C6 Sports The Boston Globe MONDAY, AUGUST 5, 2019
Saturday nightgame
At YankeeStadium,Bronx,N.Y.
GAME 2
BOSTON AB RHBI BB SOAvg.
BettsDeversrf3b 401511211202 .284.323
Bogaertsss5 0000 0.309
Martinezdh 101040 .297
Benintendi cf5Travislf 4100010 04.284 11 .260
Vázquezc4 13000 .284
Chavis 1b 200000 .255
a-Holt ph-1b1 0001 1.314
MHernáTotalsndez2b 34311484011810 .333
NY YANKEELeMahieu 1bSABR 501 HB 000 IBBSOA.336vg.
Judge dh5 020 02.284
Torresss 533200 .288
Hicks cf 322011 .235b-GarUrshela 3b3dnerph-cf1 (^00110000) 11.314.246
Maybinrf 30121 2.307
Tauchman lf 40220 0.284
Rominec3 00010 .255
Valera 2bTotals 35301613657011 .300
Boston...............................002 200 000 — 4 8 0
NY Yankees......................003 010 20x — 6 13 0
a-struck out for Chavis in 6th, b-linedout for
Hicksin 8th.LOB—Boston11, NY Yankees10.
2B—Vázquez (16), MHernández (5), Torres(19),
Maybin (9).2 (23),off JohnsonHR—Devers (22), off Cortes Jr., Torres, off Taylor.SB—Travis (2),
Tauchman (3).Runners left in scoringposition—
Boston 4 (Betts, Devers 2, Chavis), NY Yankees 4
(LeMahieu 3, Urshela).RISP—Boston2 for 11, NY
Yankees(Benintendi, Boga3 for 10.erts)GIDP, (Boga—Torres.erts,DPMHern—Bosández,ton 2
Holt);NY Yankees 1 (LeMahieu).
Boston IP HRER BB SO NP ERA
JohnsonWalden 3831003001 2706.881153.56
Taylor 1„ 21113 41 3.95
BarnesL 3-4 „2223140 4.36
Brewer „0 000 0104.31
Workman1 100008 2.03
NY YankeesIPHRERBBSONPERA
GreenCortes Jr. 1023200121 2254.952444.60
Adams 232211 44 7.07
Ottavino 11001 1221.50
KahnleW 3-0 10001 1172.56
BrittonChapmanS 29 1101000201 1272.352192.68
Green pitched to 1 batter in the 2nd.Inherited
runners-scored—Barnes1-0, Brewer3-0, Cortes
Jr. 1-0.AlfonsoUmpiresMarque—H ome, Brucez; Second, Chad Fairchild;Dreckman;Third,First,
Chris Segal.T—4 :02.A—4 8,101(47,309).
HOWTHERUNSSCORED
THIRD INNING
RED SOX— M.Hernández doubledto right.Bet-
ts linedout to left fielder Tauchman.Devers hom-
ered to righton a 0-1 count,M.Hernández scored.
Bogaertslined out to left fielder Tauchman.Mar-
tinez walkout. ed on a full count.Benintendi struck
to left on a 1-1 count.YANKEES — Judge struck out. Torres homeredHickssingledto center.Ur-
shelasingledto center,Hicks to second.Maybin
doubledto left, Hicksscored, Urshelascored.
Tauchman lined into a double play,center fielder
Benintendi to shortstopBogaerts, Maybinout.
FOURTHINNING
REDSOX— Adamspitching. Traviswalked.
Vázquezpoppedout to centerdoubled to right,fielder Hicks. M.HeTravisto third. Chavrnándezis
struckout.Bettssingledto left,Travisscored,
Vázquezscored.Deversgroundedout,pitcher
Adamsto firstbaseman LeMahieu.
FIFTH INNING
YANKEES — Taylor pitching. Torres homered to
left on a 1-2 count. Hicksstruck out.Urshela
struckmangrounout. Maybinded out, seconwalkedd baseon a full count.man M.Hernán-Tauch-
dez to first baseman Chavis.
SEVENTH INNING
YANKEES— Torres doubled to right.Hicks
walked on a full count. Urshela walked on a full
count,Torresto third,Hicksto second.Maybin
struckout. Tauchmansingled to left,Torres
scored,walkedHickson a full count,scored, Urshela to second. RomineUrshela to third, Tauch-
man to second.Brewer pitching. Valera ground-
ed intofielder’s choice, first basemanHoltto
catcherVázquez, Urshela out, Tauchmanto third,
RominefielderBeninteto second.ndi.LeMahieufliedout to center
Yankees 6, Red Sox 4
At YankeeStadium,Bronx, N.Y.
