Red Sox embarrass Yankees, Steve Pearce hits 3 homers | Rapid reaction

The Yankees suffered one of their most embarrassing losses of the season when they fell, 15-7, to the Red Sox at Fenway Park on Thursday.

BOSTON — There was nothing Brett Gardner could do. Steve Pearce hit the ball so hard, so high, that even with the Green Monster at his back, Gardner knew any energy expended would be wasted. So Gardner stood and watched the Yankees‘ lead vanish into the night sky.

That feeling of helplessness would multiply throughout one of the most embarrassing Yankees losses of the season.

Their 15-7 clubbing at the hands of their blood rival Red Sox at Fenway Park was witnessed by 37,317. Each one of them watched the two teams with the best records in baseball. They also saw just how big the gulf between them can be at times.

The Yankees lost a 4-0 lead. CC Sabathia went just three innings — his shortest start of the season. Didi Gregorius clubbed two home runs, but Pearce hit three and drove in six runs.

Jonathan Holder turned in the most pathetic Yankees relief appearance all year in a eight-run Boston fourth inning. Boston stole four bases. And Luis Cessa, who was scheduled to start Saturday in place of J.A. Happ (hand, foot and throat disease), had to go 3 1/3 innings to bail out manager Aaron Boone, who continued a rookie campaign dotted with questions over his bullpen usage.

What it means

With three more games in Boston, the Yankees fell 6 1/2 games behind the Red Sox in the American League East.

They dropped to 5-5 against Boston this season. It was the most runs and hits (19) they allowed in a game all season. 

The Yankees probably hoped they had seen the worst of it Wednesday, when Sonny Gray got rocked by the lowly Orioles at Yankee Stadium.

Total collapse

While most of the game was ugly, the fourth inning was the depth of hell for the Yankees.

Ahead 4-2, Boone took Sabathia out after three innings and 75 pitches with the top of the order due up. The manager turned to Jonathan Holder. It went terribly.

Holder got rocked for seven earned runs without even getting an out. Boston smacked him for five hits, including Pearce’s three-run moonshot that snapped the Yankees’ lead and put them down, 6-4.

And Holder made two bonehead plays in the field. He nabbed a comebacker with runners on second base and third base. Jackie Bradley Jr. deked Holder into thinking he was going back to third, but sprinted home, and Bradley slid head-first ahead of Andujar’s throw and just under catcher Austin Romine’s tag.

And Holder let Andrew Benintendi straight up steal second base with hardly an effort. Despite Romine yelling at Holder to step off, Holder didn’t try throwing Benintendi out at second base until he was basically already safe.

Holder’s season ERA astonishingly went from 2.06 to 3.50 in just seven batters.

When Boone finally had seen enough of Holder following a ex-Yankee Eduardo Nunez’s RBI double, he went to Green, whom he probably should have used in the first place. Green allowed two of Holder’s runs to score on three hits.

When the Yankees were winning

A 4-0 lead going into the bottom of the second inning looked like just the start the Yankees needed.

Didi Gregorius rocked his first homer of the night in the third, a three-run shot, putting it just over the wall in right-center field in the first inning.

In the second, Aaron Hicks led off with a solo shot.

But Sabathia labored. Sabathia loaded the bases with one out. Then he walked Mookie Betts to bring in Boston’s first run. It was all the Red Sox would get, but Sabathia spent 36 pitches on the frame. 

In the third, Pearce hit his first home run, a leadoff shot, and Sabathia got through the inning despite letting runners reach second and third. Sabathia made an error that extended the inning, taking Blake Swihart’s line drive off his body and then throwing the ball well over first base so Swihart to make it to second.

Sabathia walked four batters, struck out two and gave up three hits.

Giancarlo Stanton hit a meaningless solo home run in the seventh inning over the Green Monster and out of the ballpark.

Next

Yankees righty Luis Severino (14-4, 2.94 ERA) will face Red Sox righty Rick Porcello (13-4, 4.03 ERA) at 7:10 p.m. Friday at Fenway Park.

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