Red Sox 4, Yankees 6: All good things must end

On Tuesday night, after eleven straight wins, a rare day off apparently did the Red Sox little good. David Price was rough, the offense took a long while to wake up, and John Farrell stayed asleep as his starter gave away the gains they made in the seventh. Thus ends the streak.

For Price, it was clear from the beginning that this was not going to be a clean night, with Gary Sanchez picking up his 20th homer of a remarkably short season to score two in the first. Price would find himself in trouble for much of the night, escaping a dangerous third and getting tagged for a third run in the fifth when Jacoby Ellsbury singled into right to drive in Austin Romine, continuing his career-long dominance of Price.

After barely producing a threat through the first five innings, the Sox finally got on the board against Luis Cessa in the sixth. A high throw from Cessa himself on a weak Andrew Benintendi grounder allowed the young left fielder to reach second, then score on a single from Dustin Pedroia. The Sox would get in good position to tie the game with Xander Bogaerts doubling behind him, putting two in scoring position with no outs. But David Ortiz struck out in the midst of an uncharacteristically quiet game, leaving the Sox only able to small-ball home one more run on a ground out from Mookie Betts.

Even with the benefit of a line drive turning into a double play as Mookie Betts made an (awkward) diving catch and fired home to catch Chase Headley, David Price could not get out of the sixth without letting the Yankees inch further ahead on a Didi Gregorius solo shot to right. But Aaron Hill got that run right back by responding with a solo shot of his own to start the seventh, and a single from Jackie Bradley Jr. behind him eventually read to another run as Pedroia was once again good for the RBI hit.

Just as his team had finally fought their way into a tie, however, David Price came back out and gave away the game to New York once and for all. On a night where he didn’t have it to begin with, John Farrell asked Price for an ill-advised seventh, and quickly paid for it on a single from Austin Romine and New York’s third home run of the night, this time from Tyler Austin to make it 6-4.

Brad Ziegler quickly picked up a double play to end things when Price was finally pulled after a single and a lucky lineout , but the damage had been done. The Sox started to get something going in the ninth, but this time there was no miracle from Hanley Ramirez, or even an at-bat, as Xander Bogaerts popped out and David Ortiz went down swinging once again to strand Andrew Benintendi and Dustin Pedroia, ending the game.

Oh well. That’s really all there is to say. Oh well. The Red Sox were never going to win them all. They’ll have to try to earn their champagne again tomorrow (the Jays beat the Orioles to stay alive), and hope that Price and Farrell got all of whatever this was out of their systems in a less important game.