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NEW YORK - The Duck Test was on full display at Yankee Stadium Friday night: "If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck."
It was the perfect idiom for yet another imperfect game for the Red Sox.
The Yankees carried themselves like one of the best teams in baseball, an existence they have lived for much of this season. After this series-opening, 9-6 win over the Red Sox the New Yorkers are now 39-23 with the second-best run-differential in all the major leagues. They are also 10 1/2 games ahead of the Sox.
There was the five-run first inning against Red Sox starter Walker Buehler. The two more runs that came in the second frame, closing out Buehler's two-inning start. And just the overall top-to-bottom vibe that the Yankees had figured out so much, while their opponents had figured out far too little.
The Red Sox could have played the what-if game considering Buehler's first inning came unhinged after getting two outs and an 0-2 count on Jazz Chisholm. This team is, however, well beyond leaning on what-ifs.
This is a what-is situation. And what-is isn't nearly good enough.
It looks like ... It swims like ... It quacks like ... It is.
"I think it's to be honest with you this organization put a lot of faith in me this offseason, and I've been (expletive) embarrassing for us, so it's tough," Buehler said. "It's obviously a big game and a big rivalry that I was excited to be a part of and for it to go the way that it did is super disappointing, especially after the past two, three weeks of prep and throwing and all that kind of (expletive) and how I'm feeling, physically I feel great and, for it to happen that way, it just it it sucks."
And what the now five-games-under-.500 Red Sox represent is a team other clubs are sending scouts to with an eye on being in position for when these struggles become too much to overcome.
The reality is tough to ignore. This is a team that has the same number of wins (16) as the lowly White Sox since April 23.
The formula in coming to these uncomfortable conclusions about the Red Sox also once again smacked this group in the face. A few elements of the equation failed in spectacular fashion, with a smattering of optimism introduced during the defeat.
The bad wasn't difficult to decipher, with Buehler matching the shortest start of his career. Over the last month, the Red Sox' starters have now totaled the second-fewest innings of any staff, landing a 134 2/3. Their batting average against is second-worst, with only two teams possessing a worse opponents' OPS.
"We prepare. We have to execute. At the end, it’s execution," Cora said of his starters' poor first innings. "It’s not the scouting reports or they’re showing up late to their bullpen session or to warm-up. It’s just that we aren’t executing and that’s it."
The manager also added in regard to the Red Sox now giving up four or more runs in three of their last four first innings, "It's hard to play this way."
True to form, the Red Sox managed to do just enough to suggest there is still hope. For one, Marcelo Mayer hit is first career home run in the fifth inning. Rafael Devers also hit yet another homer against the Yankees, giving him 29 vs. the New Yorkers (the most of any active player against the Yanks since 2017). And, as Cora pointed out a few times after the game, the hosts were ultimately forced to use their high-leverage relievers.
But all of it still added up to a familiar refrain. The Yankees win. The Red Sox lose. It is what it is.