Gerrit Cole unravels after curious intentional walk as Yankees fall to Red Sox, 7-1

The Yankees’ recent run of late-inning victories came to an end on Saturday as the Red Sox offense exploded in a 7-1 win over the Bronx Bombers at Yankee Stadium.

Takeaways

–Gerrit Cole had one of the more unusual starts of the season. The Yankees ace looked dominant early, retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced, with the only baserunner reaching on a hit by pitch.

With one out and nobody on in the fourth, Cole intentionally walked Rafael Devers — who has historically dominated Cole and the Yankees — which set off a chain reaction.

Devers stole second. Tyler O’Neill walked, which set up Masataka Yoshida to hit a ground-rule double to tie the game at one. Wilyer Abreu followed with a two-RBI single, giving Boston a 3-1 lead before Cole induced Triston Casas into an inning-ending double play.

Things only got worse in the fifth. Cole allowed the first two hitters to reach base then, with one out, hit Jarren Duran to load the bases for Devers who delivered with a single to right field to score two. Cole then hit O’Neill, his third hit batter of the game, to load the bases again. This brought Yoshida up to the plate to knock in two more runs with a single to center field, extending Boston’s lead to 7-1 and knocking Cole out of the game.

It was Cole’s worst outing since July 24, when he allowed six runs over 5.2 innings vs. the Mets.

-The three hit batters led to Brayan Bello throwing behind Aaron Judge in the sixth inning. The Yankees responded in the ninth when Tim Hill hit Devers, the second time he was hit in the game, which sparked a strong reaction from the Red Sox bench. Nothing else came of it, but it could be a situation that spills over into Sunday’s game.

-The Yankees scored their lone run in the bottom of the third, but the inning could have been much bigger. After Anthony Volpe led off with a single, Alex Verdugo roped a pitch into right field but was thrown out at second base trying to extend it into a double. It was the second time this has happened to Verdugo this week.

Gleyber Torres knocked in Volpe and Juan Soto reached on an error by second baseman Enmanuel Valdez. But Judge flew out to right field and Austin Wells popped out to the catcher to end the threat.

-A silver lining for the Yankees was Tim Mayza, who pitched 3.2 innings of scoreless baseball out of the bullpen, allowing four hits and striking out two.

Who’s the MVP?

Yoshida came to the plate twice with runners in scoring position and capitalized each time, knocking in three runs and scoring once himself in a 2-for-3 day at the plate.

Highlights

What’s next

The Yankees aim to take the four-game series against the Red Sox on Sunday at Yankee Stadium. First pitch is scheduled for 1:35 p.m.

The Yankees will have left-hander Carlos Rodon (14-9, 4.21 ERA) on the mound while Boston turns to Kutter Crawford (8-14, 4.09 ERA) in the series finale.