The Yankees lost their series in Boston to the Red Sox
The Yankees lost two out of three games to the Red Sox over the weekend. They won the first game of the series 8–1 and then were outscored 17–7 in the last two games of the series.
In this series at Fenway Park the Yankees were facing off against the Red Sox for the first time this season. It is rare that the Yankees would not face a division opponent until the middle of June. The Red Sox had been very mediocre this season until this series since they had a 35–34 record when the series started and they had been 9–10 in their previous 19 games. In the two games that the Yankees lost in this series their starting pitchers allowed at least four runs.
Carlos Rodon allowed five earned runs with three walks and seven hits in 5.0 innings on Saturday. Rodon only allowed six runs combined in his previous four starts in 25 innings. Rodon had allowed three runs or less in each of his previous seven starts and in six of those he allowed two runs or less so he was due for a start where his location was not as on point. This was only Rodon’s second start this season when he flat out did not have it and his first was when he allowed six runs in 4.0 innings to the Orioles on May 2.
Rodon gave up a total of four runs in the first inning in his first 14 starts this season and three runs in first inning Saturday. Rodon did not pitch well with two strikes in first inning. He allowed four extra base hits in last four starts and allowed three extra base hits in the first inning.
Jamie Westbrook had a double off of the Green Monster for the Red Sox third extra base hit of first inning. Rodon allowed no hits or runs in his final three innings after allowing five runs and seven hits in the first two innings.
In Saturday’s game, the Yankees were just 2–8 with runners in scoring position and they left nine runners on base. They also committed one error in this game, which was by the catcher.
DJ LeMahieu had a 2-run single that scored Giancarlo Stanton and Anthony Rizzo to make the score 3–2 Red Sox in the third inning. LeMahieu had one more RBI in this game on a fielder’s choice, which gave him three RBI for the game. In his first 13 games of the season, he only had one RBI.
LeMahieu, who will be 36 on July 13, still does not have an extra base hit this season in his 15 games and has a not good .188 average and a .188 slugging percentage in those 15 games. He has not been an improvement on what the Yankees previously had at third base before he came off of the injured list on May 28 and he has been far from the hitter who had a .261 average and .357 OBP in 2022 and even further than the hitter who led the league with his .364 average, .421 OBP, 1.011 OPS and 178 OPS+ in 2020.
They lost Sunday’s game, which was ESPN’s Sunday Night Baseball telecast, 9–3. They had the bases loaded with no outs after two singles and an error in the 7th inning and frustratingly could not score any runs in that inning after two consecutive strikeouts by Gleyber Torres and Jose Trevino and then a LeMahieu line out to center. They were 0–5 on Sunday with runners in scoring position, they left five runners on base and Anthony Volpe grounded into a double play.
On Sunday, Marcus Stroman allowed four earned runs with four walks and seven hits in five innings pitched. He threw a first pitch strike to 15 of his 24 batters. He has now allowed at least four runs in two of his last three starts after allowing one run or less in five of his previous six starts.
Rafael Devers was hitting .536 in his last nine games against Yankees going into Saturday’s game. Devers went 2–8 with a homer and four RBI in the last two games of the series. The Red Sox have four everyday players on injured list.
The Red Sox stole a franchise record nine bases on Sunday Night Baseball helping them score their nine runs. The nine steals is also tied for the most allowed by the Yankees in a game. Trevino entered Sunday’s game with an average throw of 71.3 mph down to second, which is the worst mark out of 60 qualified catchers.
The Yankees bullpen also struggled in this game in addition to Stroman since the relief pitchers combined to throw three innings and allow four runs and seven hits. Caleb Ferguson allowed two earned runs with a walk and a hit in just 0.1 inning, Luke Weaver allowed an earned run in 0.2 innings (he only recorded two outs) and Ian Hamilton allowed two earned runs and three hits in 0.1 innings. It will be important that the Yankees add an impact high leverage relief pitcher in July before the trade deadline since the bullpen has been a weakness recently.
The Red Sox went a productive 6–15 with runners in scoring position. They scored their nine runs without hitting a homer. They are not a home run hitting team and rely on their athleticism, speed and hitting singles and doubles. The one through five batters in the lineup for Boston combined to go 9–19 with six RBI and six runs scored. Four of those five batters had a multi-hit game. The other batter with a multi hit game was the number nine batter in the lineup, Ceddanne Rafaela, who went 3–4 with two RBI.
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Shortstop David Hamilton singled to shallow center off of Hamilton in the 8th inning but Juan Soto ran over to center and had an accurate and strong one hop throw to catcher to get Jarren Duran out after Rafaela scored on the hit. Red Sox scored their ninth run after Soto’s throw from left was high and a little up the third base line. The Red Sox runner was really fast getting down the line to score.
The Red Sox are ultra aggressive on bases since they don’t have power like they have had in many previous years. They use their speed and athleticism to their advantage. When the Royals won the championship in 2015 they were also very aggressive and fast on the bases, but the Red Sox don’t have nearly the talent this season that the Royals had back then. Former Yankee Greg Weissert, who now has beard like most players do after leaving the Yankees, has the most movement on his sweeper of any pitcher in the league. Trevino struck out looking to end the game.
