BOSTON — The Yankees came out flatter than Lance Dobbins’ professional baseball portfolio.
And then once they finally got a rally going, they killed it quicker than it started because of a boneheaded play.
The result was a second straight loss and series loss to the Red Sox, this one 4-3 on a chilly Saturday night when Hunter Dobbins shut them down across six shutout innings in front of a sold-out Fenway Park.
“It’s baseball,” manager Aaron Boone said. “They’re a good club, we’re a good club. I’m sure there’ll be some back and forth.”
Dobbins, who made headlines over the past week by talking about his hatred for the Yankees and sharing details of his father Lance’s professional baseball career that turned out to be falsehoods, silenced the Yankee bats.
They mustered just two hits and one walk against the Red Sox rookie right-hander, who struck out five and only allowed one runner to reach scoring position all night.
Once Dobbins left the game, the Yankees (42-27) finally showed signs of life.
Their first two batters of the seventh inning reached on walks and came around to score on RBI singles from Jasson Domínguez and Austin Wells that cut the 4-0 Red Sox lead in half.
But there were two outs when Domínguez was on second and Wells on first as Trent Grisham swung through a 2-1 pitch.
Domínguez, thinking it was strike three, was caught standing flat-footed in no-man’s-land between second and third base.
Red Sox catcher Carlos Narváez threw down to second as Domínguez took off for third, but he did not get there in time to avoid making the final out and ending the rally in brutal fashion.
“No excuses, I made a mistake,” Domínguez said.
The Yankees got within a run in the ninth as Paul Goldschmidt led off with a double and came around to score on a pair of groundouts.
Domínguez then tried to redeem himself with a two-out double, but Wells flied out to the warning track in center to end it as the Red Sox (36-36) clinched their second series win of the rivalry in as many weekends.
“They’re a really good team,” Goldschmidt said. “They’ve just made a couple pitches or plays or swings in each of those games. All five have been really tight. We got a bunch more to go, so we’ll try to win the one [Sunday] and then keep going.”
It marked the third straight game that the Yankees lineup was held in check.
They have scored just five runs in that span.
Carlos Rodón was far from his sharpest, either, as the left-hander was outdueled by Dobbins for the second straight start.
The Red Sox tagged Rodón for four runs (three earned) on seven hits and two walks across five-plus innings after scoring five runs in five-plus innings against him last weekend.
“They’re a pretty solid team,” Rodón said. “They definitely can swing it. They have a good approach, it seems like they have a team approach. Today they were a little more aggressive than last time. But I missed some pitches, they took advantage. I just need to be better at executing.”
Anthony Volpe came into Saturday having a Jeter play at shortstop in back-to-back games, but an attempt to make it three straight went awry in the first inning.
With a runner on second and two outs, Volpe made a nice backhanded play in the hole, but his leap throw bounced past Goldschmidt for an error that allowed the runner to score from second for the 1-0 lead.
“That’s my fault,” Goldschmidt said. “I just didn’t get far enough off the bag and got caught trying to knock it down. Just didn’t do a good enough job.”
The Yankees were also caught flat-footed on Trevor Story’s hustle double that made it 2-0 in the fourth inning.
Grisham collected the line drive to center and then threw to Volpe, who seemed surprised to see Story sliding in behind him.
Rodón eventually stranded Story at second, but the play typified how the Yankees played on Saturday, a step behind for most of the night.
Like he did with Domínguez, Boone spoke to Volpe about being more aware of the runner on the play.
“At the end of the day, we want to win,” Domínguez said. “Everybody knows the rivalry we have with Boston. We just want to win. Losing at home and losing here is tough.”
