Domingo German‘s outing took a turn for the worse as he couldn’t make it through the third inning, and the Yankees’ infield defense only compounded their problem on Friday night at Fenway Park. On top of that, their offense remained dormant until it was too late, resulting in a highly disappointing and lopsided 15-5 defeat against the Red Sox.
The game got so out of hand that the Yankees were forced to call upon utilityman Isiah Kiner-Falefa to take the mound for the eighth inning, marking his second pitching appearance of the season.
The Yankees, with a record of 39-31, have suffered defeats in six of their past nine games. However, even if Aaron Judge were not injured, his presence wouldn’t have been enough to rescue them from this disappointing performance, which pleased the sold-out crowd of 37,086 spectators.
Yankees made defensive errors
Despite an unusually low number of errors charged to the Yankees, the infield trio of Josh Donaldson, Anthony Rizzo, and Gleyber Torres committed misplays that resulted in runs. Additionally, right fielder Jake Bauers contributed to the defensive struggles with an errant throw.
“We didn’t play well tonight. … Overall we just didn’t play a very clean game,” a visibly disturbed Aaron Boone told. “There’s a handful of plays, and a couple of them, there’s some nuance to them, but it’s going to happen to you, where you don’t have a clean game.
Jake Bauers, the right fielder, and Gleyber Torres, the second baseman, were officially charged with throwing errors. However, according to many observers, the Yankees’ defensive woes were even more pronounced. They believe that the official scoring was flawed, as it awarded the Red Sox with infield hits on slow rollers that were mishandled by Josh Donaldson, Anthony Rizzo, and Torres. In reality, the Yankees could have been charged with five errors instead of just two.
“I caught it and when I went to grab the ball, it just slipped out of my hands. It’s a play I should make,” Donaldson explained.
In a pivotal moment during the seventh inning, Torres’ errant throw resulted in Masataka Yoshida scoring, extending the lead to 14-4.
“We have to figure it out and play better,” Torres told. “Play to win, play better baseball. Try not to make the mistakes we made tonight and help our pitchers. We didn’t play really good baseball and we have to play better. Don’t try to make as many mistakes as we made.”
German lost his good start
Over the past six weeks or so, German has emerged as a strong contender for the title of the Yankees’ top starting pitcher. His performance in his last seven starts has been particularly impressive, boasting a remarkable 2.20 ERA during that stretch.
In his most recent appearance, German delivered an outstanding performance against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. He effectively held them to just one run on six hits throughout six innings of play.
However, on Friday, everything quickly fell apart for German. The Yankees starter endured his briefest outing of the year as he was pummeled for seven runs on seven hits (including six extra-base hits), issued two walks, and hit one batter in just over two innings.
After being handed a 1-0 advantage in the opening inning, German swiftly surrendered the lead in the bottom half of the frame as the Red Sox countered with two runs, initiating a streak of 13 consecutive runs for the home team.
Matt’s forgettable debut
Southpaw pitcher Matt Krook, who had been patiently awaiting his major league debut in the Yankees bullpen for nearly two weeks, unfortunately, faltered in a major way during his first appearance. He failed to cover first base on a ground ball to the first baseman, thereby prolonging the Red Sox’s third inning. Krook was subsequently charged with an additional five runs over the course of 1 ²/₃ innings. It should be noted, however, that he didn’t receive much assistance from his teammates on the field.
The majority of the offensive onslaught was orchestrated by Justin Turner, who played a pivotal role in the Yankees‘ downfall. Turner had an outstanding performance, going 3-for-5 at the plate, which included two home runs, including a grand slam off Krook, as well as a double, accumulating a total of six RBIs. Additionally, Masataka Yoshida contributed significantly, going a perfect 4-for-4 with two doubles and three RBIs.
Krook’s major league debut turned out to be a struggle as he surrendered five runs on four hits and a walk in just 1 2/3 innings of work. This performance inflated his ERA to a daunting 27.00 after his first appearance. It’s worth noting that three of the runs would have been considered unearned if not for Donaldson’s misplay in the third inning being ruled as a hit.
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