Boston Red Sox’s Hanley Ramirez follows through on his solo home run during the fourth inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees in Boston, Friday, Sept. 16, 2016. (AP Photo/Michael Dwyer)
BOSTON — Things have turned tough quickly for the New York Yankees in their playoff chase.
After being only one out from climbing within three games of the AL East lead on Thursday, the Yankees fell six games back and lost ground in the wild-card race with a 7-4 loss to the Boston Red Sox on Friday night.
Now, the Yankees need to go on another solid run like the one they started at the end of August to get closer — and they’d better do it fast.
“It’s frustrating. We’ve got to start winning games. That’s the bottom line,” New York manager Joe Girardi said. “It’s got to start tomorrow. We know we’re seeing a good pitcher, but it’s got to start tomorrow.”
The Yankees face the in-form David Price on Saturday afternoon. They know they’ve rallied before, winning 14 of 20 games before their current three-game losing streak.
“Things can change quickly,” Girardi said. “We saw it happen. We saw it change dramatically.”
Luis Cessa (4-2) gave up three runs and six hits, striking out one in five innings. In his second game since signing with the Yankees, Billy Butler hit a two-run homer in the ninth to make it 7-4, but Craig Kimbrel got two outs for his 26th save.
“We’ve just got to go get on another streak and start winning some games,” Yankees third baseman Chase Headley said.