NEW YORK -- Chris Sale was throwing wipeout sliders in the first couple of innings at Yankee Stadium. Red-hot Rafael Devers hit a solo shot in the second.

It looked like the Red Sox were going to open this big three-game series in the Bronx just like they needed to. And then the rest of the game happened.

In a way, Friday night felt like the 2019 season in a nutshell so far for the 29-28 Red Sox. Glimmers of hope, but then disjointed results.

It was the Yankees who got timely hits and strong pitching en route to a 4-1 victory that pinned the Red Sox 8 1/2 games back in the American League East -- marking Boston’s largest deficit since April 17.

• Box score

Sale slipped to 1-7 on the season, mainly due to the Yankees touching him up for three runs in a game-turning bottom of the third. DJ LeMahieu (RBI double) and Aaron Hicks (two-run single) had the damaging hits. Two innings later, shortly after a baserunning gaffe by Eduardo Núñez, LeMahieu hammered a solo homer to right-center.

Over six innings, Sale allowed seven hits and four runs, walking one and striking out 10. His run-support average is 3.03, by far the lowest of any member of Boston’s starting rotation.

“It’s just frustrating where we’re at,” said Sale. “Collectively as a group, we have to find a way to start winning. I’m not going to throw anybody under the bus. I have to go out there and pitch better. If I don’t have a blowup third inning, we’ve got ourselves a ballgame. As much as you point a finger at anybody in this clubhouse, you can point it right at me, too.”

So what happened with Sale?

In the first inning, the Yankees whiffed at six of the eight sliders that Sale fired. He generated 21 swings and misses on the night.

But in that third inning, Sale temporarily lost the feel for his slider just when he needed it most.

“The one to LeMahieu was kind of a backdoor slider that didn’t really break a whole lot,” Sale said. “Hicks was kind of the same thing.”

It has been a strange season for Sale. He has had nights of utter dominance -- such as a 14-K game against the Orioles on May 8 and the May 14 performance against the Rockies in which he became the first pitcher in history to strike out 17 batters in a start of seven innings or fewer.

There have also been nights like Friday, when he was two to three pitches away from being stellar. The Red Sox are 3-9 when he pitches, which seems almost unfathomable.

“It’s not where we want to be,” said Sale. “It’s not where I want to be. It’s not who I am. It’s not who I’ve ever been. I have to find a way to be better, whether it’s going out there and throwing up more zeros [or] being able to pick up my guys when we’re scuffling a little bit.”

So what happened with Nunez?

A promising rally for the Sox got cut short in the top of the fifth when Nunez was picked off second on a bullet throw by catcher Gary Sanchez with Andrew Benintendi up as the potential go-ahead run and J.D. Martinez on deck.

It was a crushing development, especially with New York’s vaunted bullpen looming for the final four innings. The Red Sox didn’t push another runner into scoring position for the rest of the night.

“You know, [Sanchez] did a good job, made a good throw,” Nunez said. “I was a little too aggressive. I was trying to make sure if [Benintendi] hit the ball hard, I could score, and he made a good throw. That was a rookie mistake.”

The Red Sox didn’t make mistakes like that last year, but they’ve had strange lapses in focus this season.

“It can’t happen,” said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. “Seems like the last seven, eight days we regressed back to being sloppy around the bases. That can’t happen. Benny’s putting good at-bats against [J.A.] Happ. It’s a play that probably was a set pick, a set play, but that can’t happen. He knows it.”

Nunez apologized to Cora in the dugout.

“I apologized because I know there’s two outs, two guys on base, and it can change the game,” Nunez said. “It was a rookie mistake and I told him, ‘My bad.’ That’s not going to happen again.”

So what’s happened to the Red Sox?

For most of May, the Red Sox looked like a team that was regaining its footing. The Sox reeled off a 12-3 stretch from April 29-May 15 but finished the month losing three in a row, and five of their last seven. Since May 17, Boston is 6-8.

“Now we’ve got June,” said Cora. “We’ve got to turn the page and play good baseball. We didn’t finish the month the way we wanted. We played good for a while there. Over the last week, it hasn’t been consistent.”

Making it so strange is that it’s almost the same roster that set a franchise record with 108 wins last year and romped through its postseason opponents at an 11-3 clip.

“We’re something away from where we need to be, we just have to find that something, whatever it is, where it is,” said Sale. “Change our socks. [Eat] frozen pizza. I don’t know. Like I said, we just have to find a way. It’s within reach. It’s not like we’re out in the middle of the ocean. We know what we’ve got. We have a bunch of guys who can find a way to do it.”

Nunez pointed out that it’s important the Red Sox stay together during this difficult stretch rather than splinter.

“If we start pointing [fingers] or making excuses, we’re taking the wrong way to getting back,” Nunez said. “I think you have to accept that we’re not playing the right way and work hard and do our homework. There’s still four more months. We know how good we are. We know what kind of team we have. And I think we have to just stop being upset with ourselves or feeling sorry for ourselves. Turn the page and play better.”