Yankees Takeaways: Cole Rocked at Fenway in Series Loss to Boston

BOSTON, MA --- The Yankees have lost three in a row and the series to the Red Sox at Fenway Park. It was another game where it felt like the Yankees were out of the game in the first inning.

Offensive Woes

The Yankees were no-hit by Red Sox rookie Jake Bennett into the fifth inning. It was a solo home run by Max Schuemann that broke up Bennett's bid for history. The Yankees recorded just three hits and two walks against Bennett in his 6.1 innings of work.

"I think today was a little similar to [Connelly] Early, you know, and how they kind of attack, kind of a taller version." Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. [Peyton] Tolle is a little bit different, but then both those guys, so you know, we just got to do a better job.

"Obviously, haven't been able to mount much. I felt like today we swung the bats a little better than yesterday, when yesterday we didn't mount much at all and there wasn't a lot of hard contact. Today I felt like we had some hard contact going, but kind of chasing uphill and weren't able to really, you know, couple chances to get a big hit and weren't able to do it, so we got to find a way right now. You know, it's been obviously a rough weekend for us, but there's a chance to win one tomorrow."

Dating back to Thursday, the Yankees have recorded just two runs on six hits. Their offense is stagnant. It is not helped that both Ben Rice and Cody Bellinger are in prolonged slumps and are killing the lineup. Couple that with the bottom of the lineup not hitting, the Yankees have very few offensive chances per game.

"No doubt he's grinding a little bit right now, but you know that's part of it, man," Boone said of Rice's June struggles. "Like even the guys that are going to the All-Star game and our MVP conversations. There are going to be weeks where it's not easy, where you go through it a little bit. He'll be fine; he'll get through that and hopefully start getting it going again tomorrow."

The Yankees are going to need Rice and Bellinger to work out of their slumps soon, because with no Aaron Judge or Giancarlo Stanton in their lineup, the team is relying on a lot of production from those two.

The Yankees are also getting no production from Austin Wells. Wells's batting average this season is .160. He has no power, and all he does seemingly is make weak contact and strike out. Wells has been a zero for the Yankees, and his production is going to need to pick up.

https://twitter.com/ChrisKirschner/status/2070950442725413241?s=20

"I feel like he's moving the needle right now." Boone said of Wells' struggles. "Believe it or not, you had a really good bat off the bench last night, where he smoked the ball for the one RBI, a one-hopper to [Anthony] Siegler, and had the base hit the night before, so you know it was—he was really struggling there for a while.

"I feel like he's gaining a little bit of traction. I know the results haven't necessarily been there yet, and you're facing another really tough left on left today, so you know part of that is this kind of stretch we're going through, but I feel like the move is hopefully starting to gain a little traction, and hopefully we start to see a little bit of results."

Cole's Outing

Gerrit Cole has historically struggled in Fenway Park, and things did not change today. His second pitch of the day to Boston's leadoff hitter Masataka Yoshida left the yard. On the day, Cole surrendered four runs, two on solo home runs, in 5.1 innings of work.

Cole was hit hard all day, with the average exit velocity against his four-seamer, in which he gave up four of his seven hits and the source for each RBI hit, being 97.7 on the day.

"I just thought maybe the first part of the game being a little careful, which probably led to some mistakes, because even within those, like the at-bat to Contreras, I felt like a lot of good pitches to get to that point, heading the count, two strikes, and then you know, trying to go in kind of pulls the heater down and down the middle in his hot zone." Said Boone on the outing of Cole and his fastball being hit around.

"I thought the last three, four innings I thought he really got aggressive and a little bit like, 'Let's just let it rip and get after it,' and thought finished really well, but you know, obviously some mistakes there early that hurt him."

"I thought we got more aggressive with it as the game went on, but the reality is when you're putting yourself in a situation to throw a fastball and you miss in a bad spot, just gives them a chance to put a good swing on it, and they did today, and they put a good bunch of good swings on good pitches as well, so it's a little bit of both," Cole said of his lack of command with the fastball today.

Eventually, the fastball got better as the outing went on, which made it so Cole was able to stabilize and eat some innings. "I think the four-seamer still became an important part of it. " Boone said. "I thought he mixed well, but the four-seam, I thought, was good too, but he had, you know, I thought he used his curveball well today. The change-up works well; he just got hurt, and obviously with some slug on some mistakes early that caused some runs."

"I was encouraged about the way we finished," Cole said. "Unfortunately, it was too much to overcome today, which is disappointing. But after the Contreras double, I thought it got better. We used what we had today better to our advantage after that."

Tomorrow, the Yankees will send out Carlos Rodón to try and avoid the sweep at Fenway Park. The Yankees will face Sonny Gray for the first time at Fenway Park since he joined the Red Sox and the second time since he was acquired by the Yankees' rivals. First pitch will be at 7:20pm on NBC's 'Sunday Night Baseball.'