BOSTONABetts rf BR 401 HB 000 IBBSOA.284vg.
Devers3b 400000 .320
Bogaertsss4 00002 .306
MartinezTravis 1bdh 41200310010 0.299.250
Benintendi lf 401200 .284
Vázquezc3 11110 .285
Chavis 2b 312101 .259
a-HoltBradleyph0Jr. cf 30000010003 .314.224
Totals 32 47436
NY YANKEES AB RHBI BB SOAvg.
Torres2b 300011 .286
LeMahieu2b-3b1 00000 .335
Judge dhGregoriusss4 42101000110 .283.270
Urshela3b 311210 .314
Valera 2b 000000 .300
Gardnercf 311010 .247
Maybin rfFord 1b (^41210141110) 0.206.312
Higashioka c4 12002 .235
Tauchmanlf 401201 .283
Totals 34 710745
Boston...............................000 022 000 — 4 7 0
NY Yankees......................106 000 00x — 7 10 0
a-walked for Chavis in 9th.LOB—Boston5, NY
gashiYankeesoka7.2 (4).2B—GardneHR—Vr (14),ázquez (17),Maybinoff Happ,2 (11),Hi-
Chavis (18), off Happ, Judge(12), off Price,Urshe-
la (12),off Price.Runnersleft in scoring posi-
tion—Boston2 (Devers, Chavis),NY Yankees 5
(Judge, Ford 2, Higashioka,Boston1 for 3, NY YankeesTauchman).3 for 9.RunnersRISP—
movedup—Maybin,Ford.GIDP—Betts, Travis.
DP—NYYankees2 (Torres, Gregorius, Ford),
(Gregorius, Torres, Ford).
Boston IP HRER BB SO NP ERA
Price L 7-5 2„ 97723 75 4.36
Hernandez 1‚ 00020 22 2.03
Weber 41000 2474.50
NY YankeesHapp W 9-65IP HR„74ER BB SO NP ERA 412 91 5.24
Cessa 2‚ 00013 42 3.74
Green S 21 00011 24 4.84
Inherited runners-scored—Hernandez 2-0,
Cessa 1-0.HBP—by Happ (Bradley Jr.).WP—
Happ.Umpires—Home,AlfonsoMarquez;First,
Chad Fairchild; Second, Mike Estabrook; Third,
Bruce Dreckman.T—3:18.A—47,267(47,309).
HOWTHERUNSSCORED
FIRST INNING
YANKEES — Torres grounded out, third base-
man Deversto first baseman Travis. Judgehom-
ered to right on a 2-2 count. Gregorius singledleft.Urshelalinedout to left fielder Benintendi.to
Gardnerflied out to left fielder Benintendi.
THIRD INNING
YANKEES — Torres struckout. Judge walked on
a full count. Gregoriusfliedout to left fielderBen-
intendi. UrshJudge scored. Gardner doubled to right.ela homered to left on a 1-1 count,Maybin
doubled to left,Gardnerscored. Fordsingled to
center, Maybinscored. Higashioka doubled to
left,Fordto third. Tauchman singled to right,
Fordon a full count, Tauchmscored, Higashioka scored. Torrean to second. Hernandezs walked
pitching.Judgegroundedintofielder’schoice,
thirdbasemanDeversto second baseman
Chavis,Torres out.
FIFTHINNING
basemanREDSOXUrshela— Benito first basemanntendigroundedFord.out,Vázquezthird
homered to left on a 2-2 count. Chavis homered
to center on a 2-0 count. Bradley Jr. was hit by a
pitch. Betts groustop Gregorius to secondnded intobasemaa doublen Torres to firstplay,short-
baseman Ford, BradleyJr. out.
SIXTHINNING
REDSOX— Deverslined out to centerfielder
Gardner.Bogaerts struckout. Martinez singledto
right.second.TravisOn Happ’s wildwalkedon a full count,pitch,MartineMartinezz to third,to
Travisto second.Benintendisingledto center,
Martinezscored,Travis scored.Cessa pitching.
Vázquezwalked,Benintendito second.Chavis
struckout.
Yankees 7, Red Sox 4
JIM MCISAAC/GETTY IMAGES
XanderBogaerts andtherest of hisforlornRed Sox teammateswatchedhelplesslyas theYankeesputthefinishingtouchesontheirfour-gamesweep.
