Yankees’ Aaron Boone deserves blame after Red Sox debacle, but how much?

Yankees manager Aaron Boone deserves some of the fault for his team’s recent terrible play, which continued with a 15-7 beatdown from the Red Sox on Thursday, August 2, 2018 (8/2/18) at Fenway Park in Boston, Mass. With the win, the Red Sox opened a 6.5-game lead over the Yankees in the American League East.

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BOSTON — The final score showed a drubbing, and a drubbing it was. Hard to pinpoint exactly how the Yankees could have kept up with the Red Sox when Boston just continued to pummel them all night.

But Aaron Boone do the Yankees any favors in the fourth inning of the 15-7 loss to the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday.

And it’s fair to question if his managerial style was partially to blame for some of his team’s ugly moments in the defeat. And it’s fair to wonder if it’s led to some of them at various points this season.

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The Yankees have suffered back-to-back embarrassing fates. On Wednesday, the last-place Orioles smacked them around at home, and the team looked lackadaisical throughout.

On Thursday, Boone called it a “bump in the road” for the Yankees, who fell to 6 1/2 games back of the Red Sox in the American League East.

The rookie skipper was pressed on that and stuck with it.

“No,” he said. “I see it as we didn’t play great these last two days but I have a lot of belief in those guys, and the approach those guys have going into the day, and that they’re properly prepared as we head into the night.”

No question, Boone stuck with clearly struggling reliever Jonathan Holder way too long in the Red Sox’s eight-run fourth inning that dug the Yankees’ grave.

Holder gave up seven earned runs, facing seven hitters without getting a single out. It was obvious Holder didn’t have it when he walked No. 9 hitter Jackie Bradley Jr. on five pitches to start the inning.

But Boone should have yanked Holder after he gave up a three-run shot to Steve Pearce. Holder was tasked with keeping a 4-2 lead at the start of the inning. The home run made it 6-4 Red Sox. Instead of pulling Holder after the blast, Boone left him  in and he gave up a double, an RBI single, a stolen base that didn’t even involve him throwing a pitch, and an RBI double.

Then Boone finally brought in Chad Green for Holder.

And then there’s the sloppy play.

On Wednesday, third base coach Phil Nevin went off on the Yankees in the dugout for seemingly loafing it through a few plays early in the game. Twice hot-shot rookie Gleyber Torres was guilty.

On Thursday, there were several instances of the Yankees looking like anything other than a team with baseball’s second best record.

Holder made a Little League mistake that led to a run, fielding a comebacker and throwing to third to try to get the runner instead of either cutting him off at home or running at him. The result: Jackie Bradley Jr. raced home and slid in just under the tag for a run. Also in the inning, Holder had no clue Andrew Benintendi was stealing second base. He didn’t step off the rubber until the last second as Benintendi got the bag.

Earlier, third baseman Miguel Andujar took it slow on a grounder and Eduardo Nunez beat his throw to first. And late in the game, with the based loaded and one out, first baseman Greg Bird fielded a groundball. He looked to second, didn’t throw. Instead of running to first base, he looked to see if he could throw it, but realized it wouldn’t make it in time and held onto the ball. Everybody was safe.

It was bad. Pair that with Gary Sanchez’s infamous lack of hustle and the team’s shoddier-than-expected defense, you wonder how much should fall on Boone and his ability to ready the Yankees?

Yes, they have the second-best record in baseball, but much of that was built on an incredible stretch that they might not be able to duplicate.

Now they have to get it together and it has to start with Boone’s direction.

Brendan Kuty may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @BrendanKutyNJ. Find NJ.com Yankees on Facebook.