Red Sox suffer heartbreaking loss to Yankees in 10 innings

NEW YORK – The Red Sox came to New York for their final series of the season against the Yankees trailing the Twins by four games to secure the last AL wild card with 16 games left to play.

They left Fenway on Wednesday with a series win over the Orioles on a walkoff home run by Tyler O’Neill, keeping their playoff bid alive but knowing it would be an uphill battle.

“We just won a series against one of the best teams in the major leagues. But in our situation, of course, that’s not enough,” manager Alex Cora said Wednesday. “We have to keep going. And we won a series at home. For some people, that doesn’t feel so great. But for us, it does.”

The Sox were on the other side of a walkoff in the 10th inning on Thursday, losing 2-1, when Juan Soto slammed an RBI single right under the glove of diving shortstop Trevor Story. Jon Berti, the automatic runner at second base, slid safely into home, just outpacing Ceddanne Rafaela in center field.

The Sox fell 4½ games behind the Twins.

A home run to right-center field by Gleyber Torres put the Sox behind quickly in the first inning, but Cooper Criswell ended up putting up a solid performance, allowing just four hits in five innings. He allowed three walks and hit one batter, but the Yankees never found a way to capitalize.

In the fourth inning, Giancarlo Stanton delivered a one-out single and Jazz Chisholm followed with a walk. Criswell struck out Jasson Domínguez but hit Anthony Rizzo on the first pitch to load the bases. But Criswell escaped danger when Anthony Volpe hit a flyout to Jarren Duran in left field.

Danny Jansen then hit a solo hit against Yankees starter Nestor Cortes to tie the game 1-1 in the fifth inning.

Criswell and the Red Sox faced a similar situation in the sixth inning. The right-hander allowed a leadoff single from Austin Wells before getting a huge strikeout from Stanton to end his night.

Cora walked left-hander Cam Booser to face Chisholm, who ripped a single through the right side and put runners on first and second base. But the Sox quickly made the second out when Chisholm strayed too far from first base and was intercepted by Jansen.

That proved to be a big break; the Yankees could have easily secured second and third base with Rafael Devers on their heels and behind the bag at third base. Wells, the runner at first base, jumped into his second lead and seemed about to launch a delayed steal, but he hesitated. Chisholm, meanwhile, thought Wells was going to run to third base, prompting him to try to get to second base.

Booser walked Rizzo and the Sox went to Zack Kelly. Volpe was back at bat, but he flew out to Duran for the second out to end the threat.

You can reach Julian McWilliams at [email protected]. Follow him @vonJulianMack.