The Yankees were swept by the Red Sox at Fenway Park

The Yankees lost to the Red Sox 5–4 in 10 innings after being not hit by Sonny Gray through the first 7.1 innings. The Red Sox swept the Yankees at Fenway Park for their just their third series sweep of the season and their first four-game sweep of the 2026 season. Boston had their first four-game sweep of the Yankees since 2018.

Since a three-game sweep of the Royals from May 18–20, the Red Sox had gone 10–19 in their last 29 games. The Red Sox, after this 4-game sweep, are 36–46 this season. They finished last season with an 88–73 record and five games behind the first place Yankees and Blue Jays. The Red Sox lost in the wild card round two games to one to the Yankees. The Red Sox had a +110 run differential last season and have a +5 run differential this season.

The Yankees had been 4–1 against the Red Sox this season going into this series. The Yankees outscored the Red Sox 21–9 in those five games. The Red Sox outscored the Yankees 21–9 during their 4-game sweep. The Red Sox won the series finale in extra innings, and the Yankees are now 1–4 in extra inning game this season. The Yankees are now 4–5 against the Red Sox this season after going 4–9 against the Red Sox last season.

With the 5–4 loss, the Yankees are now 9–13 in one run games this season after going 23–22 in one run games in 2025. The Yankees are now one game behind the Rays in the AL East but they came into this series with a three game lead over the Rays. The Yankees arrived at Fenway Park with the best record in the American League but left a game behind Tampa Bay atop the AL East.

“We got a really good freaking team,” Manager Aaron Boone said about not letting the losing streak in this series snowball. “We played crappy on this trip, kind of. It feels bad, kind of pissed off, right? But it’s what we do. It’s what you sign up for. We’ll dig ourselves out of it and get it going here in short order, but the bottom line is we didn’t play well this weekend, and we gotta do better.”

The Yankees took the lead in the 10th inning when Amed Rosario singled to right and Max Schuemann scored and Rosario was safe at second on right fielder Wilyer Abreu throwing error. He is normally very reliable in right field. Catcher Austin Wells then grounded into a fielder’s choice to the pitcher and Rosario scored after having a really good slide to avoid the tag to make the score 4–2. Wells then had his first steal of the season and his seventh steal of his career in his 315th game. Earlier in the game, Abreu did not catch a ball that he would usually catch.

The Yankees now have three losses when leading in extra innings this season. That is tied with the Rays for the most in Major League Baseball. This is just the Yankees’ second streak in franchise history with a 3-game span where they had three losses and an average of below .100 in those three games. The other time this happened was September 4, 1914.

Fernando Cruz, who had allowed just two runs in his previous 10 games in a span of 10 innings, allowed two earned runs and three runs overall in the bottom of the 10th inning to raise his ERA from 2.08 to 2.57. Cruz had his second blown save of the season and his previous one was on May 9 in a 4–3 extra inning loss to the Brewers.

To start the bottom of the 10th, Cruz allowed a single to right field to former Yankee first round pick Anthony Seigler to score the inherited runner Caleb Durbin, who was a Yankee minor leaguer for two seasons, and make the score 4–3 Yankees. After Cruz allowed a double to right to pinch hitter Masataka Yoshida, Tsung-Che Cheng had a sacrifice fly to score Andruw Monasterio, who had pinch run for Seigler. That sacrifice fly by Cheng, who made his season debut on Friday due to infielder Marcelo Mayer going on the injured list, tied the game.

The Red Sox had their walk-off hit in the 10th when Jarren Duran, who pinch hit for Nate Eaton in the eighth inning, had a hard hit single to right off of Cruz to score Yoshida when the Yankees had five infielders. That finished off a sweep by Boston. Duran had his second career walk-off hit of his career with his previous one on June 24 last season. Duran got a Gatorade shower by his teammates when he was about to be interviewed by Anthony Rizzo. Duran went 1–2 in this game after going 2–27 in his previous seven games. The Red Sox are now 2–3 in extra innings games this season and 6–12 in one run games this season.

“The best teams go through stretches like this, and champions and great teams in history go through stretches like this, and especially games like this,” Cruz said about the walk-off loss and sweep against the Red Sox. “For me, it’s a formation. It’s something that is forming me into a better athlete and a better pitcher, and I’m gonna be better next time.”

The Yankees have struggled in June in each of the last four seasons especially compared to their level of play during the first two months of the season. The Yankees had a 36–23 record on May 31 but have gone 12–12 in June. In 2025, the Yankees went 13–14 in June. In 2024, the Yankees went 14–13 in June. In 2023, the Yankees went 11–12 in June.

The Yankees were down 2–0 going into the top of the ninth inning and then they scored two runs in the top of the ninth to tie the game. Aroldis Chapman, who had a 2.94 ERA with the Yankees in 315 games from 2016–2022), had his third appearance in four days in the ninth inning. Jose Caballero had a leadoff single in the nine spot. Caballero then easily stole second for his 19th steal of his season. He was first Yankee in scoring position in the entire game. Anthony Volpe then walked on a 3–1 pitch to put runners on first and second with no outs. On Ben Rice’s fly out to right in the 9th, Caballero scored when Abreu airmailed his throw to third, which led Volpe to advance to third.

Chapman threw a 100 mph fastball to pinch hitter Paul Goldschmidt. Goldschmidt had a fielder’s choice grounder to shortstop and Volpe had a good slide under the tag to tie the game in the 9th. Cody Bellinger then struck out on a low 100 mph two seamer for the second out. Bellinger went 0–4 with two strikeouts and he is now 2–23 in his last seven games. Pinch hitter Max Schuemann struck out swinging on 99 mph sinker to end the 9th. The Yankees only scored two runs in the ninth after having runners on first and second with no outs and they went 1–6 with runners in scoring position in the game.

