The Yankees walked into Fenway and got handled by a 23-year-old lefty who made the lineup look asleep for most of the night.
The Yankees fell to the Red Sox 6-1 on Friday night at Fenway Park, and there is really no pretty way to dress this one up. Boston punched first, kept adding on, and the Yankees offense spent most of the night making Payton Tolle look like he had been doing this for ten years.
The loss drops the Yankees to 48-33, while the Red Sox improve to 34-46. That record still looks nice for the Yankees, but nobody in the Bronx wants to hear about the standings after watching the lineup get three-hit in Boston. Not against the Red Sox. Not at Fenway. Not with another quiet night from too many bats that are supposed to carry this team.
Payton Tolle Had Them Guessing
Tolle retired the first 16 Yankees he faced before Spencer Jones finally broke it up with a single in the sixth inning. That was the kind of night it was. The Yankees were not building innings, not stressing the defense, not forcing Boston to make tough pitches with traffic on the bases. They were just walking back to the dugout.
Tolle went seven scoreless innings, allowed just one hit, walked two, and struck out seven. The Yankees did not get on the board until the eighth, when Anthony Volpe doubled and Austin Wells brought him in with an RBI groundout. That was the entire offense. One run. Three hits. A whole lot of nothing.
Will Warren Did Not Have It
Will Warren had been steady for the Yankees lately, but this was his roughest start in a while. Boston jumped him early, starting with Willson Contreras driving in a run in the first. The Red Sox added two more in the second, then Contreras sent a curveball over the Green Monster in the third to make it 4-0.
Warren finished with 5 2/3 innings, seven hits, five earned runs, three walks, and no strikeouts. That last part tells you a lot. He was not missing bats, and Boston made him pay for too much contact.
The dugouts and bullpens emptied in the fifth after Contreras walked and had words toward the mound. Paul Goldschmidt stepped in near first base, and for a few seconds, Fenway had the extra drama everyone loves to pretend they hate. Nothing major came from it, but Boston already had control of the scoreboard. That is the part that stings.
What Comes Next
The Yankees stay in Boston and will try to stop this thing from getting uglier on Saturday. Gerrit Cole gets the ball for New York against Red Sox left-hander Jake Bennett. That is exactly the kind of game where the Yankees need their ace to calm everything down.
Because losing happens. Getting one-hit through seven innings by Boston? That is the part Yankees fans are not going to laugh off.
Born in Manhattan, New York, Felix Pantaleon is a Dominican-American digital content creator and the founder of NYYNEWS, one of the first and longest-running independent New York Yankees content creator platforms, active since 2005.
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