Red Sox' woes summed up by Eduardo Nunez gaffe

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NEW YORK -- After the Red Sox' 4-1 loss to the Yankees Friday night Eduardo Nunez called his baserunning gaffe a rookie mistake. 

The problem is that 10-year veterans can't be making such missteps when their team is 8 1/2 games out of first-place and facing the division leaders. But that's exactly what happened with Nunez, and it sure felt like a microcosm of what has been ailing the Red Sox of late.

The mistake in question took place in the fifth inning with the Yankees holding a 3-1 lead. J.A. Happ had just intentionally walked Mookie Betts to get to Andrew Benintendi with two outs and Nunez at second base. It was undoubtedly the key moment of the game for a Red Sox team that seemed to be running in place against Happ for much of the night.

But Benintendi never got a chance to play hero, with Yankees catcher Gary Sanchez catching Nunez napping at second base. The pickoff ended the inning and what would be the Sox' last legitimate threat.

Caught in the Kraken's clutch. pic.twitter.com/cSLLind3ZH

— New York Yankees (@Yankees) June 1, 2019

"You know, we’re going to make mistakes, it’s a long season," Nunez said. "I apologized because I know there’s two outs, two guys on base, it can change the game. It was a rookie mistake and I told him, 'my bad'. That’s not going to happen again."

"It can’t happen," said Red Sox manager Alex Cora. "Seems like the last seven, eight days we regressed back to being sloppy around the bases. That can’t happen. Benny’s putting good at-bats against Happ. It’s a play that probably was a set pick, a set play, but that can’t happen. He knows it."

For a complete recap of the Red Sox' loss, click here.