The New York Yankees left Fenway Park after not only being swept, but also losing the AL East top spot. With an extra-inning victory on Sunday, the Boston Red Sox recorded the first four-game sweep against their archrival Yankees since 2018. The Yankees’ offense went quiet as the Red Sox starter Sonny Gray dominated till the eighth.

The team’s lineup gained some momentum only after relief pitching took over, and manager Aaron Boone did not hold back from expressing his frustration while trusting his players to do better in the upcoming games.

“We’ve got a really good freaking team,” said Aaron Boone on YES Network. “We played crappy on this trip, kind of. It feels bad, kind of pissed off, right? But it’s what we do.

“It’s what you sign up for. We’ll dig ourselves out of it and get it going here in short order. But the bottom line is we didn’t play well this weekend. We’ve got to do better.”

On Sunday, Gray shut down the Yankees’ hitters till the top of the eighth before Amed Rosario singled to break his no-hitter bid. Gray ended his outing with a 2.69 ERA after allowing only one hit and a walk across 7.1 innings.

The Yankees started contributing to the scoreboard at the very last minute as they took advantage of Wilyer Abreu’s throwing error in the ninth. Abreu’s throwing error helped Jose Caballero score and put Anthony Volpe in scoring position. Tasked with the save, Aroldis Chapman could not get enough outs before Volpe scored to tie the game.

As the Yankees rallied, taking the game to extra innings, they even took the lead in the top of the tenth. Two-time Gold Glove winner Abreu’s fielding error once again aided the Yankees enormously. Abreu failed to properly field Rosario’s line drive that went straight for an RBI single, putting the Yankees on the lead. Abreu’s error also helped Rosario reach second.

In the next two at-bats, Rosario reached third and scored, giving the Yankees a two-run lead. While disappointed with the outcome of the game, Boone reportedly said that he loved the late-inning comeback from his team.

After David Bednar held off the Red Sox hitters, Fernando Cruz had the difficult task of recording the save. But he blew it as soon as he allowed the leadoff RBI single to Anthony Seigler. Masataka Yoshida came as a pinch-hitter and doubled, paving the way to score in the next two at-bats. Cruz allowed 2 more runs as Yoshida scored to cap off the match. On Sunday, Cruz blew the third save of the season while posting a 2.57 ERA and a 4-3 record.

Acknowledging Cruz’s rough outing, Boone said, “We did a good job, pitching for the most part today, and obviously, Cruz had a tough one, left some pitches up for them. So, it’s one of those cr-p moments of the season, cr-p times of the season, where you have a really rough weekend against a division rival.”

But calling the Red Sox mere division rivals does not justify the historic rivalry between these two clubs. It is a century-old feud stemming from the infamous Babe Ruth sale to New York in 1919. Following Babe Ruth’s transfer to the Yankees, the Red Sox entered an 86-year World Series drought that snapped in 2004. With Ruth on their roster, the Yankees cemented the foundations of a dynasty team that would go on to win 27 World Series rings. The Red Sox’s World Series drought is infamously known as the “Curse of the Bambino.”

Despite the series sweep, the Red Sox (36-46) rank last in the AL East, being less than 10 games away from the .500 threshold. While Boston’s postseason hopes are slim, the Yankees hold the top AL Wild Card Spot. The Yankees do not have any room for slip-ups if they want to keep their World Series hopes alive.

So Boone’s message for his team was, “But you’ve got to get over it quickly and understand we’ve got a home stand starting tomorrow and pick ourselves up.”

The Yankees will take on Tarik Skubal and the Detroit Tigers for a three-game series next.