Gray was closer in this game than he had ever been in his career to throwing a no hitter. The Yankees were hitless in four innings in four straight games for the first time since 1963. The Yankees did not get their first hit until the 6th inning on Friday. The Yankees did not get their first hit until the 5th inning on Saturday. The Yankees had no hits and no baserunners through four innings in this game. Gray, who had a 4.51 ERA in 41 games with the Yankees from 2017–2018, had all his pitches working for him in this game that was televised on NBC.

Gray, who has a league leading nine wins with a dominant 2.69 ERA in 15 starts this season, threw a breaking ball to strike out Spencer Jones in the fifth inning. Jones went 0–3 with three strikeouts and he is 2–16 in his last six games. Jones has 32 strikeouts in his 65 at-bats this season. Rosario’s walk in the fifth inning was the Yankees first base runner. He was the Yankees 15th batter. The only base runner that Gray allowed through six innings was a walk.

Gray did not allow a hit through five innings and got Oswaldo Cabrera to ground out to third on a cutter to end the fifth inning. Cabrera was playing in a Major League game for the first time since fracturing his ankle on May 12 last year. Jazz Chisholm struck out swinging on a check swing to end the 6th. That was Sonny Gray’s 1,997th strikeout. Chisholm did not like the call and he got in the home plate umpire’s face. (It appeared that Chisholm did not swing) Chisholm was ejected from the game by the umpire for spiking his helmet. Yankees had to bring Volpe into the game to play shortstop and Caballero switched to second. Gray struck out Bellinger swinging to end the 7th.

Gray struck out Jones to leadoff the 8th inning on a sweeper for his 2,000th strikeout of his career. Rosario then singled to center and Gray was then taken out of the game after 7.1 dominant innings. Gray’s ERA went down from 2.95 to 2.69 in this game. Gray threw a first pitch strike to an impressive 20 of the 24 batters he faced and repeated his delivery well. Gray had his longest no hit bid of his career. The first no hitter by the Red Sox against the Yankees was by Hall of Famer Cy Young when the Yankees were still known as the Highlanders. (The Yankees were the Highlanders through the 1912 season.) Austin Wells flied out to Ceddanne Rafaela in center to end the 8th.

Gray lost his bid for a no-hitter with one out in the 8th inning. It was the longest no-hit bid by a Red Sox pitcher against the Yankees since Bob Ojeda in 1981. In the process, Gray reached 2,000 career strikeouts, becoming the 7th active pitcher to reach the mark. Gray is the first former Yankees pitcher with a no-hit bid of at least seven innings against the Yankees since 6/30/57 when Ralph Terry threw 7.1 hitless innings.

Gray became the first pitcher in the modern era (since 1900) to reach 2000 career strikeouts and 2000.0 innings pitched in the same game. Gray is only the 5th active pitcher to reach 2000 innings and 2000 strikeouts in his career. The others who have achieved this are Justin Verlander, Max Scherzer, Chris Sale and Kevin Gausman.

There was almost the first Yankees vs. Red Sox game without a hit through four innings since 1967 but Durbin gave the Red Sox a 2–0 lead on a single with two outs in the bottom of the fourth. Durbin drove in Abreu and Wilson Contreras, who had reached via an error by Cabrera. Durbin went 6–15 with five runs scored, a homer and four RBI in this series against the Yankees and in his last 11 games, he is 17–39 with nine runs scored, four doubles, three homers and eight RBI.

Carlos Rodon allowed two unearned runs in five innings while allowing just one hit, walking four batters and striking out six batters. Both of his runs were unearned due to Cabrera’s error. Rodon’s 30th pitch of the 4th inning was a walk to former Yankee first round draft pick Anthony Seigler in the 4th inning. Rodon had a strikeout on a 88 mph slider to Cheng on the 37th pitch of the fourth to end the long inning. Rodon retired the side in order in the fifth as Bellinger caught a ball in left to end the inning.

Rodon threw a first pitch strike to just 13 of the 21 batters that he faced. However, he did lower his ERA from 3.70 to 3.30 after not allowing an earned run in five innings. Rodon had allowed three earned runs in each of his previous three starts after allowing just eight runs in his first five starts of his season.

Paul Blackburn came into the game in relief of Rodon and got three outs on just six pitches in the 6th inning. Blackburn threw two scoreless innings while allowing just one base runner, a single by Connor Wong, and he has now allowed just two earned runs in his 10 games this month in a span of 15.1 innings to lower his ERA from 3.33 to 2.50.

Ben Rice grounded out to second to start the 7th. Jasson Dominguez struck out looking on a 3–2 count and he ABS challenged the location of the strike call. It was ruled that it was just barely a strike by a few inches. The Yankees then had just one challenge left the rest of the game.

Seigler lost his challenge to leadoff the 7th, which meant the Red Sox had no more challenges the rest of the game. Wong had a single off the side wall in foul territory in the seventh for the second hit of the game for the Red Sox. The Yankees then turned a 4–6–3 double play to end the inning.

David Bednar pitched the eighth and ninth innings and did not allow a run in either inning. He got a double play in 9th. Six out of every 10 balls put in play against Bednar are ground balls. Bednar threw 19 of his 33 pitchers for strikes and he faced the minimum six batters due to the double play that he got Romy Gonzalez to hit into. Gonzalez went 0–4 in his first MLB game of the season.

Bednar has now not allowed a run in his last 12 games in a span of 14 innings to lower his ERA from 5.14 to 3.09. He has for the most part stopped throwing his curve ball during this 12-game stretch.