Meltdown! Yankees’ Brooks Kriske unravels as Red Sox win with walk off | Rapid reaction

BOSTON — Four wild pitches. Two blown saves.

One awful, terrible, horrible way to end the night.

Yankees reliever Brooks Kriske suffered an all-time meltdown as the Red Sox walked off in the 10th inning of a 5-4 loss, sending Boston into a wild celebration outside of its dugout and Fenway Park into a frenzy on Thursday.

“Another gut punch,” manager Aaron Boone said.

Hunter Renfroe’s sacrifice fly to right field ended it. Kriske bounced three balls in the dirt and sailed one, turning a 4-3 Yankees lead into one of their worst losses of the year at the worst time.

Kriske should never have been in the game in the first place, however.

Reliever Chad Green also blew a two-run lead and save chance in the ninth inning. Staked to a 3-1 lead, Green couldn’t hold it down, giving up a two-run, two-out double to Kike Hernandez. With one out, Green surrendered back-to-back singles to Alex Verdugo and Bobby Dalbec. Hernandez’s liner went to left-center field, well out of the reach of Brett Gardner, and bounced off the Green Monster. But Rafael Devers flied out to right to kill the threat.

The loss dropped the Yankees to eight games back of the Red Sox in the American League East. They have three more games in the set for revenge, turning to ace Gerrit Cole on Friday.

The disgraceful display negated the 10th-inning run extra-innings runner Tyler Wade scored to give the Yankees the lead that Kriske couldn’t protect.

It also wasted 5 2/3 scoreless innings from Jordan Montgomery, who showed guts by returning to the mound after a 55-minute rain delay.

The Yankees grabbed the lead In the eighth. Giancarlo Stanton’s no-outs single to shallow left allowed DJ LeMahieu to score from second base after left fielder Alex Verdugo misplayed the hop. Then Rougned Odor’s sacrifice bunt moved Brett Gardner to third base before Gleyber Torres hit a fly ball to the deepest part of right field. What would have been an easy home run at Yankee Stadium scored Gardner from third for a 3-1 advantage.

Boston tied it at 1-1 and nearly took the lead in the seventh. With two on and one out, Michael Chavis ripped a grounder at Tyler Wade, who stopped it backhanded from reaching the outfield. But he dropped it on the transfer trying to throw to second base. That loaded the bases for Kike Hernandez’s sacrifice fly to center field, which rookie Estevan Florial caught flat footed before firing home. That mistake made the throw a tick late and Alex Verdugo scored under the tag.

Montgomery gave the Yankees exactly what they needed. He fanned six, walked one and gave up three hits, working around a bases-loaded, two-out jam in the third inning. He retired the first six hitters he faced and then the first five he saw after the rain delay before Xander Bogerts’ single spurred manager Aaron Boone to bring in righty Sal Romano, who had been called up earlier in the day from Triple-A. Romano surrendered a groundball single to Bogaerts, putting runners on the corners, but Hunter Renfroe flew out to end it.

The Yankees got their first run in the fourth on Gleyber Torres’ groundout to shortstop that scored Brett Gardner from third base. Gardner and Stanton each had walked to start the inning, and then advanced on a wild pitch during Rougned Odor’s at-bat. Torres then pounded one into the ground, but the speedy Gardner scored without a throw.

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Brendan Kuty may be reached at bkuty@njadvancemedia.com. Tell us your coronavirus story or send a tip here.