For Cora, maybe an encore isn’t in the cards
against the Yankees followed a
series win in Tampa Bay. But it
didn’t stick.
After a Sunday night loss
and a homesweepto those
same Rays, after the buildup to
the tradingdeadline landed
witha no-deal thud,Cora was
going to hold a teammeeting in
New York and see where his
teamwas at. He didn’t, alter-
nately saying his intentions
wereoverblownby the media,
or that he’d simply changed his
mind, or that he checks with his
team on a daily basis anyway.
Either way, nothing changed.
The Sox lost Friday. They
lost the openerof a double-
header Saturday. Then his play-
ers held a meeting without him.
Again, nothing changed. They
lost the second half of the dou-
bleheader Saturday night. They
barelyshowed up Sunday ei-
ther, unableto beat a Yankee
lineupwhosebottom half was
like a Quadruple-A roster.
Throughit all, Cora’s an-
swers haven’t changed much ei-
ther, consistently rooted in a
belief this team has all the right
pieces, and just isn’t executing.
How couldhe say other-
wise?
Remember backin January,
whenhe was still riding high on
the wonderful World Series
win,when he took to a micro-
phoneat the Boston baseball
uSULLIVAN
ContinuedfromPageC1
writer’s dinner and promised
even more?
“Somebody mightwrite this,
I don’t care,’’ Cora said that
night. “If you guys thought last
year was special, waittill this
year.’’
We’re still waiting.
Still waitingfor Cora to have
the golden touch he had a year
ago, when his team sprinted
out of the gate and never lost
steam underhis watchful hand.
He was rightfullylauded on
many fronts, foremost among
themhis ability to communi-
cate (in two languages) with
players, his deft touch at letting
his clubhouse policeitself, and
his managementof a lineup
that was as relentless as any the
sport had seen in years.
As a leader, that carried
throughin springtraining,
when Cora guided his team
throughthe unexpected death
of Blake Swihart’s brotherand
even helpedthemhandlean-
other untimely passing of
someone outside their club-
house but a big part of their
landscape nonetheless, when
longtime Globebaseball colum-
nist NickCafardocollapsed at
Fenway South.
But the baseball side never
did come together, and the
seeds wereplanted in the
spring.
Starting pitchers who were
so adeptlymanaged through
the playoffs, whenCora was
brilliantin usingoff-day start-
ers in relief to cover shortcom-
ings in his bullpen,wereheld
backin spring, theirworkload
barely resembled anything
they’d have to do this season.
Andthe more thosestarters
struggled,the morethat same
unreliable bullpen(this time
withoutJoe Kelly and Craig
Kimbrel) was overused and ex-
posed.
And whengeneral manager
Dave Dombrowskidid nothing
to shoreup the bullpenat last
Tuesday’s tradingdeadline, the
tenuous gripon the season
wentinto free fall.
Cora has to be the one to
grab the reins back.
“I’m good,” he said. “People
thinkit was easy last year, just
like that, but it wasn’t. We had
to coachevery day, put guysin
positionto be successful. Keep
working, keep showing up the
next day, stay positive. That’s
what I do here. That’s why they
hired me here.
“From my end, I believe in
these guys and I know they can
do it. Just keep showing up ev-
ery day and put themin posi-
tion to be successful.And they
will be successful.”
Still waiting.
Tara Sullivanis a Globe
columnist.She can be reached
at [email protected].
Followheron Twitter
@Globe_Tara.
Disappointing season reaches its nadir
point.’’
Swell. But the fact is that the
Yuck Meister is a puddle again.
And whether you like it or not,
it is impossible to escapethe
conclusionthat it all goes back
to the Dennis Eckersley thing.
Again.
Two and a half weeksago,
when we werestill taking the
Red Sox seriously, Price was
sailingalongwitha 7-2 record
and a 3.16 ERA. Then, on July
17, he wentlooking for trouble,
reacting to a benignEckersley
remarkthat waspart of a
lengthy Boston Globe Magazine
profile on the Hall of Famer.
Price mocked Eckersley with
a couple of tweets, promisedit
was “gonnabe lit” whenfolks
got to the ballpark that night,
thendeliveredon his pledge
with a string of insults intended
to embarrass Eckersley. It was
totally unnecessary and it back-
fired, the way it always does.
