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BOSTON — Instant reactions to the Red Sox (35-46) beating the Yankees again, this time by a 4-1 score thanks to a fantastic start by rookie Jake Bennett:
1) The Red Sox continue to have Gerrit Cole’s number. The six-time All-Star entered with a 5.52 career ERA at Fenway Park and the tough times continued as Boston got to him early.
The Sox tagged Cole for four runs in the first three innings, scoring on homers by Masataka Yoshida and Anthony Seigler and a two-run Willson Contreras double. In total, Cole lasted 5 ⅓ innings and surrendered seven hits.
2)On the other side, Bennett was phenomenal for the Red Sox. After striking out nine in six shutout innings Monday in Denver, the lefty cruised through seven innings, barely allowing any traffic along the way.
Bennett threw 6 ⅓ innings, allowing one run on three hits. He didn’t have many strikeouts (three) but got a lot of soft contact and quick outs. The southpaw didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning when Max Schuemann hit a solo homer to center field.
Bennett is in the majors ahead of schedule — and pitching very well. Through six games (33 innings), he owns a 3.27 ERA.
3) Bennett’s start was the 10th consecutive quality start by a Red Sox pitcher, a streak that dates back to Sonny Gray’s outing against the Blue Jays on June 18. It’s the longest such streak by the club since April 1988, when a group that included Roger Clemens, Oil Can Boyd and Bruce Hurst put together 14 straight quality starts.
Red Sox starters have given the club 35 quality starts already. In three games against the Yankees in the series, a trio of rookie lefties (Connelly Early, Payton Tolle and Bennett) have logged 19 ⅓ innings and allowed three earned runs while striking out 19 batters.
4) It’s fair to call the last three days a high point of the Red Sox season. They have dominated the Yankees in every way and will look to finish off a four-game sweep Sunday night.
Still, that’s a sad commentary on where things stand in the big picture. Saturday marked the 81st game of 2026 — and the midway point of the season. Even after winning the last three games, the Red Sox are on pace for 70 wins. Seventy.
5)Seigler, who has given the Red Sox some good at-bats at the bottom of the lineup in a small sample size, hit his first career major league homer in his 44th big league game. The 27-year-old got a 3-1 fastball from Cole in the second inning and hit it the other way, barely clearing the Green Monster with a 339-foot shot.
Making things even sweeter for Seigler is the fact he’s a former Yankees first-round pick. New York drafted him as a high schooler with the 23rd pick back in 2018. He toiled in their system until the 2024 season and elected minor league free agency that winter without ever debuting. Seigler made the majors with Milwaukee last year before being traded to the Red Sox in February.
6) Seigler’s homer came an inning after Yoshida led off with a blast of his own. On Cole’s second pitch of the afternoon, Yoshida chased a high fastball and smoked it into the bullpen in right field at 101.5 mph. It was his first career leadoff homer (though he has only led off six games as a big leaguer) and his second of the season.
Yoshida added a leadoff single in the third and scored when Contreras ripped a two-run double into the left-center gap.
7) Reliever Justin Slaten had a blowup outing in the Bronx on June 7 but somewhat made up for it by escaping a seventh-inning jam Saturday. Bennett allowed back-to-back singles to start the inning then finished his outing by striking out Jasson Domínguez. Slaten entered with the tying run at the plate and punched out José Caballero (looking) and Jazz Chisholm Jr. (swinging) to escape.
From there, Garrett Whitlock dominated in a 1-2-3 eighth that took just eight pitches and Aroldis Chapman rebounded from a shaky stretch with a 20-pitch ninth inning that included a two-out walk to Cody Bellinger.
Chapman picked up his 16th save and picked up a strikeout. He’s two strikeouts away from tying Hoyt Wilhelm for the most ever by a reliever in major league history.
8) A frustrated Jarren Duran let his emotions out in the third when he struck out and then slammed his bat on the ground and broke it in half on his way back to the dugout.
Duran was 0-for-4 with two strikeouts as his miserable June continued. He entered the day hitting .155 with a .432 OPS since June 1. He’s 2-for-23 in his last six games.
Duran also appeared to get into an animated discussion with a fan behind the home plate dugout after striking out in his last at-bat. The fan was removed by Fenway security and Duran said “nothing happened” after the game but interim manager Chad Tracy acknowledged that there was “chirping” in the outfielder’s direction.
9) The Red Sox will send Gray (9-1, 2.95 ERA) to the mound to try to finish off the sweep on Sunday night. New York will throw lefty Carlos Rodón (4-2, 3.70 ERA). As always, the rivalry is in primetime with first pitch set for 7:20 p.m. ET on NBC and Peacock.
More Red Sox coverage
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- Red Sox 2025 first-rounder induces 15 whiffs, has 2.64 ERA over past 6 starts
- Red Sox’ Garrett Crochet gives injury update, reveals ‘bright side’ of long IL stint
- Here’s the Red Sox lineup against Gerrit Cole, Yankees on Saturday (+ start time, TV channel)
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