BOSTON — Everywhere the Yankees looked at Fenway Park on Monday night, they found opportunities.
The white digits against the Green Monster scoreboard delivered the news the Blue Jays had lost. Red Sox pitchers issued eight walks and threw two wild pitches. And closer Jean Machi gave up a run, a hit and walked three in the ninth.
Yet when Didi Gregorius’ bases-loaded, two-out fly ball died on the warning track in right, all those opportunities were wasted because the Yankees dropped a 4-3 decision to the Red Sox as 36,148 watched in New England’s living room.
“We missed an opportunity,’’ Joe Girardi said about not gaining ground on the Blue Jays, who lead the Yankees by 1 ½ lengths in the AL East. “But it all comes down to how we play. Tonight we didn’t get the big hit.’’
That was evident in the box score, where the Yankees were 4-for-14 with runners in scoring position and stranded 14.
Trailing 4-2 entering the ninth, the Yankees loaded the bases on Stephen Drew’s leadoff single and walks to Alex Rodriguez and Brian McCann sandwiched around Machi catching Carlos Beltran looking on a 3-2 pitch.
A four-pitch walk to Chase Headley made it 4-3 in front of Greg Bird looking at a 1-2 pitch for the second out. That brought Gregorius to the plate with a 4-for-4 night going. His fly ball cut through the muggy late-summer night, the Boston skyline serving as a backdrop.
“I thought it had a chance, but it’s a big ballpark [when you] start going that way,’’ Joe Girardi said of Fenway’s vast right field.
Watching Rusney Castillo glide towards the warning track was proof Gregorius wasn’t getting a grand slam for a fifth hit. And when the ball nestled in Castillo’s glove the final opportunity of the night was flushed.
“Any other stadium, except this one,’’ Gregorius said of that ball leaving the ballpark. “I am not a strong guy like the other guys.’’
Bird, who might have to fill in for an extended period of time for Mark Teixeira, had a rough night. Though he went 1-for-3 with runners in scoring position, his fourth-inning single didn’t deliver a run. He also was thrown out trying to score on Jacoby Ellsbury’s fly to left to end the fourth inning. And in the seventh he bobbled a perfect inning-ending, double-play ball hit by the eternally slow Pablo Sandoval as a run scored to hike the Red Sox’s lead to 4-2.
“With Pablo running and it hit hard, I wanted to get the double play,’’ said Bird, who messed up the transfer. “I dropped it.’’
The run proved to be the difference in the Yankees being a half-game back or the 1 ½ they are.
Bird lamented the ninth-inning at-bat on which he was called out by Vic Carapazza on a borderline 1-2 pitch.
“I have to be better there, at least get one run in,’’ Bird said.
Ivan Nova made two mistakes in six innings and they lowered his record to 5-7. Nova gave up a two-run homer to Mookie Betts in the third and a solo blast to David Ortiz — the 495th of his career — that came on a 3-0 pitch and scraped the top of the Green Monster’s wall.
“I made a mistake, the ball came back to the middle and it really hurt,’’ Nova said of the pitch to Betts.
So did all the missed opportunities.