The New York Yankees fell to the Boston Red Sox for the second consecutive game on Saturday evening by a score of 7-3. Once again, the Yankees’ offense couldn’t generate any production, failing to score with runners in scoring position multiple times and capitalizing on questionable Boston pitching.
The reality is, Eduardo Rodriguez, the Red Sox starter, entered the game with an ERA above 5.00 and allowed three runs over 5.1 innings, striking out seven Yankee batters. Jameson Taillon offered similar damage, giving up six hits and three runs over the same timeframe.
The bullpen struggled significantly at times, as Chad Green gave up four hits and four earned runs over 0.2 innings. The entire team continues to struggle significantly, and there seems to be no end in sight.
Good news and bad news for the Yankees:
Taking a look at the offense, the Yankees collected 11 strikeouts in the loss, with Giancarlo Stanton still without a hit over 16 at-bats. It seems this offense is spiraling toward one of their worst seasons in recent memory, and unless their big-money starters can start to contribute something significant, the issues they face will not deteriorate overnight.
“[He’s] struggling to get kind of locked in up there,’’ manager Aaron Boone said after the loss, the Yankees’ third in a row and ninth in the past 12 games. “I thought [Friday] night he had some good at bats, hit the ball hard to third got the base hit that he smoked to left and [then] worked the walk.
Stanton himself is 2-for-23 since returning from a quad injury that kept them out for nearly 2 weeks. He currently hosts a .253 average and .468 slugging percentage. One player who has turned his season around is Gleyber Torres, who has six hits over 20 at-bats in his last seven games, including four RBIs, three walks, and only three strikeouts. He has brought his average to .268, and he’s one of the only Yankee batters picking up his fair share of the load.
The Bombers will take on Boston on Sunday evening with Domingo German on the mound, who holds a 3.27 ERA, allowing 11 homers this year over 55 innings. Boston will feature Garrett Richards, a player the Yankees reportedly had interest in over the winter in free agency.
Richards holds a 3.75 ERA, allowing less than half the amount of homers that German has given up. Hopefully, the Yankees can catch him on an off day, as he’s walked 30 batters this year, showing a bit of inconsistency.