BOSTON — The Yankees have found different ways to lose this season, but there’s been nothing as wild as Thursday night’s gut-punch loss.
Brooks Kriske threw four wild pitches and gave up two runs in the bottom of the 10th inning as the Yankees crumbled to the Red Sox, 5-4, at Fenway.
“I am still pretty sick to my stomach,” Yankees starter Jordan Montgomery said after watching the Bombers blow a two-run lead in the ninth and a one-run lead in the 10th.
The loss snapped a four-game winning streak for the Yankees (50-45) and dug the hole in the standings they are trying to climb out of even deeper. The Red Sox (59-38) have won six straight at Fenway against the Yankees.
The Yankees dropped to eight games behind the division-leading Red Sox in the American League East race. They also dropped to four games out in the race for an AL Wild Card spot.
Kriske is just one of six pitchers in the modern era to throw four wild pitches in an inning, the last being R.A. Dickey in 2006.
The Red Sox scored two runs off Kriske without a hit in the 10th. Rafael Devers, who started the inning on second base, advanced to third on a wild pitch and then scored on another. After a walk to Xander Bogaerts, the Red Sox shortstop got to third on the wild pitches and then scored the winning run on Hunter Renfroe’s walk-off sacrifice fly.
“It’s not fun,” Kriske said. “A lot of guys were battling their butts off. It sucks to be the guy who blows it.”
He wasn’t the only one.
Chad Green blew his second save in as many chances in the ninth. He gave up a two-out, two-run, game-tying double to Enrique Hernandez to send the game into extra innings.
“I felt good about Greenie in a save situation tonight. So, it was gonna be Cessa there in the eighth,” Aaron Boone said. “Remember Cessa is coming off of throwing 30 pitches [two days ago], so I was a little reluctant to throw him out there for a second [inning]. Especially when I got Greenie sitting there.”
The Yankees bullpen was in a bind.
They used most of their high-leverage relievers Wednesday night in a 10-inning, walk-off win over the Phillies. In fact the Bombers used Zack Britton on back-to-back nights for the first time this season. Aroldis Chapman also pitched back-to-back nights and was dealing with a nail issue.
As Kriske was melting down, Justin Wilson was throwing in the bullpen to get hot in a hurry. But once Kriske started the inning, he had to face three batters and that was all the Red Sox needed.
“He’s in a similar situation last night and and you know really delivered so it’s a tough situation for him to be in,” the Yankees manager said. “At times his issue is struggling with command, but I don’t necessarily think it was necessarily a moment issue as he just struggled a little bit tonight.”
Kriske was optioned to Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre after the game.
The Yankees needed every out they could get from Montgomery and the rest of their bullpen. The lefty starter gave them 5.2 scoreless innings, including coming out after a 55-minute rain delay to pitch his last 1.2 innings. During his outing he scattered three hits and walked one batter, mixing in his curveball earlier than usual.
They got two outs from right-hander Sal Romano, who was called up from Triple-A before Thursday’s game and replaced Wednesday starter Asher Wojcieschowski on the roster.
Lucas Luetge came in to clean up and got dinged on a ground ball to Gleyber Torres that the shortstop could not field cleanly. Bobby Dalbec followed with a single to right field and then Tyler Wade stopped Michael Chavis’ sharp ground ball to third, but dropped the ball as he made the transfer and loaded the bases.
Hernandez hit a long fly ball to center to score Verdugo for the tying run.
Luis Cessa came in to protect the lead, pitching a perfect eighth before handing the game off to Green.
“It’s another gut punch,” Boone said. “A lot of good things that went on tonight and out there and they put together some really good at-bats there in the ninth. So yeah, it certainly stings on a long night here.”
