Jhony Brito gets pummeled as Yankees lose sixth straight
Yankees starting pitcher Jhony Brito gave up seven runs in the first two innings to the Red Sox on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
Is this rock bottom?
That’s a question the Yankees and their fans keep asking.
The Yankees’ latest debacle was Friday night’s 8-3 loss to the Red Sox before a near-sellout crowd of 44,566 at Yankee Stadium.
It was the last-place Yankees’ sixth straight loss and dropped them to 60-62 — seven games behind Seattle for the third wild-card spot, 6 1⁄2 games behind Toronto and four games behind Boston.
The Yankees have not had a losing season since 1992.
Boston took a 4-0 lead against rookie Jhony Brito four batters into the game and went ahead 7-0 one out into the second.
The Yankees handled the bottom five batters in the Red Sox order (1-for-20), but the top four hitters were 11-for-18 with eight RBIs. Alex Verdugo, Rafael Devers and Justin Turner had three hits each and Masataka Yoshida added two, including a three-run homer.
At least the Yankees scored after being shut out in Atlanta in their previous two games. Before Aaron Judge hit a two-run shot into the short porch in rightfield in the eighth for his 23rd homer (in only 68 games), they had scored two runs in their previous 32 innings.
Brito, who came into the game with a 9.26 first-inning ERA in his 12 previous starts this season, was not permitted by the umpires to use his PitchCom device at all because the Red Sox’s PitchCom devices were not working.
Manager Aaron Boone was miffed that the Red Sox and the umpires didn’t raise the issue until just before game time. “Interesting timing of that right there,” Boone said, although neither he nor Brito blamed the results on the issue. “Not an ideal situation, obviously, right before you’re getting ready to throw the first pitch.”
Verdugo led off the game with a double, moved to third on a single by Devers and scored on Turner’s single. With Yoshida at the plate, Yankees pitching coach Matt Blake came to the mound because Brito and catcher Ben Rortvedt were having issues getting together on old-fashioned finger signs.
“We haven’t put down fingers in a long time,” Rortvedt said. “We didn’t get notice until warm-ups [before the first inning]. I had to run out and kind of go over [signs] with him . . . It was just kind of weird that we found out so close to first pitch and kind of had to totally change our game plan.”
After Blake’s visit, Rortvedt called for a 1-and-0 changeup. Yoshida hit it over the fence in right-center for a three-run homer and a 4-0 Boston lead.
In the second, Gleyber Torres fielded a one-out grounder by Pablo Reyes by smothering it against his midsection. Torres got the ball in his hand, moved it behind his back to throw to first . . . and dropped it for an error. Verdugo, Devers, Turner and Yoshida followed with singles, with the last three driving in runs, and Boston had a 7-0 lead.
The crowd, which was surprisingly tame as the hits kept on comin’ for Boston, finally booed loudly after Yoshida’s single gave him four RBIs.
Brito (4-6, 5.43 ERA) was removed after a one-out double by Reese McGuire in the third. In 2 1⁄3 innings, he gave up nine hits and was charged with seven runs (six earned).
Three Yankees relievers allowed one run, three hits and a walk in 6 2⁄3 innings, striking out eight, but at that point, it didn’t matter.
The Yankees scored their first run since Monday’s ninth inning when Anthony Volpe led off the third with a double off Brayan Bello (six innings, one run) and scored two batters later on DJ LeMahieu’s grounder to third.
Ian Hamilton replaced Brito and was the Yankees’ star of the game. The righthander allowed one hit and struck out five in a career-high 3 2⁄3 innings.
Anthony Rieber covers baseball, as well as the NFL, NBA and NHL. He has worked at Newsday since Aug. 31, 1998, and has been in his current position since July 5, 2004.
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