On a magical Saturday, Ben Rice did something no Yankees rookie had ever done in smacking three home runs, and his team did something it suddenly rarely does in winning a game.
A night later, the pixie dust was gone.
With bright history in the past, a dark reality became the present.
Rafael Devers rounds the bases after one of his two homers during the Red Sox’s win Sunday
A struggling offense and struggling club brushed off any trace of momentum and resumed its funk.
The Yankees lost another series in discouraging fashion by getting shut out by the Red Sox, 3-0, in front of 45,250 in The Bronx on Sunday night.
Rafael Devers watches one of his homers Sunday against the Yankees.
The nosedive of the Yankees (55-37) — who have dropped 15 of 20 and are three games back of the Orioles in the AL East — began in Boston in mid-June, and they haven’t won a series since, going seven straight without a series victory.
After scoring 14 runs in what they hoped would be a breakout victory Saturday, the Yankees were shut out for a sixth time this season.
Rice followed up a day for the history books with a night to forget, going 0-for-4 with a pair of strikeouts.
For a second straight day, manager Aaron Boone left his flagging starting pitcher on the mound to face Rafael Devers, and for a second straight day the move backfired.
Luis Gil took the loss Sunday after allowing a homer to Rafael Devers.
Kutter Crawford allowed just four hits across seven shutout innings during the Red Sox’s win.
After the Red Sox All-Star homered off Gerrit Cole with Cole’s final pitch Saturday, Devers took a seventh-inning, down-the-middle fastball from Luis Gil and reversed it narrowly over the left-field wall to break a scoreless tie.
Gil was pulled two batters later.
Ceddanne Rafaela demolished a Luke Weaver cutter and sent it deep into the left-field seats in the eighth inning.
Luis Gil reacts after allowing a Rafael Devers homer Sunday against the Red Sox.
Devers, a certified Yankees-killer, victimized Michael Tonkin in the ninth inning for his second homer, which concluded the scoring on a night the Yankees could do nothing against Kutter Crawford and two Boston relievers.
Rarely have the Yankees struggled like they struggled against Crawford, who was barely touched but also barely broke a sweat on a steamy night.
The righty threw just 68 pitches in seven strong innings in which he allowed four hits and zero walks.
The Yankees’ offense had few opportunities and capitalized on none of them.
Their best chance came in the seventh, when Juan Soto led off with a gapped double to right-center.
But Aaron Judge struck out against Crawford in a rare at-bat in which he looked overmatched, Alex Verdugo grounded out and Anthony Volpe lined out to left to strand Soto on third.
The Yankees’ offense managed just four hits in wasting Gil’s best start in more than a month.
The previously struggling righty, who had come out of nowhere to pitch like an ace for two and a half months, had run into major struggles for his past three outings.
Gil, pitching in his first full season since Tommy John surgery, faced many questions about his arm tiring.
He answered plenty of those questions in touching 99.3 mph with his fastball and averaging 97.7 mph with the pitch.
Gil was back to his dominant self in allowing just the Devers home run in 6 ²/₃ innings with nine strikeouts and no walks.
He was often untouchable, but in a different way than earlier this season.
The 26-year-old nearly sidelined his changeup, which had become a go-to offering, and used it on just 15 of his 96 pitches.
Instead, Gil led with his fastball and often finished off with his slider, which induced six whiffs and kept Boston off-balance.
Gil looked like himself again — but so did the Yankees’ June and July offense.
