Forget the final score for a second. Boston didn't lose this game because it couldn't hit, Ceddanne Rafaela lost it for them by deciding he knew better than his third-base coach.
Yankees led 1-0, Red Sox were threatening, and Rafaela took off for home on a sinking liner hit right at Cody Bellinger. Bellinger's throw clocked in at 99.7 mph, one of the fastest of his career and among the fastest by a Yankee since Statcast started tracking these things. Rafaela was dead to rights, and Boston's best scoring chance of the night went with him.
That's my takeaway from Boston 0, New York 1, and I'm not budging on it. This game wasn't decided by Paul Goldschmidt's third-inning homer to deep left center, even though that was the only run either team scored. It was decided by a send that shouldn't have happened. You don't test an arm like that on a ball hit that softly, not with the season Boston is having. You wait for a better one. There wasn't a next chance.
Give credit where it's earned, too. Cam Schlittler was outstanding for New York, working deep into the game without letting Boston score, and the bullpen behind him did its job late, closing it out with the team's 31st save of the season. Patrick Sandoval matched him for most of the night on the other side, struck out seven, and got beat by one swing. That's a well-pitched loss. It happens.
But well-pitched losses are supposed to sting less when you get your chances and just don't finish. Boston didn't fail to finish. It erased its own chance with an aggressive read that Bellinger made pay for immediately, and that's the part I can't let go of.
This loss matters more than a typical August game between two teams jockeying for position. Boston has been playing its way back into the picture after an ugly start to the year, and entering this series it sat within a couple games of New York in that chase, with Tampa Bay out ahead of both. None of that is settled. There's a doubleheader on the schedule that will move these numbers again by the time anyone reads this. But every game like Friday's, the ones where Boston creates a real chance and comes away with nothing, makes the climb longer than it needs to be.
If Boston wants to close the gap, it needs to trust the process at third base instead of trying to manufacture runs against the other team's best arms. Rafaela is talented and aggressive, and that aggression has probably won Boston games this year. Friday, it cost them one.
