Red Sox smothered by Yankees again as offensive woes mount

Early in the season it can be easy to overreact to a slow start. Sometimes it takes time for certain guys to get going, and slumps tend to get magnified more than they do later in the year.

But nearly a month into the season, the Red Sox are now past the point where their poor performance can be dismissed as a product of a small sample size.

The Red Sox were shut down by the Yankees for the second straight night on Wednesday, losing 4-1 to fall to 9-15 on the season and six games behind New York in the AL East standings. Other than Jarren Duran, who went 3 for 4 with a pair of opposite field doubles and an RBI single with two outs in the bottom of the ninth to avoid a second straight shutout, the Red Sox offense put up virtually no resistance against Max Fried and the Yankees pitching staff.

By the time it was over the Red Sox were left searching for answers. Not only did it take until they were down to their last strike to score a run, but it marked the 13th time in 24 games they’ve been held to three or fewer runs.

Even for a team that was ostensibly built with pitching and defense in mind, that isn’t going to get the job done.

The Red Sox had the guy they wanted on the mound to help bust the club out of its slump, as Ranger Suarez entered the day coming off an eight-inning gem and having posted 14 straight shutout innings over his prior two starts. But the Red Sox left-hander found himself battling from the opening pitch.

Paul Goldschmidt led off the game by working a 10-pitch at bat, and while he grounded out to first, Aaron Judge followed by drawing a seven-pitch walk, immediately running up the left-hander’s pitch count.

Suarez struck out Cody Bellinger for the second out, but any hopes of keeping a lid on things vanished when Giancarlo Stanton doubled to left, putting two men in scoring position.

Yankees third baseman Amed Rosario wasted no time bringing them home, crushing a three-run home run clear over the Green Monster to put New York up 3-0.

The way the Red Sox have been swinging the bat lately, even a three-run deficit felt steep.

For a moment afterwards it did feel like the Red Sox might be on the verge of breaking out of the slump. Following a quiet first inning the Red Sox got two men in scoring position right away in the second when Andruw Monasterio drew a leadoff walk and moved to third on Duran’s opposite field double off the Green Monster, his first extra-base hit since April 13.

But Fried smothered the rally, striking out Caleb Durbin, Connor Wong and Isiah Kiner-Falefa in quick succession to end the threat.

Rosario extended New York’s lead to 4-0 with a sacrifice fly in the third, and the Yankees eventually chased Suarez with two outs in the fifth. Rather than let Suarez face Stanton a third time with a man on third and two outs after the Yankees slugger mashed a pair of doubles in his first two at bats, Cora opted for righty Zack Kelly, who forced Stanton to pop out to third.

Suarez finished with four runs allowed over 4 2/3 innings with five hits, two walks and four strikeouts.

The Red Sox pitching staff continued to get no help from the offense.

Duran hit a second wall-ball double his next time up in the fourth but was stranded again when Durbin and Wong went down to end the inning. By that point the Red Sox were 0 for 5 with runners in scoring position, and from Duran’s fourth-inning double onwards Fried retired 14 straight batters to end his outing.

Fried wrapped up his night with eight shutout innings, three hits, two walks and nine strikeouts.

If there was any bright spot for the Red Sox on Wednesday, it was the performance of rookie left-hander Eduardo Rivera. Freshly called up after having never previously pitching above Double-A, Rivera made his MLB debut and pitched brilliantly, throwing 3 1/3 shutout innings while allowing one hit, no walks and three strikeouts.

Other than that, it was downright ugly.

With their latest loss the Red Sox now rank fifth-worst in MLB with 3.75 runs per game, and the club is tied for last in MLB with 13 home runs as a team through 24 games.

The power outage has been especially dire recently, as the Red Sox have collectively managed just five home runs as a team over their last 17 games dating back to April 4. They had eight home runs in their first seven games of the season prior to that.

Worse, dating back to last October’s AL Wild Card Series, the Red Sox went 29 straight innings without scoring against the Yankees, with the last runs before Duran’s RBI single in the ninth coming in the sixth inning of Game 2.

Cam Schlittler, who was responsible for ending Boston’s season in Game 3 of that playoff series last fall with an eight-inning masterpiece, will take the mound for the Yankees in Thursday’s finale. The Walpole High alum will be looking to complete the sweep of his childhood team in his first outing as a professional at Fenway Park.

First pitch is scheduled for 6:10 p.m.