This Fourth of July, the Yankees lost to the Reds.
With an 8-4 win, Cincinnati — not the British — swept the Bombers at Yankee Stadium on Thursday afternoon. According to YES Network’s James Smyth, the Reds became the first National League team to sweep the Yankees in the Bronx over three-or-more games.
“We’re just not really clicking the way we were to start the season,” Aaron Judge said after the Yankees’ 14th loss in their last 19 games. “It’s a long season. You’re gonna have a little tough spell here and there.
“If you [look] back at all the past World Series champions, they’ve always hit a little skid at some point. And I think that’s what kind of defines a team, is how we respond out of this.”
On Thursday, the Yankees had somewhat of a response for Frankie Montas’ turncoat performance, as the past pinstriper gave up two runs via the longball in the fifth when lefty-swingers Austin Wells and Ben Rice pulled solo home runs with the Yankees already down.
For Wells, it was his fourth homer of the season. Rice, meanwhile, crushed the first dinger of his major league career after replacing the flailing Anthony Volpe as the Yankees’ leadoff man.
“Just excitement,” Rice said of his reaction to the homer, which cost him a few autographs to retrieve. “Just overjoyed. Finally got that first one out of the way, so I was thrilled.”
Congrats on your 1st Big League Home Run, Ben! pic.twitter.com/9v5PtQ78oD
— New York Yankees (@Yankees) July 4, 2024
Still, Montas completed five innings and held the Yankees to those two runs. The 31-year-old, who spent parts of two injury-riddled seasons in New York from 2022-2023, also tallied four hits, three walks and four strikeouts over 94 pitches.
“I thought he made some pitches on some chances we had to start building a big inning against him and just weren’t able to do that enough,’ Aaron Boone said.
Juan Soto added his 21st home run of the season in the seventh inning. The two-run shot, which came against Fordham product Nick Martinez, landed 431 feet away and just to the left of Monument Park.
While the Reds allowed a few bombs to an inconsistent lineup, home runs were more of a detriment to Marcus Stroman.
The Yankees’ right-hander served up three jacks, as Nick Martini, Jonathan India and Spencer Steer each went deep. Martini and India recorded solo shots in the second and third innings, respectively, while Steer put three on the board with a blast in the fifth frame.
“This one’s on me,” said Stroman, who totaled five innings, five hits, five earned runs, two walks, six strikeouts and 99 pitches as his ERA rose from 3.29 to 3.58. “I gotta do a better job in that fifth and get my team back to the dugout keeping them at two runs.”
While Stroman took responsibility, homers have been a problem for the Yankees’ rotation throughout the team’s ongoing slide, something Boone mentioned after the game.
“Right now, our mistakes are going in the seats, and that’s kind of spoiling some outings, even some of the outings where within it, there’s a lot of good things still happening,” the manager said. “We’re getting hurt with slug right now, and that’s kind of putting us behind the eight ball a little bit in some games. We gotta get better at that and tighten that up and also hope that there’s some good fortune that goes along with every mistake in the heart of the plate.”
The Reds scored again in the seventh inning when Jake Fraley smoked a three-run triple off of Jake Cousins to make it 8-2. Tim Hill was charged with two of those runs as the Yankees’ concerning bullpen couldn’t keep things close.
With another loss in the books, the second-place Yankees are now 54-35. They have failed to win six straight series and seven of their last eight. The team split four games with Toronto last week.
Boone said that “we gotta play better on all fronts” when asked if he was alarmed after Thursday’s game, and he added that there’s an “understanding you need a kick in the butt a little bit.” However, he also noted that all teams go through rough patches.
“I don’t think this is something that’ll last,” Stroman said. “We played really well in the beginning of the year and now we’re just hitting kind of a skid. But the confidence in this group is very consistent, and I feel like we’re gonna come out of this pretty soon.”
Added Judge: “You gotta go through things like this, and we’re gonna come out better for it going through these struggles. You gotta get beat down a little bit to kind of see what you’re made of. We’re gonna find out real soon.”
The Yankees will look to snap their latest losing steak with the sizzling Red Sox in town this weekend. Boston took 2-of-3 from the Yankees at Fenway Park in mid-June.
Nestor Cortes, Gerrit Cole and the struggling Luis Gil will start for the Yankees. Tanner Houck, working on an All-Star bid, Josh Winckowski and Kutter Crawford will take the ball for the Sox as they look to gain ground in the American League East.
“We get a great opportunity tomorrow with a really good Red Sox team coming in playing well,” Boone said. “We gotta match it.”
