About Last Night: Opposite Day. Red Sox 6, Yankees 1

About Last Night: Opposite Day. Red Sox 6 - Yankees 1

By Tim Kabel

June 27, 2026

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The first-place Yankees lost their second game in a row to the last-place Boston Red Sox. On Thursday night, the Yankees were just plain sloppy and allowed six unearned runs. Last night, they were outplayed and outpitched by the Red Sox. That’s Baseball, Suzyn.

Payton Tolle took a perfect game into the 6th inning and allowed only one hit over 7 scoreless innings. Tolle, who was reportedly under the weather, retired the first 16 batters before Spencer Jones lined a single over shortstop. Tolle struck out seven and allowed two walks in his seven innings of pitching.

Will Warren allowed 5 runs in 5.2 innings. He gave up 7 hits and 3 walks and didn't strike anyone out. This was Warren's worst start since early May. Wilson Contreras had an RBI single in the first inning and in the third inning he hit a 418-foot home run over the Green Monster and out of Fenway Park. In the bottom of the fifth inning, Wilson Contreras walked on an inside pitch and began shouting at Warren. Both benches cleared but nothing further occurred.

The Yankees only mustered three hits in the game. Anthony Volpe and Jasson Dominguez each had doubles. Volpe scored on an RBI groundout by Austin Wells who was pinch hitting for Ali Sanchez. 

The best the Yankees can hope for is a split in this series. They are currently 4-3 against the Red Sox for the season.

As I have written many times, the Yankees need to make hay when the sun shines. In other words, they need to take advantage of the situations that present themselves. They have now lost the first two games of a four-game series against the last-place Red Sox. The Red Sox are a team on the verge of having a fire sale. The Yankees have aspirations of winning the World Series. The Yankees lost on Thursday due to poor play and general sloppiness. Last night, the Red Sox were simply better. Payton Tolle outpitched Will Warren. 

Losses happen. Every team has bad games. Every team has sloppy games. Every team is outplayed by a weaker opponent. It's when it becomes a pattern or when it becomes excessive that it is a problem. The Yankees have reached the halfway point of the season. They have played 81 games and their record is 48 and 33. Projected over a whole season, that's 96 wins. That is certainly nothing to sneeze at. There is no need to panic. However, when the heavyweight champion is having trouble against a journeyman fighter, it's a concern. The Yankees need to straighten things out over these next two games. Losing a series or heaven forbid, being swept by the Red Sox at this time of the year in this 2026 season would not be a good thing. I know someone is going to accuse me of clutching my pearls, but these last two games were games the Yankees should have won. Let's see what they can do over the next two games. Apparently, the Red Sox of 2026 have adopted the mentality of the ballplayers in Damn Yankees, “Why should we curse? We gotta get better ‘cause we can't get worse!”

A Few Tidbits: 

·       Will Warren had allowed three or fewer runs in his last seven starts and two or fewer in five of those before last night.

·       At the midway point of the season, Jazz Chisholm, Jr. is batting .226 with twelve home runs, 33 RBI, and 24 stolen bases. Remember, he predicted a 50-home run/50-stolen base season. He is not far off the pace with the stolen bases, as he would need 26 in the second half of the season. However, he would need 38 home runs over the next 81 games to hit 50. No matter how you slice it, it has been a disappointing season for Jazz, and it will probably cost him millions of dollars. It may very well also lead to the end of his Yankees career. 

·       Carlos Lagrange is becoming more comfortable in his role as a relief pitcher with each successive outing. He earned his first save as a professional on Thursday night, getting four outs as Scranton beat Indianapolis. It was his second scoreless appearance in relief this week. Overall, Lagrange has a 1.98 ERA and a .188 batting average against in 13.2 innings of relief and he has 19 strikeouts. In Thursday night's outing, he topped 101.5 mph on his fastball twice and reached triple digits six times. It shouldn't be too much longer before he is in the Major Leagues.

·       At the midway point of the season, Austin Wells is batting .164 with 4 home runs and 9 RBI. At this pace, he might not even hit 10 home runs or drive in 20 runs for the entire season. The Yankees cannot continue with the total lack of offensive production they are getting out of the catcher position.

·       I must admit that I liked the Red Sox uniforms last night. The color of the jersey matched the Green Monster, which I thought was significantly better than that hideous yellow uniform they often wear.

·       Yesterday was Derek Jeter’s 52nd birthday.

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Today, the Yankees will play the third game of the four-game series against the Red Sox at 1:10 PM at Fenway Park. Gerrit Cole, (2-2, 3.62 ERA) will face Jake Bennett, (1-3, 3.71 ERA).