Everything goes wrong as Yankees’ season ends in wild-card flop
BOSTON — The ace stunk, the offense no-showed and the decision-making was nearly as bad.
Now the Yankees are going home after a 6-2 loss, manhandled by the Red Sox on Tuesday in the AL wild-card game at Fenway Park.
The Yankees’ season, which they often called a roller coaster, ended with a thud thanks to a career-worst postseason performance by Gerrit Cole and a lineup that didn’t give them much of a chance.
After winning their last six regular-season games against Boston — including a sweep at Fenway just over a week ago — the Yankees were outclassed Tuesday and it left them staring at another long offseason, their 12th straight without a World Series appearance.
And their two biggest current rivals, Boston and Tampa Bay, face off in the ALDS.
“Sick to my stomach,’’ Cole said of his reaction to his performance.
He likely wasn’t the only one to feel that way.
“This was a challenging year,’’ manager Aaron Boone said. “We put ourselves in this game with an opportunity to do something special in October. The league’s closed the gap on us. We’ve got to get better. We’ve got to get better in every aspect.”
That was on display Tuesday.
Cole had never pitched fewer than five innings in 13 previous postseason starts — and his two-plus innings Tuesday matched the shortest outing of his career.
After saying the left hamstring tightness that bothered him in September wasn’t going to be an issue, Cole quickly put the Yankees in a hole.
Cole retired the first two batters in the bottom of the first inning before walking Rafael Devers after getting ahead 1-2.
It proved costly as Xander Bogaerts came up and blasted a two-run shot to center, just after the sellout crowd began chanting “Ge-rrit.”
The 427-foot blast gave Boston a 2-0 lead and brought the sold-out Fenway crowd to life.
Kyle Schwarber led off the bottom of the third with a mammoth homer to right to make it 3-0.
With the Yankees’ bullpen stirring, Kiké Hernandez reached on an infield hit and Cole walked Devers to end his horrific 50-pitch outing, in which he gave up three runs and two homers.
“Obviously, we knocked out their ace,’’ Bogaerts said. “That’s their best pitcher they’ve got. That’s the guy they gave all that money to.”
Clay Holmes entered with two on and no one out to face Bogaerts and got him on a check-swing for the first out. The right-hander then got Alex Verdugo to ground into an inning-ending double play to keep it a three-run game.
The Yankees’ offense finally showed some life against Red Sox starter Nathan Eovaldi in the sixth.
To that point, they didn’t do much against Eovaldi, who gave up seven runs in 2 ²/₃ innings on Sept. 24.
With two outs in the top of the first, Giancarlo Stanton sent a shot off the Green Monster in left, but stared at it from home plate — apparently thinking it was gone — and was held to a single.
No matter, as Joey Gallo struck out on a check swing to end the 11-pitch inning.
Eovaldi had retired 11 straight until Anthony Rizzo took the right-hander deep with one out in the sixth to cut the deficit to 3-1.
Aaron Judge followed with an infield single, hustling down the line to beat the throw by Bogaerts from short.
Boston manager Alex Cora pulled Eovaldi for Ryan Brasier.
Stanton belted another shot off the Monster, and third-base coach Phil Nevin made a bad send — likely influenced by a lack of faith in Gallo on deck — and Judge was thrown out easily after a relay from Hernandez in center and a strong throw home from Bogaerts.
Gallo followed with a pop-out to third and the Yankees’ chance to inch closer was gone.
Luis Severino faltered in the sixth with a walk to Bogaerts and an RBI double by Verdugo to put the Red Sox back up by three runs.
They added a pair more when Jonathan Loaisiga and Chad Green walked the bases loaded in the seventh and Green gave up a two-run single to Verdugo.
Two innings later, the Red Sox celebrated on the field, a team that was expected to be rebuilding having knocked out the Yankees again.
“Getting knocked out here at Fenway will add fuel to fire,’’ Brett Gardner said.
