It was a nifty pitchers’ duel between two rookie righties while it lasted, but 2-for-15 with RISP was RIP for the Sox.

Shane Smith only gave up three hits in 6 1/3 innings. But two of them were long balls by Aaron Judge (420 feet, because of course) and Austin Wells, enough offense to carry the Yankees through to the 11th. Meanwhile, Cam Schlittler allowed only four singles in his six innings of work, the one that mattered stroked by Mike Tauchman in the fifth after Schlittler had hit Curtis Mead on the hand and Mead went to second on a smash back to the mound by Brooks Baldwin.

After Wells put the Yankees up, 2-1, with a 410-footer in the seventh, Mead doubled in the bottom half and it was Chase Meidroth’s turn to even things up.

The Sox got runners in scoring position in the eighth and ninth thanks to doubles by Andrew Benintendi and Meidroth, but engaged in some of that terrible RISP stuff. In the 1oth, New York played it strangely for a visiting team and didn’t score and the Sox looked to be in business when Kyle Teel advanced Manfred Man Michael A. Taylor to third with one out — but Lenyn Sosa struck out and Colson Montgomery lined out.

In the 11th, Tyler Alexander couldn’t get much of anybody out as the Yankees put together three hits (a couple of them kind of cheap, but hits naytheless) and a walk for three runs. In the bottom half, the Sox politely went down 1-2-3, only scoring a run on a ground out because the defense didn’t care.

That’s seven wins in a row for the Yankees, five losses in a row for the Sox, who are now 48-88, still on pace for 105 losses.

The series wraps up tomorrow afternoon. If you want something positive to cling to for that game, according to MLBsweeps.com only 14.44% of four-game series since 1961 have ended in a sweep.

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