The offense got off to a slow start; through five innings, there were only three baserunners. But a good sign was that the Sox drove up pitch counts on Cam Schlittler, who was gone after 5 2/3 innings. The bats seemingly began heating up in the sixth, when Willson Contreras smoked a double that scored Ceddanne Rafaela on a wide throw to the plate. But the Sox missed some opportunities to break the 1-1 tie in the seventh. Until all was said and done, it looked like the hitters might be able to do just enough.

That wasn’t the way it played out, though, and offensively, everyone not named Rafaela, Contreras, or Anthony Seigler has a lot to answer for. Outside of that core group, Mickey Gasper and Andruw Monasterio did manage a single each.

It was the eighth inning when everything went south, with Justin Slaten giving up a solo HR that neither he nor the Sox as a team could recover from. Gasper made two terrible throws to second in the inning. One ended up in the outfield; both resulted in steals. Joe Sorsa, in his Sox debut, piled on as soon as Slaten exited the game by allowing a three-run HR. The wind was completely out of the sails after that.

Now I’m just mad and grumpy, which is how I imagine Ranger Suárez feels. He was cruising, and it seemed as though he was pulled a little early. In the end, that probably doesn’t change the outcome of this game.

Yankees 6, Red Sox 1.

Suárez was sharp today; his first three innings were 1-2-3. In the fourth, he gave up three singles but pitched out of the bases-loaded jam. He owned Jazz Chisholm, Jr., striking him out three times. 6.1 IP, 6H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 6 SO. If only he had the W as well.

Contreras ripped the RBI double over the head of the outfield that put the Sox on the board.

Batting second in the lineup, he singled right away and was one of only three Sox baserunners through five innings (Anthony Seigler was the only other baserunner to that point, with a walk and a double; it should be said that he had a nice day at the plate.) Rafaela went 2-4, and scored from first on Contreras’ double.

He was off to a great beginning in the eighth inning, with back-to-back strikeouts. In the next at-bat, he gave up a go-ahead home run to Bellinger—and unfortunately, that tilted him. He couldn’t get back on track after that, issuing consecutive singles—each of which turned into a steal of second base—then a walk before being pulled. 0.2 IP, 3H, 4R, 4ER, 1 BB, 1 HR. And oh yeah, 2 SO. He took the loss.

He immediately—and I mean immediately; it was his first pitch—gave up a three-run home run to Chisholm, who had struck out three times previously. Painful debut for the Sox.

The same story it’s been all season: it was hard to get anything going and ultimately, what they did accomplish wasn’t enough. There were too many starters who never managed to get on base: Duran, Abreu, Yoshida, Durbin, Mayer.

Play of the Game

I’m never going to credit the Yankees in this category, so we go with Contreras’ RBI.