'We're all frustrated': Yankees head home after 2-7 road trip

BOSTON -- The string of zeros lining Fenway Park’s iconic scoreboard was not an ideal outcome for anyone wearing road gray on Sunday evening, but as Aaron Judge surveyed the Green Monster’s painted green tin, the Yankees star found solace in the left-field corner: where the American League East standings reside.

As the Yankees wrapped a brutal road trip, going down swiftly and quietly in a nationally televised 3-0 loss to the Red Sox, Judge pointed once more to the healthy advantage his club holds in the division. With a 10-game lead, there is still time to fix what ails them.

“If you would have asked me at the start of the year, would I like a 10-game lead in the middle of August?” Judge said, “I think any of us would have signed up for that. There’s little things we need to improve on, going back over this whole road trip -- different things on the basepaths, executing with guys in scoring position, picking each other up.”

The Yankees went a combined 2-7 on their swing through St. Louis, Seattle and Boston, swept by the Cardinals at a broiling-hot Busch Stadium and losing a 13-inning heartbreaker during their visit to the Emerald City.

Fenway was an opportunity to fatten up against the cellar-dwelling Sox, who largely petered out of the postseason chase after July 4 and had not yet won a series of two or more games against a division rival. Behind a dominant performance from Michael Wacha, they now have.

“We got shut out today, and that’s going to happen over a long haul,” manager Aaron Boone said. “You try to take a bigger snapshot look, and the offense has been going pretty solid. You’re going to have these games where you struggle a little bit, a couple of guys out of the lineup, beat up a little bit. A hot pitcher can make it tough on a given night.”

On deck is a nine-game homestand against the Rays, Blue Jays and Mets, and while the Yanks have been dominant in the Bronx this year (41-15), most of that damage came early in the season. The Bombers haven’t won consecutive games in August, falling to 3-8 this month.

“Not our best road trip. We’re all frustrated,” said DJ LeMahieu, one of the aforementioned players missing from Sunday’s lineup, nursing a sore right big toe. “I think all of us can pick it up a little bit. We know how good of a team we are. We just haven’t been playing like it.”

The Yanks would have about an hour and 20 minutes in the air to chew on this loss, just slightly less time than it took to play the contest. They were handcuffed over seven innings by Wacha, who came off the injured list to turn in one of Boston’s most dominant performances of the season.

The first 14 Yanks were retired until Miguel Andújar singled off Wacha in the fifth; New York managed just one other hit the rest of the way, an Andrew Benintendi knock in the seventh.

Judge went hitless for a second consecutive night, striking out three times in four at-bats and snapping a 14-game on-base streak. Judge noted that the lineup is not at full strength, with LeMahieu resting and Giancarlo Stanton working his way back from left Achilles soreness.

“We’ve got a lot of guys coming back,” Judge said. “These guys are going to step up. We’ve still got a good ballclub here, capable of going out there to win every single game. We’ve just got to pick each other up and move on.”

Jameson Taillon accepted the loss, permitting three runs over seven innings. Tommy Pham roped a leadoff double, then scored on two groundouts, providing the only run Boston would need. Rafael Devers belted a two-run homer in the sixth off Taillon, who scattered six hits, striking out four without a walk.

“Earlier in the year, when things were really going our way, it seemed like everyone was just doing their thing at the same exact time,” Taillon said. “It helps that we have a lot of veterans in here, guys who have done it for a long time. It doesn’t seem like there’s too much panic or anything.”