Facing the Red Sox (37-36) on back-to-back weekends, the Yankees (42-28) dropped five of six and seemingly gave life to their rival’s season. In The Bronx, it was their pitching that failed them. At Fenway, it was their lifeless bats, plus a costly baserunning miscue in each of the past two games.

BOSTON — The Yankees had a chance to bury the Red Sox in the standings this month, facing their division rival in back-to-back weeks. They had a 9 1/2-game lead on the Red Sox on June 5, the day before their series at Yankee Stadium last week.

After a 10th-inning walk-off in Friday’s opener and a hard-fought one-run win on Saturday, the Red Sox looked to ride the momentum of the past two days into Sunday’s series finale against the Yankees.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora wanted his twin 7-year-old sons to meet the Yankees' Aaron Judge, the biggest star of his team's AL East foe.

On the very first Carlos Rodón pitch a Red Sox batter saw, Rob Refsnyder hit a ball down the left-field line that just bounced on the line and went for a double. While Rodón then very nearly managed to work around that, Anthony Volpe’s throw to first on a two-out grounder skipped past Paul Goldschmidt, allowing Boston to strike first.

According to YES Network, it’s been 103 years since the Yankees were held to four runs or fewer across a three-game series against Boston. Not since 1922 had they looked this flat in a full series against the Sox. The Yankees' four runs matched their fewest in a three-game series at Fenway Park, from June 20-22, 1916, and from Sept. 28-30, 1922.

The topic was discussed with a few Yankees after LeMahieu hit a ball that was deemed foul in the 10th inning of a 2-1 loss to the Red Sox on Friday.

Romy González delivered an RBI double, scoring Kristian Campbell as the Boston Red Sox took a 3-0 lead over the New York Yankees