Wall-ball doubles sink King, Yanks in twin bill opener

BOSTON -- Having grown up in New England, Michael King has seen enough games at Fenway Park to understand what a deep fly ball toward left field is likely to look and sound like, so the Yankees right-hander felt no need to witness it with his own eyes.

Connor Wong and Alex Verdugo clanged run-scoring doubles off the Green Monster, pushing the Red Sox ahead as they handed the Yankees a 6-2 defeat in the first game of a separate-admission doubleheader on Sunday afternoon.

“We’re hitting in the same park, and I stupidly pitched into that left-field wall,” King said. “At home, there’s a lot of times that I’ll pitch away from our right field. You’ve got to know the park.”

Gleyber Torres gave the Yankees an early lead with a two-run homer in the first inning off opener Kaleb Ort, but the Bombers’ bats soon quieted -- a familiar theme for a club that has lost seven of 11 games since Aaron Judge landed on the injured list with a right big toe sprain.

“That’s the storyline. We’re going to get beat over the head with that,” manager Aaron Boone said. “The reality is, that team we’re rolling out there is capable of doing damage offensively. We’ve got plenty of guys capable of putting up big runs. I know it’s going to be the story every day until we start banging away.”

DJ LeMahieu, Anthony Rizzo and Giancarlo Stanton were among the veterans who received a verbal nudge from managing general partner Hal Steinbrenner last week; thus far, the results have been negligible. All three are batting under .200 since June 4, when Judge went on the IL.

“Obviously, it’s a big blow for us. But we’ve got to figure out how to win games,” Stanton said. “That’s the situation we’re in. We can’t have excuses.”

King took over after Clarke Schmidt held the Sox to two runs and five hits over 4 2/3 innings, with Rafael Devers and Adam Duvall picking up RBIs.

On Wong’s go-ahead hit, Rizzo cut off left fielder Jake Bauers’ throw to home plate as Kiké Hernández slid in safely. In real time, Boone and the Yankees’ bench wondered if there would have been a play at home.

“It was going to be a close play,” Boone said. “Probably one we should have let go, maybe, but not sure one way or the other.”

Justin Turner also had an RBI off King, whose 13 scoreless appearances of at least four outs are the Majors’ most this season.

“I just didn’t really adjust to their approach,” King said. “A lot of them were trying to pull me in the air. I kept throwing fastballs up and kept throwing sliders that weren’t getting away. I’m just frustrated with a lack of awareness that I couldn’t change my approach.”

With their fourth loss in five meetings against Boston, New York fell to 11-14 against American League East opponents this season, compared to 28-18 outside of the division.

“Right now, we’re going through it a little bit,” Boone said. “You’ve got to embrace that, meet it head on and pick yourselves up.”