BOSTON — Aaron Judge tried to put the Yankees on his back with a 470-foot moonshot.
That only made the thud louder and more painful when they all came toppling down by the end of the night.
After Judge had given the Yankees some life with a three-run homer that, combined with Austin Wells going back-to-back, put them ahead three runs in the seventh inning, the Red Sox came all the way back to hand them a crushing 9-7 loss on Friday at Fenway Park.
Returning to the place where their current spiral began six weeks ago, the Yankees (60-45) took yet another left hook to the jaw, as Luke Weaver and Clay Holmes combined to cough up the lead in their third straight loss.
Ceddanne Rafaela took Weaver deep for a two-run shot over the Green Monster to pull the Red Sox (55-47) within 7-6 in the seventh inning.
Then, in the eighth, Weaver allowed a single and a 10-pitch walk before getting Rafael Devers to fly out, at which point Aaron Boone called on Holmes for the five-out save.
But all it took was two batters for the Red Sox to claim the lead.
Pinch-hitter Wilyer Abreu roped a double to the gap off Holmes that tied the game before Masataka Yoshida, with the infield in, drilled a two-run single up the middle.
The Yankees threatened in the top of the ninth as Wells and Gleyber Torres hit back-to-back one-out singles against Red Sox closer Kenley Jansen.
But DJ LeMahieu, in the game as a defensive replacement for Ben Rice, struck out and Anthony Volpe grounded out to end it.
Since winning the opening game of their first series here in June, the Yankees are now 10-23.
Courtesy of the Orioles’ own skid, the Yankees remained just two games back of them for first place in the AL East on Friday night.
But the Red Sox have now climbed back from trailing the Yankees by 14 games (on the morning of June 15) to just 3 ½ games.
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