If the Red Sox hang around and pester the Yankees later this season, Aaron Boone & Co. might remember an early June series in which they tried to stomp on Boston’s throat and slipped.
A game and series got away from the Yankees, largely because too many pitches from Carlos Rodón and the relievers who followed also got away, during an 11-7 prime-time loss in front of 45,140 on a breezy Sunday night.
Walks and hit-by-pitches haunted Yankees pitchers, though not as much as the five home runs Boston hitters clubbed to first overcome a two-run deficit and later to gain separation.
After the Yankees cruised to a victory Friday, they were trampled in letting up double-digit runs in the second and third games of the series.
In dropping the rubber game, the Yankees (39-25) lost just a second series in their past 10 and allowed Boston (32-35) to crawl to 8.5 games back in the AL East.
The Yankees still are comfortably in front in the division, but surely would have preferred sending an early statement in the year’s first matchup between the blood rivals.
The Yankees wasted home runs No. 22 and 23 from Aaron Judge, who bookended the night with two-run, opposite-field shots in the first and last innings.
The Yankees tried to get the tying run to the plate in the ninth, but Aroldis Chapman de-batted Anthony Volpe on a strikeout to strand two.
Judge had given his club a lead six pitches into the bottom of the first, and the Yankees lost the edge at the same time as their pitchers lost control.
In the fifth, a previously rolling Rodón could not locate.
He walked Ceddanne Rafaela and two pitches later left a four-seamer in the middle of the plate and was punished for it, Kristian Campbell visiting the short porch to tie the game.
DJ LeMahieu — 9-for-21 this month — continued his upturn with his own home run into the right field seats to give the Yankees the lead back in the bottom of the inning, but it was short-lived.
Rodón and the Yankees bullpen spiraled during a five-run, 10-batter, two-walk, one-HBP sixth that dug a hole too steep for the offense to escape.
An old problem surfaced for Rodón, who had allowed five home runs in his first four starts this season and then let up just three in his next nine outings.
Late-March, early-April Rodón issued too many walks that would inevitably come back to hurt when a poor pitch became, say, a three-run homer rather than a solo shot — which is precisely what happened in the sixth.
Rodón drilled Rafael Devers with a sinker, walked Rob Refsnyder on five pitches and then watched former Yankee Carlos Narváez turn on an inside fastball and crush a three-run homer to left.
Boone pulled Rodón, but Fernando Cruz and Tim Hill had no better luck in the frame.
Cruz loaded the bases on two hits and a walk before leaving a three-on, two-out jam for Hill, who had not allowed a hit with the bases loaded all season.
That stat is no longer true, opposing hitters now 1-for-12 with the bases juiced against Hill after Jarren Duran singled through the middle to drive in another to put Boston ahead, 7-3.
The Yankees tried to answer with two runs in the sixth, when Jazz Chisholm Jr. lifted a sacrifice fly and Trent Grisham worked a well-earned, bases-loaded run to drive in another, but the Red Sox ran away late against a Yankees bullpen that has had better nights.
Jonathan Loáisiga was victimized by back-to-back shots from Abraham Toro and Trevor Story in the eighth.
Boston piled on in the ninth against Brent Headrick, who allowed two runs (one on a monster shot from Devers).
The Yankees offense could not hang with the Red Sox offense, though not because of a lack of motivation.
They surely wanted to pound Hunter Dobbins, who a day earlier told the Boston Herald he would sooner retire than play for the Yankees.
Dobbins, who allowed three runs in five innings, was the winning pitcher and should not be looking for work soon.
