BOSTON — April was abysmal, and May is off to a miserable beginning.
The only positive about Sunday night’s 8-7 loss to the Red Sox in front of an announced crowd of 34,279 soggy Fenway Park customers was the fact that, after averaging a little more than two runs per game in the previous 17 tilts, the Yankees finally hit and made contact with home plate.
Everything else was discouraging.
Twice the Yankees staked Nathan Eovaldi to two-run leads and he flushed each of them. With the score tied, 6-6, in the seventh, two outs and a runner on first, Dellin Betances’ first pitch, a 97-mph fastball to Christian Vazquez, was sent over the seats above the Green Monster. It was the third straight appearance in which Betances gave up a home run — and the second straight in this series he gave up a tie-breaking shot.
The fifth straight loss dropped the Yankees to 8-15, left them six games back of the first-place Red Sox, who squeezed past the Orioles into the top AL East spot with a three-game sweep of the Yankees and in a hole that is getting deeper by the day.
“It’s not a good start, we are used to winning a lot of games,’’ Mark Teixeira said. “We have to get back to winning games. [Twenty-three games] is a small sample size, but it’s getting bigger. We can’t blame it on bad luck. We have to start winning games.’’
Considering the Yankees hadn’t scored more than three runs in an inning since the fourth game of the season, when they plated four in the fourth inning against the Tigers, Sunday’s seven runs were a welcome sight.
Alex Rodriguez crushed a two-run homer off David Price in a three-run second that erased a 1-0 Red Sox lead. In the fifth, Rodriguez double in two more and Teixeira added an RBI single that put the Yankees ahead, 6-4.
Eovaldi gave the lead right back in the bottom of the inning, surrendering a two-run home run to Travis Shaw.
And it got more painful in the seventh, when Joe Girardi called for Betances to replace Ivan Nova (1-1) and face Vazquez, who was batting .222 and didn’t have a homer.
“It was a ball down the middle of the plate. He was aggressive right away and put a good swing on it,’’ Betances said of the pitch that jumped off Vazquez’ bat. “I pretty much lost two games and take responsibility for that. It’s tough. We put up a lot of runs.’’
Betances gave up a first-pitch, two-run homer to David Ortiz on Friday night that was the difference in a 4-2 Red Sox victory.
After Eovaldi dominated the Rangers in his previous start, flirting with a no-hitter, some envisioned him developing into a No. 2 starter behind Masahiro Tanaka. Based on Sunday night’s outing in which he gave up a pair of two-run leads, six runs and 10 hits in five-plus frames, that will have to wait.
“The splitter and slider were up in the zone and tonight I fell behind in a lot of counts,’’ Eovaldi said. “When I was ahead I missed with my off-speed stuff. We kept scoring and I wasn’t able to hold the lead. Tonight was frustrating.’’
Despite Betances’ recent struggles, Rodriguez said he believed the game was in good hands when Girardi called for the gas-throwing right-hander with a knee-buckling curveball.
“We score six runs I will take my chances with the back end of the bullpen,’’ Rodriguez said. “Betances has been a horse for us for a long time. Sometimes we have to pick him up, too.’’
The way the Yankees are going, if they pick up Betances, they likely will drop him on his right shoulder.
April couldn’t have been worse. May is off to a miserable beginning. And the schedule gets tougher.