In this game, first baseman Anthony Rizzo had to leave the game after a collision at first base forced him to awkwardly land on his wrist. Rizzo was imaged by a fluoroscope at Fenway Park, which came back negative. Yankees were still concerned and wanted to use better equipment tomorrow in NYC. It was determined that Rizzo has a “right lower arm injury,” the Yankees announced.
According to Ken Rosenthal, he suffered a fracture to the radial neck of his right arm and could miss 4-to-6 weeks. In a three game span from Tuesday to Friday of last week, Rizzo went 4–9 with a homer and three RBI, which was a positive, but overall during his 13 games in June he is not hitting well as he has a .104 average (5–48) with one double, one homer, three RBI, a .185 OBP and a .188 SLG%. Overall, this season, Rizzo, who is a four-time Gold Glove winner and three-time All-Star with a .262 average and a very good .361 OBP in his 14 MLB seasons, has a .223 average, a .289 OBP and a 79 OPS+ in his 70 games played this season.
On Tuesday, the Yankees decided to call up minor leaguer Ben Rice to replace Rizzo on the roster. Rice since the start of 2023 in 133 games (600 plate appearances) has very impressive stats with a .302 average, a .416 on-base percentage, a .577 slugging percentage, 35 homers, 20 steals (four caught stealing), 14 percent walks and 19.7 K%. Rice was the the team’s №12 ranked prospect going into this season.
The only downside to Rice is he is relatively new to first base after playing catcher throughout college and in his first season in the minors with the Yankees. He was drafted in the 12th round in 2021 by the Yankees out of the prestigious Dartmouth College. He played in the Cape Cod League after his junior season.
Rice played in 15 games at first base at Single-A Tampa in 2022, he played in 18 games at first base in 2023 (15 at Double-A Somerset and three at High-A Hudson Valley) and he played in 22 games at first base this season (17 at Double-A Somerset and five at Triple-A Scranton). In his 55 games in the minors at first base he has had five errors and a .984 fielding percentage. He has been reliable at first base and deserves to get at-bats in the majors because he has been hitting so well.
In 60 games this season (49 games at Double-A and 11 games at Triple-A), Rice has a .275 average, an outstanding .393 on-base percentage, a .925 OPS, 12 doubles, 15 homers and nine steals. It is a real positive that he is getting on base nearly 40 percent of the time and if he can continue getting on base close to that rate he will be a big improvement over Rizzo.
Aaron Judge, Juan Soto and Stanton have 61 homers through Sunday’s game, which was more homers than five teams had hit this season so far through Sunday.
The Red Sox improved to 11–1 on Sundays this season. They have outscored opponents 77–35 on Sundays.
Aaron Judge went 3–12 with a double, a homer (off of the Green Monster on Sunday) and two RBI in this series against the Red Sox. Judge leads the majors in both RBI (64) and walks (57) this season. Since RBI became an official stat in 1920, the only players to lead MLB in both those categories in the same season are Babe Ruth (four times) and Ted Williams (two times).
The Yankees starting pitcher ERA going going into the first game of the Red Sox series was 2.85, which was the best in Major League Baseball. Their current overall ERA is 3.02, which is just ahead of the Baltimore Orioles 3.07 for best in Major League Baseball. The Yankees’ 110 home runs are the second most in Major League Baseball and only trail the Orioles’ 114, the Yankees have scored the most runs in Major League Baseball, the have the fifth best average in MLB at .253 and they have the second best OBP at .331 after having the 27th worst OBP out of the 30 teams last season.
The Yankees had an off day on Monday and then will start an important for the middle of June three-game series against the Orioles, who have gone 8–2 in their last 10 games, have the second best record in the American League behind the Yankees and have the second best run differential in Major League Baseball behind the Yankees.
The Yankees need to start to prove that they can play well against their in division opponents. They are 9–10 against the AL East this season after losing two out of three to the Red Sox but they are 17–2 against the AL Central, 12–6 against the AL West and 12–6 in inter-league games.
The Yankees got some good news on Monday since it was announced that Gerrit Cole, who won the AL Cy Young last season after having a 2.63 ERA in 33 starts, would make his first MLB start of the season in Wednesday’s game. He pitched very well in his last rehab start on Friday when he threw 46 of his 70 pitches for strikes and his fastball got up to 97.8 mph. He did not allow an earned run in 4.1 innings while allowing just two hits and striking out 10 batters. He will likely have a pitch limit of 85 pitches on Wednesday, and it makes more sense for him to throw 85 pitches with the Yankees than in the minors since he threw so well at Triple-A.
Anthony Volpe has been very streaky recently. In his last 10 games, he is 7–47 (.149) with zero walks. In his previous 14 games, he was 21–60 (.350) with four walks, two doubles, three triples and 17 runs scored.
