Yankees' rallies in eighth and ninth fall short in loss to Red Sox

BOSTON — Rinse. Repeat.

It has happened a handful of times this season for the Yankees.

At various points of this disappointing start to 2021, they’ve put together stretches in which it seemed as if a turnaround was in the offing — and they expressed plenty of verbiage saying as much.

But as general manager Brian Cashman often puts it, and he did so again in April with his club off to a 5-10 start: "Talk is cheap."

Indeed.

A Yankees team that arrived at Fenway Park on Friday feeling as good as it has all season — having won seven of its last nine — quickly reverted to its inconsistent form, especially offensively.

After managing only three runs in Friday night’s loss, the Yankees watched rallies come up short in the eighth and ninth innings on Saturday night and lost to the Red Sox, 4-2, in front of a sellout crowd of 36,857.

After doing little offensively, the Yankees brought the go-ahead run to the plate against Adam Ottavino in the eighth and ninth innings, but he escaped both jams, getting Luke Voit to ground out with the bases loaded in the eighth and striking out Aaron Judge with runners on first and second and two outs in the ninth.

The Yankees made it 4-1 when DJ LeMahieu hit a two-out homer to right-centerfield in the eighth. Hirokazu Sawamura replaced starter Nathan Eovaldi and walked Judge, Gary Sanchez and Giancarlo Stanton to load the bases. But Ottavino, dealt by the Yankees to the Red Sox in the offseason as a cost-cutting move, replaced Sawamura and retired Voit.

With two outs in the ninth, a man on second and the fans in an uproar, Ottavino walked Brett Gardner and allowed LeMahieu’s fourth hit of the game, a line-drive single to center that made it 4-2. But he struck out Judge on a 96.1-mph fastball to end it.

Judge said he got himself "in trouble" against Ottavino, recalling their meeting during a game earlier this season at the Stadium.

"I was thinking he’s going to try to run that two-seamer back over the plate, which is what he did to me when I faced him at home earlier in the year when I got to 2-2," Judge said. "You kind of get caught thinking with them and you expand a little bit on a pitch off the plate. Sometimes you just have to go up there and just hit instead of trying to think with them. I have to get the job done there and get the next guy up."

The Yankees (40-36), who displayed more of the sloppiness in the field that has been characteristic of much of their season, fell to 0-5 against the Red Sox (46-31).

Said Aaron Boone, "Very difficult. These games are big and we’re fighting our butts off right now. Things didn’t go our way tonight, but we have to continue to fight to make things happen and we’ve got to find a way to push through against these clubs, especially these clubs in our division."

Jordan Montgomery had what can best be described as an interesting six-inning outing. The lefthander allowed three runs and eight hits, five of them of the infield variety. This was hardly a case of Montgomery getting barreled up throughout.

"You really just have to move on to the next hitter,’’ he said. "It’s frustrating, but you can’t pout about it during the game. Kind of just have to accept it and move on. Try and get the next guy."

Old friend Eovaldi, meanwhile, continued doing what he’s generally done against his former team: torment it. The righthander allowed one run and seven hits in 7 2⁄3 innings.

The Red Sox took the lead in the second. Xander Bogaerts reached on an infield single — hit back to Montgomery — and Rafael Devers walked. Hunter Renfroe then sent a ground smash that deflected off Montgomery’s lower body for a single that loaded the bases.

Kike Hernandez’s sacrifice fly to center made it 1-0 and then came an oddity: When Bobby Dalbec hit a foul pop behind first, Voit chased the ball down but was slow in turning back to the field and getting off a throw to the plate. Bogaerts scored standing up on an unusual sacrifice fly to the first baseman.

Said Boone, "I think he needed to work to get behind it a little bit better, but his momentum . . . you know they’re probably going to be going there with his back going away from the field, but I think he had a little bit of trouble getting a grip on it and then he kind of took a misstep on the grass, so it was just too long to collect himself."

Bogaerts started Boston’s third-inning rally with a two-out double, but Montgomery looked as if he’d get out of it when Devers chopped one to second and was called out on a bang-bang play. The Red Sox, however, challenged the call and it was overturned. Renfroe followed with yet another slow roller to second for another infield single and a 3-0 lead.

With runners on first and second in the sixth, Sanchez grounded into an inning-ending 5-4-3 double play, which allowed the Yankees to tie the Astros for the MLB lead at 74.

The Red Sox made it 4-0 in the seventh against Albert Abreu on Bogaerts' sacrifice fly.

"We’ve got to score first, that’s a big thing,’’ Judge said. "These guys have put the pressure on us early in the game; they’ll put three up, put three up, put three up, and then we’re fighting back the whole game. We’re a team that can come back no matter what the score is, but I think that’s been one of the keys is them jumping out early and kind of keeping the pressure on us. We’ve got to flip the switch and score first, put a little pressure on them."

By Erik Boland

erik.boland@newsday.comeboland11

Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.