BOSTON — The Red Sox have a way of bringing the Yankees back to reality.
Such was the case Thursday night.
Dellin Betances stood in the center of the clubhouse, almost in a state of shock, the heaviest of workloads having finally caught up to the big right-hander.
On Wednesday night it was the shortest of throws that doomed Betances. On Thursday night it was the longest of home runs, a 426-foot shot to center.
This is a young team learning the hardest of lessons. This was the kind of loss that ends dreams.
Boston’s Hanley Ramirez caught up to Betances’ 99-mph fastball in the bottom of the ninth and blasted the pitch over the center-field wall for a two-out, walk-off, three-run home run and a 7-5 victory over the Yankees at jubilant Fenway Park.
There was a touch of October in the air to make this loss even worse for the Yankees.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi did not want to go to Betances for a third straight game, but the Yankees’ fragile bullpen could not get the job done. With one out and trouble brewing, Girardi rushed to call on Betances to replace Blake Parker. The righty Parker had replaced lefty Tommy Layne, who retired his one batter on a strikeout as Girardi went matchup mad on a night he knew he was short in the bullpen.
Sooner or later the human element takes over and a tired Betances could not locate his pitches and paid the price, giving up three hits, a walk and four runs in his one-third of an inning. On a 2-1 pitch to Ramirez, he thought he got a strike on a checked swing but did not get the call.
He tried to throw that fastball by Ramirez, who lives for such pitches and crushed his 25th home run.
In all, five runs scored in the bottom of the ninth. A three-run lead was lost and probably a season, too.
The overachieving Yankees’ spirits were crushed by the Red Sox as Ramirez and David Ortiz (who blasted his 34th home run of the season and 537th of his career to move ahead of Mickey Mantle) did the damage.
“I wasn’t able to get it done,’’ Betances said. “I fell behind, I thought he went on the checked swing, but at the end of the day I had to make a pitch and I didn’t. My mindset is to make pitches and I wasn’t able to do that. I left some pitches up and they were able to put some good swings on them.’’
Leaving pitches up to the Red Sox at Fenway is deadly.
As Betances spoke, owning up to his mistakes, Starlin Castro, who picked up four hits on the night, stood off to the far right side, saying, this one hurt.
“This was tough. It’s surprising to see because Dellin has such good stuff,’’ Castro said. “We came out and hit everything hard, line drives, I thought we were going to get that game. In the first inning we scored two runs quickly.’’
The loss was a crusher. Instead of being three back of the first-place Red Sox with visions of a repeat of the ’78 Boston Massacre, the Yankees are five back in the division and three games back in the wild card.
They are running out of time and the young players are learning hard lessons.
The Red Sox have weapons. The three-run home run gave Ramirez 100 RBIs on the season, the third Red Sox player to hit triple-digits in RBIs this season.
“We never give up,’’ Ramirez said.
Consider that Castro leads the Yankees with 69 RBIs.
This loss hurts the Yankees on many levels because Masahiro Tanaka pitched so well, allowing one run over seven innings. Now the Yankees have to go to youngsters Luis Cessa, Bryan Mitchell and then veteran CC Sabathia.
The Baby Bombers have battled. They have given fans something to cheer about but, in the end, there is not the same kind of talent on this team as on the Red Sox.
That’s the cold, hard truth. That’s Red Sox reality.