Yankees takeaways from Friday’s 7-3 loss to Red Sox, including Jhony Brito’s short outing

Jhony Brito simply didn’t have it in the Bronx as he put the Yankees behind the eight ball as New York fell 8-3 to the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.

Takeaways

– Jhony Brito was hit hard to start the game. The first three hitters in the Red Sox lineup picked up hits on very hard-hit balls to give Boston a 1-0 lead. Then Brito and catcher Ben Rortvedt had trouble getting on the same page as the PitchCom began to malfunction. After it was seemingly resolved, the first pitch thrown — a 1-0 changeup that had way too much plate — was launched over the right field wall 376 feet by Masataka Yoshida to give Boston a 4-0 lead.

After the top half of the first, it was announced that the PitchCom is not working and neither team will use it on Friday.

It didn’t get any easier for Brito in the second but he wasn’t helped by his defense. With one out and no one on, Gleyber Torres mishandled the exchange on a ground ball to allow a runner to reach on the error. The Red Sox took advantage with four straight singles to plate three more runs.

Brito wouldn’t last long, throwing 46 pitches over 2.1 innings while giving up seven runs (six earned) on nine hits, no walks and striking out one.

– Not much went right for the Yanks on this night but one bright spot was they weren’t shut out for the third consecutive game. New York would scratch across a run — the only one Red Sox starter Brayan Bello allowed — in the third inning after Anthony Volpe led off with a double and scored on a DJ LeMahieu groundout.

Volpe did have a good day, finishing 2-for-4 with a double and a run. LeMahieu finished 2-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. He now has a 10-game hitting streak.

– Aaron Judge finally hit his first home run at The Stadium since returning from the IL with his two-run blast in the eighth inning to make the score 7-3. His last blast in the Bronx came on May 28.

Judge finished 1-for-4.

– The Yankees bullpen was the real hero of this game as they have been for most of this season. Ian Hamilton was especially great as he relieved Brito and gave New York 3.2 innings of clean baseball while striking out five batters. Keynan Middleton pitched a clean inning and the recently recalled Gregg Weissert gave the Yanks two innings of one-run ball.

The Yankees tried to make it interesting in the ninth inning down 8-3 when Torres and a pinch-hitting Isiah Kiner-Falefa got on base to lead off. But Harrison Bader and Volpe struck out looking before Rortvedt flied out to end the game.

Highlights

What’s Next

The Yankees continue their three-game series with the Red Sox at The Stadium on Saturday afternoon. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05 p.m..

The Yankees will have their ace Gerrit Cole (10-3, 2.76 ERA) on the mound and the Red Sox will have Kutter Crawford (5-6, 3.80 ERA) on the bump.