Yankees' spiral continues with deflating loss to Red Sox - ESPN

NEW YORK — Anthony Volpe stood in a quiet, mostly empty Yankees clubhouse and had a one-word description of the team's shockingly sorry skid.

«Brutal,» he said. «We play to win and we expect to win.»

A major league-best 49-21 through June 12, New York is a big league-worst 5-15 since. The Yankees wasted a three-run lead against the Boston Red Sox in the latest deflating defeat Friday night.

Masataka Yoshida hit a tying, two-run homer off Clay Holmes with two outs in the ninth inning and Ceddanne Rafaela homered against Tommy Kahnle leading off the 10th to give Boston a 5-3 victory.

New York has lost 14 of 18 games, a slide that started at Fenway Park on June 15. The Yankees have struggled in the absence of Anthony Rizzo, sidelined since June 16 by a broken forearm, and Giancarlo Stanton, out since June 22 because of a strained hamstring.

«Nobody's playing to the level that they think they can,» said Holmes, who has had two save chances since June 9 and blown them both.

New York has lost four straight games and dropped to 1-6 in extra innings.

«It's a difficult time and we've got to dig down and quick turnaround tomorrow, get ready to play and find out what we're made of a little bit,» Yankees manager Aaron Boone said. «You're going to be tested all the time with tough spots in the season. which clearly we are right now.»

Volpe and DJ LeMahieu made a double mental error that cost the Yankees a run in the third inning, both failing to run hard and allowing the Red Sox to turn an inning-ending double play.

With Volpe at third and LeMahieu at first and one out, Ben Rice hit a sharp grounder to Gonzalez at first. Gonzalez stepped on the bag and threw to Rafaela at second. But Volpe slowed down heading home and LeMahieu ran