The Yankees rallied to score two in the ninth to tie the game and two in the 10th to grab a lead, but New York allowed three in the bottom of the 10th as the Red Sox completed a four-game sweep with a 5-4 win Sunday night at Fenway Park.
The game began just like the previous two: The Boston Starter was unhittable. Sonny Gray retired the first 14 Yankees he faced and didn’t allow a hit through 7.1 innings, and was just masterful.
It appeared to be all for naught as New York rallied. But a three-run bottom of the 10th sank the Yankees (48-35) for their eighth loss in their last 11 games. Boston (36-46) has now won seven in ten.
It was a series to forget for the visitors: Four losses with little offense to speak of and costly errors in the opening game of the series and the finale. At the plate, the Yanks didn’t get a hit until the sixth against Payton Tolle on Friday, the fifth against Jake Bennett on Saturday, and the eighth against Gray on Sunday before a bullpen meltdown in the 10th.
The Yanks finished with three hits and went 1-for-6 with RISP and left four on base. This marked the third time in franchise history they had three hits or fewer in three straight games (1908 and 1914), per Katie Sharp.
Here are the takeaways...
-- Fernando Cruz, with the automatic runner at second and looking to protect a two-run lead, allowed a leadoff single by Anthony Seigler to right and then Masataka Yoshida, in as a pinch-hitter, ripped a fastball up in the zone for a double to right to put two in scoring position. A Tsung-Che Cheng sac fly to right tied the score as both tunners moved up.
After ball one to Jarren Duran, manager Aaron Boone went out to the mound to set up the Yanks' five-man infield. It didn't matter as after Duran whiffed on a great splitter, a hanging splitter was ripped into right for a base hit to walk off the Yanks.
The Red Sox had just three hits in the first nine innings and got three in the 10th, coming through with two hits (plus the sac fly) in two chances with runners in scoring position.
-- After nothing had gone right for the Yankees, things turned when Aroldis Chapman, pitching for the third time in the series, gave the Yankees life in the top of the ninth. José Caballero, who grounded out twice against Gray, blooped a single to left and Anthony Volpe, who entered for Jazz Chisholm Jr., walked to put two on base.
The Red Sox then had a huge mistake: Wilyer Abreu caught a fly to right and then sailed his throw back into the infield so horribly that Caballero, who was tagging on the play, scored from second and Volpe advanced all the way to third base as the tying run.
Paul Goldschmidt, in as a pinch-hitter, muscled a ball up the middle and Volpe beat the throw with a great slide at the plate. Chapman recovered to strike out the next two, including pinch-hitter Max Schuemann.
-- Abreu had another moment to forget in the 10th as he had a ball in his glove on a lopping liner from Amed Rosario, but dropped the ball. Instead of a potential double-play (Schuemann was way off second), his throw home kicked past the catcher, putting another runner on second. After a sacrifice bunt for the first out, Austin Wells' swinging bunt plated another run on a great read and slide by Rosario.
Rosario was the Yanks’ first baserunner of the night, working an eight-pitch walk with two down in the fifth and and got the first hit off Gray, smashing a single up the middle with one out in the eighth. He finished 2-for-3 with an RBI as the official scorer curiously gave him a hit for his 10th inning ball that Abreu dropped, which counted as the lone hit with RISP on the night.
Wells was robbed of a hit with a bloop to right as Abreu made a sliding catch in his first time up. He finished 1-for-4.
Caballero, who grounded out in each of his first two times up against Gray, before his bloop single started the comeback. He finished 1-for-4 with a strikeout.
-- Volpe finished 0-for-1 with the walk.
-- Chisholm Jr., batting in the leadoff spot for the first time as a Yankee, struck out swinging to start the game, losing an eight-pitch battle. Chisholm went down swinging a second time to end the sixth and got tossed by Adam Hamari as he didn’t like that the home plate umpire called him for offering at strike three rather than asking the third base ump. He finished hitless in three at-bats.
-- Ben Rice saw two pitches in his first two at-bats against Gray: flying out to the warning track in left-center in the first and a lazy fly to right in the fourth. He grounded out on a full count to start the seventh. He finished 0-for-4
-- Jasson Domínguez went hitless in three at-bats, striking out looking twice on balls on the inside corner; the latter saw him lose the Yanks’ first challenge.
-- Cody Bellinger put a charge in the first pitch he saw, but it went for a 342-foot fly out to the corner in right, which would have been gone in 18 for 30 parks, including in Yankee Stadium. He saw three total pitches in his first two at-bats before he went down swinging on the fourth pitch of his third at-bat against Gray. He finished 0-for-4 with a strikeout.
-- Spencer Jones went down swinging at a two-seamer first at-bat, went down swinging at a sweeper in his second time up, and went down swinging at a sweeper in his three times up against Gray.
-- Oswaldo Cabrera, making his first appearance on the season, was hitless in two at-bats with a strikeout, swinging through a sweeper in the dirt against Gray. He finished 0-for-3 with a sacrifice bunt.
-- Carlos Rodon issued a walk with one out in the first, but didn’t allow a hit in the first two frames with a pair of strikeouts on 34 pitches. The lefty had his good stuff working early, and it really showed in the third as he struck out the side to give him five strikeouts and 12 whiffs on 26 swings (46 percent), with six coming on 11 swings against the changeup.
Things went awry in the fourth, as a walk and an error by Cabrera on a bouncer to third put two on base. The lefty made a lovely play on a high chopper for the second out, but with two in scoring position, Caleb Durbin smacked a 3-1 fastball over the plate into center to score two on the first base hit of the night.
The fastball was a curious pitch call, as Durbin had swung through back-to-back changeups to strikeout in his first at-bat and saw four straight changeups from Rodon to start his second at-bat.
After back-to-back walks sandwiching around a visit from pitching coach Matt Blake, Rodon got Cheng swinging to strand three and end the 37-pitch frame. The lefty bounced back with a nine-pitch fifth to close his account: 5.0 innings, two runs (both unearned) on one hit and four walks with six strikeouts on 96 pitches (55 strikes).
-- Paul Blackburn, after dealing a six-pitch, 1-2-3 sixth, allowed a one-out single in a scoreless seventh thanks to a 4-6-3 inning-ender. David Bednar, who had a strikeout in a 20-pitch eighth, allowed a leadoff bloop single but erased it with a 6-4-3 twin killing in a scoreless ninth.
Game MVP: Sonny Gray
He entered the eighth inning on 91 pitches and with a walk, his lone blemish. A one-out single, one batter after recording his ninth strikeout of the evening to give him 2,000 in his MLB career, saw him exit. Without ever being overpowering, the crafty veteran got 14 whiffs on 46 swings (43 percent) and added 18 called strikes, keeping any hard contact to the middle of the park. A no-decision.
Highlights
THIS GAME IS TIED! pic.twitter.com/x690zUYIcY
— SNY Yankees (@snyyankees) June 29, 2026
What's next
The Yanks return to The Bronx for a six-game homestand, starting with three against the Tigers.
Ryan Weathers (3.95 ERA, 1.142 WHIP in 86.2 innings) gets the ball for Monday's 7:05 p.m. first pitch. Detroit will counter with righty Casey Mize (2.95 ERA, 1.069 WHIP in 58.0 innings).