The Bronx is burning.
Just like the Yankees proved who they were when they won five straight against lowly St. Louis and Tampa Bay, they’re doing it again in this series against Boston.
With Saturday’s 12-1 embarrassment at the Stadium, the Yankees have now dropped eight consecutive games to their rivals, and are on the verge of getting swept at the Stadium on Sunday night.
And it’s not a new development.
They have lost every series they’ve played against an above-.500 team since sweeping the Mariners from July 8-10.
And prior to that series, you have to go back to a sweep of the Royals a month earlier for another series victory against a winning club.
With “Let’s Go Red Sox” chants coming from the crowd in a train wreck top of the ninth inning that featured misplays all over the field in a seven-run inning, as well as a Paul Blackburn balk that forced in a run, the Yankees have let any momentum they built on the road slip away entirely.
This one was hardly a surprise, as the Yankees were dominated by Garrett Crochet for the second straight time.
The lefty held them to one run over seven innings — with 11 strikeouts — after he gave up just one run over 8 ¹/₃ innings against them in a June 13 start at Fenway Park.
And just like in other games in this series, the Yankees were also done in by their own mistakes.
On Saturday, the first one came in the third inning when Austin Wells misplayed a foul pop-up by Alex Bregman to extend the inning for Will Warren.
Bregman walked and two batters later, Trevor Story’s two-run double gave the Red Sox the lead for good.
The Yankees had a chance to get back in the game against ex-Yankee right-hander Greg Weissert, as Aaron Judge doubled and Cody Bellinger singled to bring up Giancarlo Stanton — who’d provided their only offense against Crochet with a leadoff homer in the bottom of the fourth.
But Stanton whiffed and pinch-hitter Jazz Chisholm Jr. struck out against left-hander Justin Wilson.
Warren’s struggles began earlier in the inning.
He gave up consecutive one-out singles, with slow-footed catcher Carlos Narváez going to third base easily on Roman Anthony’s rocket to right, where Stanton fielded the ball gingerly.
Warren, unable to get out of the fifth inning for a second straight start, almost escaped the third without allowing a run, but Wells appeared to lose the ball in the sun and couldn’t make the catch and Bregman walked on the next pitch.
With the bases loaded, Warren struck out Jarren Duran for the second out, but Story followed with a two-run double.
The Red Sox loaded the bases with no one out in the fourth and Anthony and Bregman hit sacrifice flies to make it 4-0.
The Yankees scored their first run since the fifth inning Thursday when Stanton homered to open the bottom of the fourth.
Amed Rosario followed with a single, but was stranded at second after Anthony Volpe bunted with one out.
After Paul Goldschmidt’s one-out single in the fifth, Judge hit one to the wall in right, but Anthony made the catch.
Warren was unable to get through five innings for a second straight start.
It all follows a five-game winning streak that got the Yankees back atop the AL wild-card race.
And with the Red Sox having dropped three in a row — and seven of 10 — entering the series, the Yankees had a chance to put some space between them and Boston in the standings.
Instead, they’re looking up in the wild-card race — and watching Toronto take a commanding lead in the division.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
