Yanks looking for answers against Red Sox

BOSTON -- Aaron Judge readied his bat in the batter’s box, recalling the five pitches he had seen in a ninth-inning showdown against Adam Ottavino. He also traced the details of a similar matchup three weeks ago in New York, determining that he was about to see a sinker. He guessed right, swung -- and missed.

Judge glared after waving at that pitch off the plate, sealing the Yankees’ 4-2 loss to the Red Sox on Saturday at Fenway Park. The Bombers had hoped to carry a hot streak into the weekend, but that surge has stalled, challenging ace Gerrit Cole to avert a sweep on Sunday afternoon. New York is now 0-5 this season against Boston.

• Box score

“We’ve got to score first. That’s the big thing,” Judge said. “These guys have put the pressure on us early in the game, and then we’re fighting back the whole game. That’s no problem for us; we’re a team that can come back no matter what the score is, but one of the keys is them jumping out early. We’ve got to flip the switch.”

Saturday’s contest followed that familiar pattern, with Nathan Eovaldi handcuffing his former club into the eighth inning. DJ LeMahieu broke up the shutout, chasing Eovaldi with a solo homer to right-center field. Judge, Gary Sánchez and Giancarlo Stanton each worked walks against Hirokazu Sawamura to load the bases, but Luke Voit grounded into an inning-ending fielder’s choice against another former Yankee in Ottavino.

New York tried again in the ninth. Facing a fatiguing Ottavino, Gleyber Torres snapped an 0-for-19 skid with a one-out single. Pinch-hitter Rougned Odor grounded into a fielder’s choice, but Brett Gardner walked and LeMahieu stroked his fourth hit of the game to make it 4-2 and bring Judge to the plate. Six pitches later, the game was over. Cole, who likened the series to “a heavyweight fight,” will be responsible for helping his team get off the mat.

“These games are big,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’re fighting our butts off right now. Things didn't go our way tonight, but we’ve got to continue to fight to make things happen. We’ve got to find a way to push through against these clubs, especially these clubs in our division.”

The Yankees are 0-5 against Boston for the first time since 2009, when their head-to-head play improved markedly in the second half en route to the club’s most recent World Series championship. But it hasn’t just been Boston; the Yanks -- now six games behind the Rays and 5 1/2 behind the Red Sox -- are 17-23 against AL East opponents this year, but 23-13 against all other teams.

“It's the best division in baseball, that’s why,” Judge said. “We're playing against the best. The atmosphere tonight was electric. That's what you love; you love those big spots, big situations and getting booed. That's when it's fun. We’ve got a tough division, so it's time for us to step up and do our job.”

Soft stuff
Jordan Montgomery was nicked for three runs and eight hits over six innings, though Boston didn’t exactly bang balls off the walls. Two infield hits and a pair of sacrifice flies fueled an early lead, including a sac fly to first baseman Luke Voit, who tossed home too late to catch Rafael Devers alertly tagging on the foul popup.

Hunter Renfroe added a run-scoring infield single in the third inning off Montgomery, who saw his string of six consecutive team victories in his starts snapped. Five of the eight hits Montgomery allowed never left the infield.

“A lot of bad luck, but I battled through it and gave us six good innings,” Montgomery said. “Three runs, our offense is more than capable of picking that up and helping me out. Really, I just kept trying to get deeper into the game.”

Xander Bogaerts lifted a seventh-inning sac fly off reliever Albert Abreu to extend Boston’s advantage, delighting a sold-out crowd of 36,857.

Righties remembered
A member of the 2015-16 Yankees, Eovaldi has embraced the challenge of facing the Bombers. He has permitted zero or one earned run in six of his seven starts against New York since joining Boston in 2018, pitching to a 2.20 ERA over that span.

Judge hit into a first-inning double play and Sánchez ended the sixth inning with a twin killing against Eovaldi, who set season highs in innings (7 2/3) and pitches (109).

“The biggest thing is continuing to make sure we get guys on base,” Judge said. “Whenever we get traffic out there, it causes the pitcher to work a little harder.”

Ottavino spent the 2019-20 seasons with New York, then was traded this past offseason in exchange for financial compensation -- essentially a move that permitted the Yankees to sign Gardner, right-hander Darren O’Day and left-hander Justin Wilson while remaining under the Competitive Balance Tax threshold.

“We definitely don’t like losing to these guys,” LeMahieu said. “We have a lot more games with them this year, so hopefully we can turn the tide on them. … They’ve just outplayed us for five straight games.”