Boone tossed in Yanks' frustrating loss to Sox

NEW YORK -- The fireworks display that sent Aaron Boone stomping toward his Yankee Stadium office reached an apex in the ninth inning, the Yankees manager boiling over as he stalked home-plate umpire D.J. Reyburn around the field, arguing about another series of called strikes that appeared to be low.

Boone whipped his gum toward the grass, a sidearm motion borrowed from his days patrolling third base, and his players soon experienced similar frustration. Forced into their third extra-inning contest in three days, the Yankees twice loaded the bases but were unable to push across a winning run, falling to the Red Sox, 5-4, in 11 innings on Friday at Yankee Stadium.

“We’ve won a lot of games like that,” Aaron Judge said. “I think we lead the Major Leagues in comeback wins [27], walk-off wins [11], stuff like that. That’s a good ballclub over there. They got us tonight. We couldn’t come up with that big hit.”

While still 34 games over .500 at 62-28, the Yanks have lost five of their last six, seemingly missing some of their early-season mojo as they eye the All-Star break. Boone tartly remarked, “We should have won that game -- we had our chances,” and it was easy to concur.

New York finished 2-for-15 with runners in scoring position, seemingly poised to improve upon its Major League-leading totals of walk-off wins and comeback victories when Gleyber Torres scored the tying run on Tanner Houck’s errant ninth-inning throw.

With the bases loaded and none out in that ninth, Jose Trevino grounded into a 5-2-3 double play and DJ LeMahieu bounced out. Clay Holmes blanked Boston in the 10th and the Yanks were again set up in the home half, loading the bases with one out, but Torres slammed his helmet to the turf after bouncing into a 4-6-3 twin killing.

Boston pushed ahead the deciding run in the 11th against Michael King, needing no hit, only Xander Bogaerts’ aggressiveness. Sent to second base as the automatic runner, Bogaerts tagged up on a deep Alex Verdugo fly ball to left field, then broke for home as King bounced an 0-2, two-out pitch that kicked away from Trevino.

“[King] is a tough pitcher. Everyone that comes out of the bullpen is pretty tough,” Bogaerts said. “The whole night, he didn’t bounce any breaking balls. He had it pretty much under control. I just had it in my head that I had to be ready in case he bounced one. … As soon as I saw it bounce, I took a chance and I went."

Said Trevino: “I could have kept it closer. He made a great read on it.”

Long before King hustled to cover home plate, the pitch that sent Boone over the edge was a low strike called on Matt Carpenter in the ninth. Boone said that was just the tip of the iceberg, pointing to at-bats involving “Judge, [Anthony] Rizzo, Carpenter -- I mean, the balls are low.”

All year, Boone has griped about low strikes called on Judge -- according to Statcast, Judge has had 53 pitches out of the strike zone called as strikes, most in the Majors.

It’s hardly a new issue for the 6-foot-7 Judge: The 433 such pitches called on him since 2017 are also the Majors’ most, which is why Judge said a college coach once advised him, “You’re not an umpire, you’re a hitter, so focus on hitting and don’t be complaining about calls.”

“It’s part of the game,” added Judge, who was rung up on a called third strike for the first out of the eighth inning. “I get frustrated in big situations like that, where it swings the count a little bit or takes the bat out of my hand. But I can go back on countless at-bats and look at pitches that I missed or fouled off and should have done damage on. I can never solely blame it on a missed call.”

It was a whimper of a finish, witnessed by a sellout crowd of 47,573, the largest to pass through Yankee Stadium’s gates this season.

Supported by Giancarlo Stanton’s 24th homer, a three-run shot in the third inning, Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery notched a quality start in what Boone called a “real gutsy effort,” holding Boston to three runs and six hits over six frames. Bobby Dalbec slugged a go-ahead homer off Aroldis Chapman in the seventh inning, an advantage that held until the ninth.

“A little adversity never hurts anybody,” Trevino said. “I think we’ll be fine.”