On that magical Saturday, Ben Rice did something unprecedented for a Yankees rookie: He hit three home runs, and his team suddenly did something rare: win a game.
After one night the fairy dust was gone.
What was a glorious past is a dark reality today.
A struggling offense and a struggling team shook off all traces of momentum and fell flat again.
The Yankees lost the series in yet another frustrating fashion, getting shut out by the Red Sox, 3-0, on Sunday night in front of a crowd of 45,250 in the Bronx.
The Yankees (55-37) began their slump in mid-June in Boston, losing 15 of 20 games and falling three games behind the Orioles in the AL East. They haven’t won a series since, going seven games without a win.
The Yankees scored 14 runs on Saturday and looked set for a big win, but ended up being shutout for the sixth time this season.
Rice had a night to forget after a historic day, going 0-for-4 with two strikeouts.
For the second straight day, manager Aaron Boone left his slumping starting pitcher on the mound to face Rafael Devers, but for the second straight day, the move backfired.
After the Red Sox All-Star homered on Gerrit Cole’s final pitch Saturday, Devers broke a scoreless tie in the seventh inning by grabbing a fastball up the middle from Luis Gil and sending a comeback shot just over the left-field fence.
Gill was replaced after two at-bats.
Sedan Raffaella smashed a Luke Weaver cutter ball into the deep left field stands in the eighth inning.
Known as the Yankee killer, Devers hit his second home run of the night off Michael Tonkin in the ninth inning, scoring the Yankees on a night when they couldn’t get anything done against Cutter Crawford and two Boston relief pitchers.
The Yankees rarely struggled against Crawford, who was barely hit but barely broke a sweat on a muggy night.
The right-hander threw just 68 pitches over seven innings, allowing just four hits and no walks.
The Yankees’ offense had few chances and failed to capitalize on any of them.
Their best chance came in the seventh inning, when Juan Soto hit an empty double to right-center field.
But Aaron Judge struck out in a rare display against Crawford, who looked underpowered, Alex Verdugo grounded out and Anthony Volpe hit a liner to left field, leaving Soto on third base.
The Yankees’ offense managed just four hits, blunting Gill’s first good performance in over a month.
After appearing from nowhere and pitching like an ace for two and a half months, the right-hander had struggled until now, but he has struggled mightily in his last three starts.
Gill, pitching his first full season since Tommy John surgery, received a lot of questions about arm fatigue.
He answered a lot of those questions by reaching 99.3 mph on his fastball and averaging 97.7 mph on his pitches.
Gill looked his best, striking out nine and walking none in 6 2/3 innings, allowing only a home run by Devers.
He has often been unstoppable, but in a different way than he was earlier this season.
The 26-year-old largely abandoned his go-to changeup, throwing just 15 of 96 pitches.
Instead, Gill led off with a fastball and finished off with a slider, forcing six strikeouts and keeping Boston off balance.
Gill was back to his best self, but so was the Yankees’ offense in June and July.
