NEW YORK -- Another rough night at the plate for the Red Sox, another tough challenge that left the pitching staff with no margin for error.

In what was mostly a stellar night for Boston’s bullpen, Juan Soto delivered a walk-off single to lead off the bottom of the 10th against Josh Winckowski, scoring automatic runner Jon Berti to give the Yankees a 2-1 victory over the Red Sox in Thursday’s opener of a four-game series.

Boston tied it on Danny Jansen’s solo homer to left against Nestor Cortes to lead off the top of the fifth, but neither team scored again until the game-ending knock by Soto.

The loss dropped the Red Sox 4 1/2 games back in the American League Wild Card standings, with 15 games left.

Cooper Criswell turned in a solid start for the Red Sox, giving up four hits and a run over 5 1/3 innings while walking three and striking out four. The run was to the first batter he faced, as Gleyber Torres led off the bottom of the first with a home run to right that, per Statcast, wouldn’t have left any other ballpark.