The Yankees' inability to do anything right must be contagious.
They are not being sent home reeling. They are being sent reeling to Chicago, where they play the White Sox tonight.
Attention, Yankees fans: It's not always about you. ...
These Red Sox ... should no longer be viewed through the prism of the 2018 American League East race, or even their aspirations for a fourth title in 15 years.
This group is making a run at history.
A mind-blowing, come-from-behind, 10-inning, 5-4 victory over the Yankees early Monday morning at Fenway Park, featuring a game-tying, three-run ninth against Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman and then Andrew Benintendi's walk-off single against Jonathan Holder, gave the Red Sox a commanding four-game sweep of their rivals. ...
The Red Sox now own a 79-34 record, putting them on a pace to finish 113-49, which would be the fourth-most regular-season wins in baseball's modern era. They lead the Yankees by 9.5 games in a divisional competition that appears all but settled.
For the rivalry, the most compelling question that remains is, how high can the Red Sox fly? ...
The game should've ended when Xander Bogaerts tapped a bouncer to Yankees rookie third baseman Miguel Andujar, who sure looked nervous as he bounced a throw to first base that Greg Bird couldn't quite secure, allowing pinch-runner Jackie Bradley Jr. to score the tying run. So the Yankees can't just tip their cap to the Bosox. Nevertheless, the home team kept grinding, with Benintendi's bouncer up the middle somehow evading Gleyber Torres and Didi Gregorius to score pinch-runner Tony Renda. ...
These teams won't face off again until Sept. 18, at which point the division may very well be clinched.
There are bad losses and then there are defeats — like the one the Yankees absorbed Sunday night at Fenway Park — that kill seasons.
Three outs away from salvaging one win in four games against the Red Sox, the Yankees evacuated New England's living room with a stomach-turning 5-4 loss in 10 innings ...
On a night when Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts gifted them two runs in the seventh, the Yankees carried a three-run lead into the ninth inning. Aroldis Chapman flushed the advantage with a huge assist from third baseman Miguel Andujar, who made a colossal throwing error in the ninth.
The Yankees' fifth straight loss enabled the Red Sox to sweep the four-game series against their blood rivals and increase their AL East lead to a whopping 9.5 games. It also cut the Yankees' lead over the surging A's in the race for the top wild-card spot to 2.5 games.
The ship Aaron Boone says has to right itself left Boston Harbor early Monday morning taking on serious water with a crew that was stunned by an awful loss at Fenway Park. ...A Tale of Two Tweets:
[Boone:] "We have to right our own ship and start playing well."
That could commence Monday night against the awful White Sox in Chicago, but remember this five-game slide started with a dreadful loss to the Orioles, the worst team in baseball, at home. ...
Chapman climbed the mound for the ninth with a three-run bulge. Three walks, a two-run single and a colossal throwing error by third baseman Miguel Andujar — his second error of the game — and the score was tied, 4-4. ...
Holder retired the first two batters in the 10th before Sandy Leon singled softly to center. Following a wild pitch with Betts at the plate that sent Leon to second, Tony Renda pinch ran for Leon and the Yankees intentionally walked Betts. Benintendi's ground single to center ended the 4-hour, 39-minute marathon.
For as much of a boost as Miguel Andujar has provided to the Yankees this season, the team's concerns about his defense have proven to be well-founded.
And that was never truer than when he couldn't make what would have been a game-ending throw in the bottom of the ninth at Fenway Park.
After fielding Xander Bogaerts' grounder at third with Aroldis Chapman and the Yankees clinging to a one-run lead, Andujar bounced the throw to first, where Greg Bird couldn't come up with it.
The ball got far enough away from Bird that pinch-runner Jackie Bradley Jr. scored from second to tie the game and the Red Sox ended up beating the Yankees 5-4 in the 10th. ...
[It was] their most crushing loss of the season, one that left them 9.5 games behind the cruising Red Sox.
That was not a nightmare.
Andrew Benintendi's hopping ground ball up the middle and the Red Sox capping a four-run rally that started in the ninth with a 5-4 win in the bottom of the 10th were all too real.
That capped a worst-case scenario for the Yankees, who were swept by the Red Sox this weekend, sending them into a season-worst five-game spiral and an unimaginable 9.5 games back in the division. ...
This weekend capped a shaky stretch where the Yankees are just 18-20 over their last 38 games with question marks all over the field. ...
They have the second fewest innings pitched by their starters since the All-Star break, behind the Rays — who purposely don't use a starter on some days. Miguel Andujar's two errors on Sunday night and Gleyber Torres' mindless plays over the last week bring up concerns about the young Yankees' focus and defense. The lineup was silent for most of the weekend ...
Sunday night also had to raise concerns about the bullpen, which has allowed at least a run in 12 of the last 15 games. ...
After this weekend, the Yankees have to adjust to a whole new reality and prepare for what now looks inevitable: a playoff run that has to go through a Wild Card game and Boston.
The Yankees took a 3-0 lead Thursday three batters into a four-game series at Fenway and carried a three-run lead with two outs in the bottom of the ninth of the finale. They won neither game nor the two in between.
So the days of looking up at the Red Sox are over. It is what is coming from behind in the wild-card race that should now obsess the Yankees. ...
Prior to Sunday night's series finale at Fenway, Aaron Boone said, "Obviously, from the division standpoint, we're gonna have to play a pretty lights-out brand of baseball. ... I don't put that past us."
By the time Sunday night's sweep was concluded, the only relevant part of that quote was "lights out."
The AL East switch was probably off before the ninth inning of the finale. But the Yankees suffered the kind of loss at the end of the kind of lost weekend that makes holding onto the wild-card lead, and maybe any kind of wild-card spot, both the priority and more tenuous than at any point this season. ...
At this moment, the Yanks are not just clearly inferior to the Red Sox, but playing poorly in every phase.
The meaning of losing four straight to the Red Sox was not as stark as when Boston rallied from 0-3 down in the 2004 ALCS. But just like then, there was a sense of finality. The AL East race is over. The Red Sox had inflicted just about every indignity on the Yankees this weekend short of David Ortiz coming out of retirement to walk them off.
And: This one ran before Sunday's game.
Mike Vaccaro, Post:
Forget the depressing aspects of the weekend to date. Forget the 0-3 start to this four-game series, and the fact that the Red Sox have mostly turned this into an exhibition of the varsity schooling the JV. ...After watching the Yankees be outmatched in every facet of the game, Vaccaro just about guarantees the Yankees will not only play the Wild Card game at home, but will win it. That's interesting ...
Forget that the Sox have mostly taken Brian Cashman's words from last week — about how "we do some damage against them" — and in order 1) laughed at them; 2) scoffed at them; and 3) tossed them in an incinerator.
Forget all of that. ... There are only two solid realities to take away from this weekend, no matter how Sunday night's finale turns out ...
1) The Yankees aren't catching the Red Sox.
Boston didn't clinch anything this weekend, but it is fair to state now, after watching the teams share a field for three days, that Boston doesn't have an 8.5-game lead due to some weird bounces and some odd luck. It's not an accident. The Red Sox are the better team right now. ...
2) The Yankees aren't going to collapse out of the wild-card game.
Yes, there is some panic afoot. The losing streak is now four, the A's seem to win every day. But ... there is little chance [the Yankees will] be caught and passed by both the A's and the Mariners. The odds are still enormous they'll host that game. And win it. ...
It really doesn't matter if they go 0-for-4 this weekend, as long as they pick up a little intelligence on how to best ensure they can go 3-for-5 in October.
Aaron Judge - lacking Vaccaro's confidence, but perhaps possessing more intelligence - is hedging his bets.
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