Red Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi waits as Luke Voit of the Yankees circles the bases after a home run in the second game of a doubleheader Tuesday. Frank Franklin II/Associated Press
The Boston Red Sox are blowing a good thing and acting like it’s no big deal.
Manager Alex Cora and Co. aren’t panicking, but maybe they should be after freefalling their way from a nice lead in the American League East in early July to not holding a playoff spot after losing both ends of a day-night doubleheader to the Yankees on Tuesday at Yankee Stadium.
“It’s not deflating,” Cora said after the Yankees prevailed 5-3 in the opener and 2-0 in Game 2. “It’s two games we lost. Whatever.”
Yes, these were just two losses, but they were two more losses. The Red Sox are 15-21 since winning on July 5 to go 22 games over .500. Then, they had a 4½-game division lead on the Tampa Bay Rays and were up 10½ games on the fourth-place Yankees.
The Red Sox still were in first on July 25 after giving the Yankees what appeared to be a stake to the heart. That’s the day when Domingo German took a 4-0 lead and a no-hitter into the eighth inning, only to watch Boston score five times en route to a 5-4 stunner that left the Yankees nine games off the pace.
Since then, the Yankees haven’t lost a series despite having an overloaded injured list that was 20 players deep just a few days ago.
“They’ve got a lot of guys that are capable of stepping up and it’s part of having a good farm system,” said Red Sox pitcher Nathan Eovaldi. “When key guys go down, they can get the job done.”
The previous time Boston was in New York, Cora felt sorry for the Yankees because they had five players go on the COVID IL. But Triple-A call-ups and trade-deadline deals for Anthony Rizzo and Joey Gallo balanced out the Yankees’ lineup, added speed and improved the defense.
“They have a good team,” Cora said. “I’ve been saying it all along. They did some good things when they were in trouble with the COVID and all that. They’re playing a different brand of baseball. That’s a different team from early in the season. They’re more agile, more versatile, more athletic.
“And one thing they’ve done throughout the season: They can pitch, and they’ve done it throughout. Obviously they’ve had some rough patches, but I think overall their starting rotation is pretty solid. Their bullpen is good. When you pitch, you give yourself a chance to win ballgames, and that’s what they done.”
Cora is confident his ballclub will snap out of its slump because of its pitching, which got a big boost last weekend with seven-time All-Star left-hander Chris Sale returning from Tommy John surgery to win his first start since 2019. Cora also is a big fan of his team’s slumping offense, which was among the best in baseball in the first half of the season.
“Pitching wise … we feel like the guy out there is going to give us a chance to win the game, and that’s very important,” Cora said. “I think offensively we’re a lot better than we showed (Tuesday).”
In the doubleheader, the Red Sox managed just three runs over 14 innings. Down two runs in the opener, Boston had the bases loaded with nobody out in the last inning but didn’t score. In the nightcap, the only runs of the game came on solo homers by Luke Voit and Giancarlo Stanton off Eovaldi.
“Things aren’t going our way,” Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers said. “In the beginning of the season and before the All-Star break, things were going our way. Now we have to find a different way to find those wins.”
Cora figures it’s going to be a fun final six weeks of the season with the Red Sox and Yankees fighting it out for one or two playoff spots.
“Before the season, everybody thought (the Yankees) were going to be in this situation,” Cora said. “They did an outstanding job to gain ground, but we still have a lot of baseball to play.”
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