BOSTON \u2014 Cam Schlittler played with fire for four innings and got away with it.<\/p>\n
But then in the fifth, his defense added some lighter fluid, and his start went up in flames.<\/p>\n
After Amed Rosario let a smoked ground ball go through his legs instead of turning a potential inning-ending double play, the first of four unearned runs came in on Schlittler to sink the Yankees in a sloppy 6-3 loss to the Red Sox on Thursday night at a sold-out Fenway Park.<\/p>\n
Former Yankees prospect Caleb Durbin delivered the deciding blow before the fifth inning was over, taking Schlittler deep for a two-run shot just over the Green Monster to break a 2-2 tie.<\/p>\n
The Yankees tried to mount a comeback in the ninth against their former closer, Aroldis Chapman, who loaded the bases with two outs before finally shutting the door.<\/p>\n
It was a messy loss for the Yankees (48-32), who committed a season-high four errors \u2014 making all six of the runs their pitchers allowed the unearned variety \u2014 and wasted some chances to cash in offensively before the scuffling Red Sox (33-46) came alive.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, I was giving them opportunities,\u201d said Schlittler, who struck out nine across five innings. \u201cFeel like I battled those first four [innings], getting myself out of those jams. Then I made a mistake there in the fifth.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York Yankees pitcher Cam Schlittler (31) reacts after ending the fourth inning with back-to-back strikeouts against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park on June 25, 2026. David Butler II-Imagn Images<\/p>\n
The offense, meanwhile, could not pick up the defense, going 3-for-11 with runners in scoring position \u2014 including Ben Rice, the Yankees\u2019 best hitter, going 0-for-4 in those situations and leaving seven men on base.<\/p>\n
Schlittler stranded a pair of runners in each of the first, second and fourth innings. He might have been able to do it again in the fifth, until Rosario\u2019s fielding error opened the floodgates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just didn\u2019t do a good job of taking care of the ball tonight,\u201d manager Aaron Boone said. \u201cJust not up to the way we\u2019ve been playing or are capable of playing. Ultimately, it was too much to overcome.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boston Red Sox\u2019s Caleb Durbin, right, is congratulated by Willson Contreras after his two-run home run off New York Yankees\u2019 Cam Schlittler in the fifth inning of a baseball game, Thursday, June 25, 2026, in Boston. AP Photo\/Charles Krupa<\/p>\n
The Yankees led 2-0 entering the inning before Schlittler issued a leadoff walk to Masataka Yoshida and then gave up a single to Ceddanne Rafaela. He followed that up by striking out Wilyer Abreu on a 100 mph sinker for the second time of the night.<\/p>\n
But Willson Contreras came up next and drilled a 112.8 mph ground ball to third base, where Rosario got his glove down but not far enough as the ball zoomed right underneath it, scoring Yoshida to make it 2-1.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThat\u2019s definitely a play I got to make,\u201d Rosario said through an interpreter. \u201cYou at least got to find a way to knock it down and at least get one out.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jarren Duran then lifted a sacrifice fly to medium-depth left field, as Jos\u00e9 Caballero \u2014 whose solo homer in the fourth made it a 2-0 game \u2014 got off a throw home that was up the first base line, allowing the Red Sox to tie it.<\/p>\n
The hot-hitting Durbin, whom the Yankees sent to the Brewers in the Devin Williams trade (before the Red Sox acquired him this February), capped off the rally by crushing Schlittler\u2019s cutter into the Monster seats for the 4-2 lead.<\/p>\n
New York Yankees left fielder Jos\u00e9 Caballero (72) hits a home run against the Boston Red Sox in the fourth inning at Fenway Park. IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect<\/p>\n
\u201cNot [trying to go] down and in where he likes it,\u201d said Schlittler, who lowered his ERA to 1.62 because all four runs were unearned. \u201cHe\u2019s seen a lot of cutters today and makes a good enough swing to get it out there.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Yankees later made it a one-run game in the seventh when Paul Goldschmidt, on the 12th pitch of a battle with former Yankees reliever Greg Weissert, hit a chopper to third that allowed Jazz Chisholm Jr. to score from third.<\/p>\n
But the Red Sox brought in lefty Danny Coulombe to face Ben Rice, who could not deliver the big swing in his hometown, instead grounding out to end the rally.<\/p>\n
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The Red Sox then added a pair of insurance runs in the eighth after Yerry De los Santos bobbled a sacrifice bunt and Anthony Volpe threw wide on the second half of a potential inning-ending double play.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt happens sometimes, and it\u2019s not fun going through that or fun when you make mistakes in a game, especially one that you have a lead and it\u2019s a close game for most of that game,\u201d Boone said. \u201cBut we didn\u2019t play well enough.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BOSTON \u2014 Cam Schlittler played with fire for four innings and got away with it. But then in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":278721,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36097,3472,32358,20,9,11,10,321,51140,319],"class_list":["post-278720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-amed-rosario","tag-boston-red-sox","tag-cam-schlittler","tag-mlb","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-yankees","tag-paul-goldschmidt","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=278720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/278720\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/278721"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=278720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=278720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=278720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}