BOSTON – Asked to record a five-out save on Friday night, Yankees closer Clay Holmes couldn’t retire a batter before allowing the Red Sox to tie the game and take the lead in a 9-7 loss.
Holmes relieved Luke Weaver with two runners on in the eighth before pinch-hitter Wilyer Abreu knotted the game at seven with an RBI double. Masataka Yoshida then added two runs with a single, cementing a teeter-totter win for the sox.
The blown save wasted two late Yankees homers, as Aaron Judge hit a three-run, 470-foot blast to give the Bombers the lead in the seventh. Austin Wells immediately followed with a solo shot, but Ceddanne Rafaela took Weaver way beyond The Green Monster for a two-run homer in the bottom of the inning. That put the Sox down one.
Earlier in the night, Nestor Cortes logged another poor performance, which ended with some frustration.
With runners on the corners and two outs in the bottom of the fifth, Aaron Boone pulled the southpaw after he had hit Rafaela. Cortes appeared surprised and annoyed with the manager’s emergence from the dugout, and he rolled his eyes before handing the ball over.
Nestor Cortes not happy soon as he sees Aaron Boone coming out to take him out of the game #REPBX #Yankees pic.twitter.com/Lm35k6lOs9
— Lucasparmenter23 (@Lucasparmenter0) July 27, 2024
Earlier in the frame, Cortes gave the Red Sox a run back on a Masataka Yoshida sac fly. The Yankees had worked hard to tie the game at three in the top of the inning, scoring two runs on a Trent Grisham double and an Alex Verdugo sac fly.
Cortes also surrendered a sac fly to Tyler O’Neill in the first. The Bombers erased that lead on Anthony Volpe’s eighth home run, a solo shot in the second inning off Brayan Bello. But a long Rafael Devers single off The Monster gave the Red Sox a 2-1 edge in the third. Former Yankee Rob Refsnyder added an RBI double in the fourth.
By the time Cortes’ outing ended, he had permitted nine hits, four earned runs, two walks, five strikeouts and 81 pitches over 4.2 innings.
With their third straight loss in the books, the Yankees are now 60-45. They’re also 15-26 since June 7. Only the White Sox have been worse over that span.
The Yankees will try to get back in the win column with Marcus Stroman on the mound.
Kutter Crawford will start for the Red Sox. He blanked the Yankees for seven innings on July 7.
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