The New York Yankees carried a 2-0 lead into the fifth inning at Fenway Park on Thursday night. Cam Schlittler had been working around trouble for four innings, piling up strikeouts while keeping the Red Sox off the scoreboard. The pitching was holding. The defense was about to undo all of it.
Four errors on the night, a season high. All six runs Boston scored were unearned. A game the Yankees controlled collapsed in the span of two frames, and the Red Sox walked away with a 6-3 win to open the series.
Afterward, Aaron Boone did not search for silver linings.
Boone Did Not Hold Back
Boone was direct from the start of his postgame availability on YES Network.
“We just didn’t do a good job of taking care of the ball tonight,” Boone said. “Not up to the way we’ve been playing or are capable of playing. And ultimately it was too much to overcome.”
He acknowledged how difficult it is to watch a game slip away through self-inflicted mistakes, particularly one the pitching staff had put them in position to win.
“It happens sometimes, and it’s not fun going through that,” Boone said. “Especially one that you have a lead, and it’s a close game for most of that game. But we just didn’t play well enough.”
Boone credited Schlittler, who struck out nine across five innings for the Yankees and kept the Red Sox off balance throughout. The problem was everything happening around him.
“We just didn’t play well in and around him enough and take care of the ball well enough,” Boone said. “Simple as that.”
The Fifth Inning Fell Apart
A leadoff walk to Masataka Yoshida and a single from Ceddanne Rafaela put two on with nobody out. Schlittler struck out Wilyer Abreu on a 100-mph sinker to settle things briefly. Then Willson Contreras crushed a ground ball to third at 112.8 mph. Amed Rosario got his glove down but not far enough. The ball went under it for a two-base error that scored the first run and opened the floodgates.
By the time the inning ended, four unearned runs had crossed the plate. The dagger came from Caleb Durbin, the former Yankees farmhand who was dealt to Milwaukee in the Devin Williams trade before the Red Sox picked him up in February. He drove a cutter over the Green Monster for a two-run shot that turned a tie game into a 4-2 deficit.
Schlittler’s ERA actually dropped to 1.62 because none of the runs were charged to him. That number tells you everything about who was responsible for the loss.
GettyBOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS – JUNE 25: Cam Schlittler #31 of the New York Yankees pitches against the Boston Red Sox during the first inning at Fenway Park on June 25, 2026 in Boston, Massachusetts. (Photo by Brian Fluharty/Getty Images)
Final Word for the Yankees
The Yankees are 48-32 and still lead the AL East. One sloppy night does not define a season. Thursday showed what happens when the margins disappear.
Boone said it plainly. They did not play well enough. Until the lineup gets healthy, nights like this could keep finding them.
Yankees’ Aaron Boone Drops Blunt Quote After Loss to Red Sox