Alex Cora seemed miffed,
asking, “Why now?’’ and Price
immediatelywentintothe
tank, giving up six runs in four
innings of an 11-2 loss to the
moribund Orioles.
uSHAUGHNESSY
ContinuedfromPageC1
After that, he submitted two
morestink bombs against the
Rays. Sunday in the Bronx,
Price came off paternity leave to
pitch the series sweepfinalein
the Bronx. It was a perfect
storm of suck.
The reelingRed Sox appear
to have gone on strike since
Dave Dombrowski gave up on
them at the trading deadline,
and it seemed unlikely that
Price would be the man to stop
the bleeding. Calling on Price to
be the stopper remindedme of
the timethe scoring-starved
Bruinssummoned LyndonBy-
ers when they werein search of
offense.
Price was not up to the task.
AaronJudge hit a moonball
homer to rightin the first. No
big deal, we figured.
The floodgates openedwith
two outsand one on in the
third. Price surrendered six
straight hits,all of themloud.
Seven consecutive baserunners.
Six more runs.
Gio Urshelacrusheda two-
run homer. Brett Gardner dou-
bledto rightand scoredon a
doubleto left by Cameron May-
bin. The immortal Mike Ford
singledhomeMaybin.Kyle Hi-
gashiokadoubledto left, then
Mike Tauchman — yes, these
are the first-place Yankees —
singledto right. WhenPrice
walked Gleyber Torres,Cora
came out with the hook.
“I just couldn’t make a pitch
to get us out of it,’’ said Price.
There you go. In four starts
since his latest Eck dust-up,
Price is 0-3 with a 10.59 ERA.
He has given up 20 runs and 30
hits in 17 innings.
The Red Sox have lost all
four games.
So we have eightstraight
lossesfor a team that never lost
four straight last season. Good
thingthe moribund Royalsare
coming to Fenway. The Red Sox
have not lost morethaneight
gamesin a row since the 2014
teamquit after management
botched the Jon Lester negotia-
tion.
A weekago Sunday, the Sox
were flying high.
They’d just beaten the Yan-
kees threestraight timesby an
aggregate 38-13, bashing 33 ex-
tra-base hits in just 24 innings.
Noted hardball sages acrossthe
land nodded and agreed that
the Sox had finally turned their
season around. They were go-
ing to be an Octoberforce. The
slumberinggiantswereawak-
enedand nobody would want
to face them in the playoffs.
That was when Chris Sale
tookthe moundon Sunday
NightBaseball— J-Lo brought
A-Rod’s birthday cake — and
gave up six runsin 5‚ innings
of a 9-6 loss to the Bronx Bomb-
ers.
What was the lowlight of the
woeful week? Take your pick:
RWhenDombrowskidid
nothing at the deadline, he told
us that we would not believe
howmany teamscalledhim
seeking bullpen help from Bos-
ton’s stable of ace relievers. And
you thought Burger Kingwas
home of the Whopper.
RAfter a sloppyfirst inning
in his Wednesday loss to the
Rays, RickPorcello smashed
not one, but two dugout televi-
sion monitors.
RCora told us he was going
to have a teammeeting Friday
in New York. But whenthe Sox
got to Yankee Stadium,Cora —
borrowingfromthe oratory
playbooks of Bobby Valentine
and MarianneWilliamson —
said there would be no meeting.
He was either kidding, or he
changed his mind,or “all of the
above.’’ It was bizarre.
RSaturday at Yankee Stadi-
um, Saleimploded after not
getting a coupleof callsfrom
plate umpire Mike Estabrook.
Sale was pulled after giving up
eightruns in 3‚ innings.Cora
and Sale were both ejected. Af-
ter the game,the manager and
the pitcher wentto great
lengths to explainhowone
missed call triggered a 9-2 loss
for the Red Sox.
RThen came the players-on-
ly meeting. Then, two more
losses.
“It was a horrible week,” said
Cora. “We’re in a big hole. We
know we’re talented and we can
do it.”
It was indeed a horrible half
Fortnite for the Red Sox. And
unacceptable.There’s a good
chancethe teamwiththe top
payroll in baseball is not going
to make it to the postseason.
There will be blame.
Heads will roll.
DanShaughnessy is a Globe
columnist.Hecanbe reachedat
[email protected].
Follow him on Twitter
@dan_shaughnessy.
ADAM HUNGER/ASSOCIATED PRESS
AfterDavidPricedepartedin thethirdinning, DarwinzonHernandezdeliveredin a pinch.
ADAM HUNGER/ASSOCIATEDPRESS
RafaelDeverswent0 for 4
in thelossonSunday night,
andwasclearlyupset when
heflew outin theseventh.