, 2.81 ERA, 25.2 IP).
• OF Wilyer Abreu (calf) continued his progress toward a potential return next week, doing more running in recent days and taking batting practice on Friday. IF Romy González (knee) also hit pre-game and was available off the bench after leaving Tuesday’s win and missing Wednesday’s loss at Sacramento. He moved to the leadoff spot on Tuesday. OF Roman Anthony (oblique) is only receiving treatment at this stage, while RHP Jordan Hicks (shoulder) seemed to have a better chance of returning than RHP Richard Fitts (arm).