BOSTON — The Yankees needed only one clean inning to escape Fenway Park with a shred of dignity. They could not find it. Three outs from the end of their worst weekend in years, they instead handed the Red Sox a finish that belonged in a horror reel.
Boston won 5-4 in 10 innings on Sunday night, completing a four-game sweep that knocked the Yankees out of first place and into a stretch of offensive futility the franchise had not seen in more than a century.
Jarren Duran’s walk-off single off Fernando Cruz ended it, but the night was defined by two other names. Jazz Chisholm Jr. was ejected in the sixth. Oswaldo Cabrera, back from a gruesome injury, made an error that helped sink the start.
Together they framed a loss that felt less like a bad game and more like a team unraveling.
The numbers are staggering. Over the final three games of the series, the Yankees managed just three hits in each. According to Stats Perform’s Katie Sharp, it is only the third time in franchise history the Yankees have been held to three hits or fewer in three consecutive games. The other two stretches came in 1908 and 1914. New York struck out 35 times in the sweep and hit .130 for the four games.
Chisholm’s night ends in the sixth
Chisholm had volunteered for a bigger role. With the offense stuck, he suggested to manager Aaron Boone that he lead off, and Boone obliged, hitting him atop the order for the first time as a Yankee.
Boone hoped the move would jolt a flatlining lineup. He said as much before the game.
“Hopefully, he’ll be a little spark for us today,” Boone said.
The spark came, but not the kind anyone wanted. In the sixth, home plate umpire Adam Hamari rang up Chisholm on a check swing. Chisholm, convinced he had held up, erupted when no appeal was made. He was given room to vent before first base umpire Todd Tichenor ejected him after he spiked his helmet toward the plate.
The ejection forced Anthony Volpe into the game cold. Chisholm, who had already drawn Boone’s irritation earlier in the road trip, cleared out his locker before reporters arrived, leaving his manager to explain the outburst.
Boone acknowledged the call was debatable but said his player had to hold the line.
“Once the helmet bounces a certain way, and they’ve given you a little bit of leeway, you gotta try and rein it in there,” Boone said, adding that he thought the check swing was “at least borderline” and worth an appeal.
Cabrera’s emotional return turns costly
For Cabrera, simply being on the field was a victory. Sunday marked his first major league game since May 12, 2025, when he fractured his left ankle and tore ligaments on an awkward slide at home plate in Seattle. He had been recalled from Triple-A on Wednesday to fill in for the injured Ryan McMahon.
Boone spoke warmly about the road back before the game.
“He’s worked incredibly hard to overcome a really tough injury,” Boone said. “He’s done it with grace and class and hard work, all while being Oswaldo, which is one of those people that makes the room better when he’s around.”
The baseball was less kind. In a scoreless fourth, Cabrera bobbled a Willson Contreras grounder at third base for an error. Carlos Rodon, who needed 37 pitches to escape the inning, then gave up a two-run single to Caleb Durbin, the only hit he allowed all night. It was the second time in the series Yankees defense proved costly, after a season-high four errors on Thursday.
Cabrera went 0-for-3 but did lay down a sacrifice bunt that helped the Yankees briefly seize the lead in the 10th.
Gray’s gem and a 10th-inning unraveling
For most of the night, the story was Sonny Gray. The former Yankee, who has never hidden his disdain for his time in pinstripes, carried a no-hitter into the eighth. Rosario, a longtime lefty killer in the lineup against the righty, broke it up with a single up the middle with one out in the eighth. Gray left to a standing ovation after 7.1 shutout innings and nine strikeouts.
Rosario tipped his cap to the performance.
“He was executing pitches at the right time and right moment the whole night,” Rosario said. “Sometimes, you just gotta [tip] your hat when somebody’s performing like that.”
Yankees’ Carlos Rodon limited Boston to just one hit over five innings and allowed two unearned runs, both made possible after a defensive error extended the fourth inning. He struck out six, attacked the strike zone and kept the Yankees within reach despite receiving almost no offensive support.
Rodon exited with New York trailing only 2-0, but the Yankees’ comeback bid fell short in a 5-4, 10-inning loss that completed Boston’s four-game sweep. His outing underscored how defensive lapses and a struggling lineup, rather than ineffective pitching, continued to undermine the Yankees during their difficult weekend at Fenway.
The Yankees clawed back against Aroldis Chapman in the ninth, tying it 2-2 on a Volpe dash home. They surged ahead 4-2 in the 10th on a Wilyer Abreu error and an Austin Wells swinging bunt. Then Cruz entered the bottom of the inning and gave up a run-scoring single, a Masataka Yoshida double and a tying sacrifice fly before Duran’s liner to right ended it against a five-man infield.
A first-place lead gone and a homestand waiting
The sweep carried a steep cost. The Yankees, who entered the series alone atop the American League East, now trail the Tampa Bay Rays by a game after Tampa Bay won five straight. It was Boston’s first four-game sweep of the rivalry since 2018.
Boone, pressed on how to stop the slide from snowballing, refused to flinch.
“That’s what we do, baby,” Boone said. “You’ve got to love this stuff. You’ve got to eat this stuff up. It’s a sickness. That’s what the grind is. We’ve got a really good freakin’ team.”
He kept the focus on what comes next.
“It’s one of those crap moments of the season,” Boone said. “But you’ve got to get over it quickly and understand we got a homestand starting Monday.”
The Yankees have hit .190 over their last 11 games, ranking near the bottom of the majors in nearly every offensive category. The bats now head home, where the team will try to bury a weekend it would rather forget.
What do you think? Leave your comment below.
