BOSTON — Aaron Judge tried to beat the Yankees with a 470-foot moonshot.
As dawn drew on, everything started to fall down, the thuds getting louder and more painful.
A three-run homer by Judge and two by Austin Wells gave the Yankees a three-run lead going into the seventh inning, but the Red Sox suffered a brutal 9-7 defeat to the Yankees on Friday at Fenway Park.
The Yankees (60-45) are back where their current downward spiral began six weeks ago, taking another left hook to the jaw and causing the combination of Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes to lose their lead and suffer their third straight loss.
Sedan Raffaella struck out Weaver with a two-run homer over the Green Monster to put the Red Sox (55-47) within 7-6 in the seventh inning.
Then in the eighth, Weaver allowed a single and a walk on 10 pitches before getting Rafael Devers to fly out, at which point Aaron Boone called on Holmes to get the save with five outs.
But the Red Sox only needed two batters to take the lead.
Pinch hitter William Abreu tied the game with a double to center field off a ball hit by Holmes, and then infielder Masataka Yoshida hit a two-run single to center field.
The Yankees threatened in the top of the ninth when Wells and Gleyber Torres delivered consecutive one-out hits against Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen.
However, DJ LeMahieu, who replaced Ben Rice, struck out and Anthony Volpe grounded out to end the game.
The Yankees are now 10-23 since winning the opener of their first series here in June.
Thanks to the Orioles’ poor performance, the Yankees entered Friday night just two games behind the Orioles for first place in the AL East.
However, the Red Sox have narrowed the gap with the Yankees from 14 games (as of the morning of June 15th) to 3.5 games.
