Red Sox cause Gerrit Cole headaches again in win over Yankees

Greg Dudek, Boston Herald on Jun 27, 2026

Published in Baseball

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BOSTON — If there was ever a time for New York Yankees starting pitcher Gerrit Cole to turn things around against the Boston Red Sox, it would be when facing this offensively challenged iteration.

But Cole, whose issues against the Red Sox since donning the pinstripes are well-documented, yet again struggled on the mound at Fenway Park on Saturday afternoon.

The Red Sox took the veteran right-hander deep twice over the first two innings and got to him for four runs on seven hits over his 5 1/3 innings of work to propel them to a 4-1 win. It’s the third straight win for the Red Sox over the Yankees and the first time they have won three straight games at home all season.

Mastaka Yoshida, who batted in the leadoff spot again for the Red Sox, gave Cole another warm welcome in the bottom of the first when he took the second pitch he saw and launched it 386 feet into the bullpens in right field for his second home run of the year. Anthony Siegler matched Yoshida with a solo shot the following inning, lifting a 97 mph fastball from Cole just over the Green Monster for his first career home run.

The Red Sox added two more runs in the third inning as singles by Yoshida and Ceddanne Rafaela set the table for Willson Contreras. Contreras hit a blistering double 114.4 mph off his bat into the left-center field gap to score both Yoshida and Rafaela to give the Red Sox a 4-0 lead.

Cole, who made his seventh start this season after missing all of last year due to Tommy John surgery, only allowed two more hits after that, but the damage was already done. And his performance certainly won’t help the 5.52 ERA he had coming into the came at Fenway in his career.

Cole’s counterpart, Jake Bennett, meanwhile was exceptional. The 25-year-old lefty followed Payton Tolle’s lead from the night before and didn’t surrender a hit to the Yankees until the fifth inning.

It was the third straight outing for Bennett in which he allowed four hits or less after getting roughed up in back-to-back showings against the Tampa Bay Rays in May and June. Bennett tossed 6 1/3 innings in which he yielded no runs on three hits while walking two and striking out three on 87 pitches (59 strikes). He lowered his ERA on the season to 3.27.

Bennett began his outing with an eight-pitch top of the first inning to easily set down the top of the Yankees’ order in Paul Goldschmidt, Ben Rice and Amed Rosario.

Bennett allowed a leadoff walk to Cody Bellinger to start the top of the second inning, but then really got into a groove. He got Jasson Dominguez to pop up before getting Jose Caballero and Max Schuemann to strike out, as that began a stretch of 11 straight Yankees batters retired. Bennett just needed six pitches to get through the fourth inning as he got Rice to ground out on the first pitch to start the frame before getting a popout from Rosario and a flyout by Bellinger.

The no-hit bid from Bennett was broken up in the top of the fifth with two outs when Schuemann blasted a solo home run just to the right of the boundary line where the Green Monster meets the center-field wall.

But the 6-foot-6 southpaw continued to be efficient deep into his outing and get assistance from his defense. After issuing a one-out walk to Goldschmidt in the sixth, Bennett induced a 4-6-3 double play off the bat of Rice to end the frame.

Rosario and Bellinger hit back-to-back singles off Bennett to start the seventh, but he rallied by getting Dominquez to strike out before Red Sox interim manager Chad Tracy went to the bullpen. Bennett walked off the mound following the longest outing of his big-league career to a standing ovation.

Justin Slaten made sure the Red Sox came away unscathed in the seventh as he fanned Callabero — ABS upheld the strike out call — and pinch-hitter Jazz Chisholm Jr. Garrett Whitlock pitched a clean eighth inning on only seven pitches and Aroldis Chapman closed things out for his 16th save of the season.

The Red Sox will go for the sweep of their archrival Sunday with Sonny Gray on the mound. First pitch is scheduled for 7:20 p.m. ET.

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