Gerrit Cole doesn't have it as Yankees are swept by Red Sox

BOSTON — The Yankees were feeling good when they showed up at Fenway Park on Friday for an important series against their primary AL East rival — as good as they’ve felt all season after having won seven of their previous nine games.

Two days later, they left Boston in complete shambles, every bit the Team Crisis they’ve mostly been from Day 1 of the regular season.

Gerrit Cole, though still mostly good since MLB made it known in early June that it intended to crack down on the use of illegal sticky substances by pitchers, was anything but that Sunday. And that became evident right from his very first pitch, which Kike Hernandez deposited in the glove of a Yankees fan in the Green Monster seats in leftfield.

Making his first start as a Yankee at Fenway in front of fans, Cole allowed three home runs and six runs in five innings in an embarrassing 9-2 loss that allowed the Red Sox to complete their second three-game sweep of the Yankees in six games against them.

"That’s a serious punch in the mouth," Aaron Boone said.

It’s the worst start against the Red Sox by the Yankees since they lost eight straight to start 2009 (before winning nine of the last 10 and ultimately winning the World Series).

"Ultimately, we expect way more out of ourselves," Boone said. "I know the fan base expects more. To come up here and have a disappointing weekend against a team we’re trying to chase down is frustrating."

Still, that wasn’t the most pressing issue facing the Yankees, who fell to 17-24 against AL East teams.

Their inconsistent offense was a no-show all weekend (seven runs scored), consistent defense continues to be a Herculean task . . . and then there’s Cole.

Even after the stunning homer by Hernandez — the first time Cole has allowed a homer on his first pitch of a game — Rafael Devers drove a misplaced 0-and-2 fastball 451 feet into the bleachers beyond the bullpens in rightfield for a three-run homer and a 4-0 first-inning lead. And J.D. Martinez hit a 421-foot shot to center in the third to make it 5-0.

Cole brought a 1.78 ERA in 11 starts into June but has a 4.65 ERA in five starts since word of MLB’s sticky-stuff crackdown leaked.

Boone said Cole’s pitches have more or less had the same electricity as in the first two months of the season, when he was racking up historic strikeout totals. However, even Cole, whose spin rate hasn’t been as high this month, has said he’s had to make adjustments.

After beating the Blue Jays on June 16 with eight solid innings, he said, "You can still pitch well if you don’t have a high spin rate." He said his issue Sunday wasn’t spin rate but an overall lack of command and a couple of mistake pitches.

The biggest was the one to Devers, a 100.1-mph fastball that became the third baseman’s 19th home run.

Cole felt his pitches started to come out of his hand better after the first but, "at that point, most of the damage had been done."

Of performing the way he did in the first, with the Yankees desperate not to get swept, Cole said: "Everybody was well aware of the importance of the game. It’s a pretty brutal feeling to let the team down like that."

Red Sox lefty Eduardo Rodriguez, who entered the day 5-4 but with a 6.07 ERA, struck out eight and did not walk a batter in six innings in which he allowed two runs and five hits. The Yankees struck out 13 times, bringing their total for the series to 30, and grounded into their fifth double play of the series and 75th overall.

The runs came on Aaron Judge’s two-run blast in the sixth, with his team-best 17th homer pulling the Yankees within 6-2. There were no further highlights for the visitors, and Christian Vazquez hit Boston’s fourth homer of the game in the eighth.

What did this series do to the Yankees’ mindset after arriving here feeling there was a chance to gain ground in the AL East?

"Challenges it," Cole said.

How do you respond?

"As best you can," he said, "when you get punched in the face."

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.