In a season full of punchless offensive performances, Tuesday night was perhaps the worst of the bunch.
Facing the New York Yankees for the first time this season, the Red Sox offense completely no showed at Fenway Park, managing only four hits in the club’s 4-0 loss, tied for the second fewest by the club in a game this season.
Yankees starter Luis Gil dominated over 6 1/3 scoreless innings, and veteran slugger Giancarlo Stanton delivered all the offense New York needed, going 2 for 4 with a home run and three RBI.
With a slightly earlier start time of 6:45 p.m., the first half of the game flew by as the two starters went blow for blow. Red Sox left-hander Connelly Early was brilliant through the first five innings, allowing only a solo home run to Stanton off the light tower in the second inning, and Gil was even better, shutting the Red Sox down over that same stretch before the clock had even struck eight.
Early finally ran into trouble to start the sixth when he allowed back-to-back walks to lead off the inning, the latter coming against Aaron Judge after Early initially went ahead 0-2 in the count. That brought up Cohasset’s Ben Rice, who already has eight home runs on the season, and while Early struck out the dangerous first baseman, he couldn’t figure out Stanton, who barreled a changeup and drove it deep off the Green Monster for a two-run double to make it 3-0.
Early followed that by walking Cody Bellinger, his third free pass of the inning, and at that point Red Sox manager Alex Cora had seen enough. Early’s final line was three runs allowed over 5 1/3 innings with five hits, three walks, a hit batsman and four strikeouts.
“Did good until he lost it there,” Cora said. “Command was an issue in that inning but the outing besides that it was a good one.”
Having used seven of the club’s eight relievers to get through Monday’s game after Sonny Gray’s early exit due to injury, Cora went with rookie Jack Anderson to finish the sixth. He nearly got an inning-ending double play that Randal Grichuk was able to beat out, but followed by allowing a Jazz Chisholm Jr. single to load the bases with two outs.
The ensuing at-bat against Jose Caballero got off to a strange start after Anderson was called for back-to-back pitch clock violations to fall behind in the count 2-1, but he came back and struck the Yankees shortstop out to leave them loaded and keep it a 3-0 game.
Though Gil sent the Red Sox down on just five pitches in the sixth, the 2024 American League Rookie of the Year finally began to wobble in the seventh. He was pulled after allowing back-to-back one-out walks, giving the Red Sox their best scoring chance of the game up to that point.
Once again, the Red Sox couldn’t capitalize. Andruw Monasterio pinch hit for Marcelo Mayer and flew out to right field, and Caleb Durbin struck out to end the inning, winning one ABS challenge to turn an 0-2 count into a 1-1 count before failing on a second challenge in an attempt to stay alive.
Gil finished with two hits, three walks, two strikeouts and a hit batsman allowed over 6 1/3 scoreless.
“We didn’t hit the ball hard,” Cora said. “We swung a lot, it was fast in the middle innings for (Gil), efficient if you want to call it, and that’s it. We didn’t put pressure on him.”
Boston Red Sox pitcher Jack Anderson reacts as he leaves the mound during the eighth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees, on Tuesday, April 21, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/CJ Gunther)
Ceddanne Rafaela delivered one of the only highlights of the night for the Red Sox in the eighth when he made an incredible acrobatic catch against the center field wall to rob Stanton of a third extra-base hit, but the momentum was short-lived. The Yankees followed with two more hard-hit balls, including an RBI double by Grichuk to make it 4-0 New York, and the Red Sox never seriously threatened afterward, falling to 9-14 on the year with the loss.
“Our identity is just try to do our best to put the ball in play, work at-bats, don’t chase, ball strike it, swing at good pitches and that made the difference,” Durbin said. “We just didn’t do a good job at that today.”
It won’t get any easier for the Red Sox offense the rest of the week, as the club is scheduled to face Yankees ace Max Fried on Wednesday and second-year phenom Cam Schlittler of Walpole on Thursday.
Cora said they’ll be tough matchups, but they’ve already faced lots of good pitchers recently.
“Similar to Skubal and Framber, it’s good pitching,” Cora said, referring to Detroit Tigers aces Tarik Skubal and Framber Valdez. “There’s good pitching all over the league so we have to put better at bats.”
Ranger Suarez is currently scheduled to take the hill for the Red Sox on Wednesday. First pitch is 6:45 p.m.