For the first two-thirds of Thursday night's game at Fenway Park, you could have initiated a pretty strong argument about just which phase of the Yankees was the worst — their starting pitching, their offense or their defense.
In what is now a two-week-old season, the Yankees have done a poor job of harmonizing the team. ...
But in the finale against the Red Sox ... the Yankees assembled the opposite of a masterpiece. They were not undermined by one area. This was systemic failure.
Sonny Gray could not locate, finish off hitters or find common ground in pitch selection with Gary Sanchez. That left him needing his defense more than ever, but Sanchez had difficulty corralling a hard-to-catch pitcher (three wild pitches) and Giancarlo Stanton and Tyler Wade each botched plays. And until Aaron Judge opened the seventh with a double, Rick Porcello was no-hitting the Yankees.
"We'll turn the page," Aaron Boone said after a 6-3 loss.
He actually has been saying that a lot ...
[W]ith a chance to reverse both their early meh play and the Red Sox's strong opening surge, the Yankees behaved like the second-best team in the series. Boston took two of three and even in winning the tension-filled middle game the Yankees had a sense of hanging on despite scoring 10 runs. ...
There are five more series between the teams and 149 more games for the Yankees to rewrite all of this.
But they will need to actually, you know, play well to do this. ...
[Sonny] Gray joined Luis Severino and Masahiro Tanaka — the prime-aged top-three starters in this rotation — in getting brutalized at Fenway: 17 runs on 22 hits in 13 innings. ...
Boston — under its own rookie manager, Alex Cora — has matched the best 12-game start in franchise history. The Red Sox also had the upper hand in a series that will be remembered for two benches/bullpen-clearing altercations in the middle game.
And also for this — Boston being better.
So, this was the plan all along, wasn't? A dynamic young manager, inspiring his baseball team to a fast, impressive start. Spinning scoreboards that resembled pinball machines more than ballparks. The occasional lights-out performance from a starting pitcher. Engaged fans.
Just the way the Yankees drew it up.
Only these are the Bizarro Yankees, also known as the Boston Red Sox, also known as the best team in the American League and the A.L. East (by 2.5 games) and, specifically, the A.L. East, Heavyweight Division (by 4.5 games). The Bizarro Yankees splattered the Real Yankees again Thursday night, this time by a 6-3 score ...
In the 14 days since [Opening Day], things have turned upside-down. The Sox recovered on Day 2, didn't lose for almost two full weeks, winning from way ahead and winning from way behind and throwing a 14-1 haymaker at the Yankees in the first of 19 meetings between the rivals on Tuesday.
The Yankees? Putting it kindly, Stanton is no longer on a 324-homer pace. The bullpen, which was their crown jewel, has stumbled. Even Severino, who looked so untouchable in his first two starts, was bombarded Tuesday night at Fenway ...
They won Game 2 of the series, but only after Masahiro Tanaka tried mightily to blow an 8-1 lead ... [On Thursday] there was no life to them, little energy, little fight against Rick Porcello — loser of 17 games last year — who no-hit them for six innings. ...
For now, for the moment, for the Sox, the good times never looked so good.
(So good. So good. So good.)
Aaron Boone sighed lightly before answering each of the first two postgame questions following a disheartening loss to the Red Sox on Thursday night. ...George A. King III, Post (early edition):
"We didn't play good behind him," Boone said of starter Sonny Gray, who got hammered for six runs and seven hits in three-plus innings. ...
Second baseman Tyler Wade's throwing error to the plate fueled a four-run second inning. Left fielder Giancarlo Stanton botched Jackie Bradley, Jr.'s fly ball near the left-field foul line and seats by overrunning it and having it land in fair territory behind him for an RBI ground-rule double in the third, when the Red Sox stretched the lead to 6-0. ...
The victory pushed the 10-2 Red Sox 4.5 games ahead of the 6-7 Yankees in the AL East. It wasn't until July 7 the Yankees were that far out of the top spot last season. ...
"[W]e will turn the page," said Boone, whose club might suffer multiple paper cuts doing that with the way it played Thursday evening.
Nothing the Yankees attempted to do on a rainy April night against the Red Sox worked. Sonny Gray was awful. Second baseman Tyler Wade made a mental mistake and a physical blunder on the same ground ball. Giancarlo Stanton overran a fly ball near the left-field line that went for a run-scoring double. Gary Sanchez lost the battle with Gray's pitches in the dirt when the catcher was charged with three passed balls in three innings.
Finally, Red Sox starter Rick Porcello kept the Yankees scoreless and limited them to two hits and no runs over seven innings in a 6-3 victory that was witnessed by 36,341 in New England's drenched living room. ...
As bad as Tuesday night's 14-1 embarrassment for the Yankees was, the third game of three against their blood rivals was worse ...
Gray (1-1) stranded two runners in the first but faced nine batters in the second when the Red Sox scored four runs and were helped by Wade's ill-advised throw to the plate on a ground ball that resulted in a run. ...
After being outscored 27-11 and losing two of three in awful fashion, the upcoming weekend in Detroit against the hapless Tigers is going to look like Paris in the spring to the Yankees. ...
Since joining the Yankees in August, Gray has made three starts against Boston, posting a 7.20 ERA.
The Yankees must not have had any fight left in them.
A day after the brawl, the Bombers looked lifeless and sloppy in a 6-3 rubber-game loss to the Red Sox ...
Rick Porcello no-hit the Yankees for the first six innings ...
Sonny Gray was awful, Tyler Wade couldn't hit or field, and Stanton overran a routine fly ball that he appeared to have lost in the rain.
Gray, who has performed like a No. 4 starter and always pitches at a snail's pace, struggled to find the strike zone and put hitters away. He allowed six runs on seven hits, walked two and uncorked three wild pitches. In his first three starts, Gray has only managed to total 13 innings.
MIA
Basically the entire team ...
The Yankees were punchless at the plate against Rick Porcello on Thursday night, but Sonny Gray's continued struggles were the biggest takeaway from the team's lackluster 6-3 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park.Dan Martin, Post:
Gray, who has a 6.92 ERA this season, was supposed to be a No. 2-type starter, but he's pitching more like a No. 4-5 right now.
On Thursday night, the 28-year-old righty nibbled - as he's known to do - instead of attacking. He worked at his usual slow pace, was all over the place and couldn't finish hitters off. ...
Gray had two strikes on eight hitters - and five of them reached. An error by the usually sure-handed Tyler Wade - whose batting average now sits at .097 - and a misplay by Giancarlo Stanton that turned a routine fly ball to left into a ground-rule RBI double didn't help matters either. The sloppy-fielding Bombers lead the AL with 13 errors.
Six of the first seven hitters Gray faced reached base in the second inning, and the Sox opened up an insurmountable 4-0 lead as Porcello flirted with a no-hitter for much of the night. ...
Luis Severino (5 IP, 8 H, 5 ER) and Masahiro Tanaka (5 IP, 7 H, 6 ER) were also lousy in the Red Sox series.
If the Yankees are going to live up to their high expectations this season, they have to get past the Red Sox.Mike Mazzeo, Daily News:
They now have alarming evidence Sonny Gray isn't going to provide much help against their rivals.
Gray was awful ... giving up six runs — with three wild pitches — in just three-plus innings.
Afterward, he couldn't explain what went wrong.
"I'm not sure," Gray said. ... "[Y]ou can give up four runs pretty easily." ...
In seven career starts versus Boston, he's 1-5 with a 5.97 ERA ... [I]n four starts at Fenway, Gray is 0-3 with a 7.13 ERA.
Aaron Hicks has returned. ...Video Bonus!:
He finished 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
Former Yankee Bonus:
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