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The Yankees lost to the Red Sox for the seventh straight time Friday night in The Bronx, this time 1-0, as they fell half a game behind Boston for the top wild-card spot in the American League.
The offense was overmatched again by Brayan Bello — as well as Aroldis Chapman, who closed out the game in the ninth.
Bello, who blanked the Yankees for seven innings in a June win at Fenway Park, was equally as dominant in The Bronx on Friday.
And the failure by the Yankees offense to figure out Bello nullified Max Fried’s best start in nearly two months.
The left-hander, who’d put up a 6.80 ERA over his previous eight starts, rebounded with six scoreless innings.
Fried pitched out of trouble in the third, when he allowed two walks and a single, by striking out promising rookie Roman Anthony to end the inning. He also survived a pair of flair singles in the fifth, again getting Anthony to finish the inning, this time on a grounder to second.
But Bello was better.
Ben Rice singled with one out in the first, which seemed like a promising sign for the offense.
They got just two more hits off Bello before he left after seven innings having faced just two batters over the minimum.
They got a leadoff single from Austin Wells in the bottom of the sixth, but the catcher was doubled off first on Trent Grisham’s lineout to shortstop, as the Yankees’ baserunning woes continued.
Bello gave up just three singles and a walk — and got two double plays — before leaving after 92 pitches.
Mark Leiter Jr. took over for Fried to start the seventh and gave up a one-out, pinch-hit double to Nathaniel Lowe.
Connor Wong followed with a double to left to drive in Lowe with the game’s first run.
That proved to be enough to beat the Yankees, as they couldn’t score against Garrett Whitlock in the eighth or Chapman in the ninth.
Friday’s loss aside, they at least saw some good signs from Fried, who was one of the game’s best pitchers for most of the first half of the season.
He looked the part again versus the Red Sox, with his only issue a brief battle with a squirrel in the top of the fifth.
The squirrel’s presence on the field delayed the game for about a minute, which was followed by Fried firing his next pitch to the backstop.
But the left-hander retired the next two batters to get out of the inning.