Red Sox stifle short-handed Yanks 4-0 with Judge on COVID IL

Eduardo Rodriguez shut down the short-handed Yankees into the sixth inning, Christian Arroyo and J.D. Martinez homered, and the Boston Red Sox beat their rivals 4-0 Friday night with New York missing slugger Aaron Judge and five others due to a coronavirus outbreak.

A day after the series opener was postponed for testing and contact tracing, Judge, third baseman Gio Urshela and catcher Kyle Higashioka were added to the COVID-19 injured list. They joined Yankees pitchers Jonathan Loaisiga, Nestor Cortes Jr. and Wandy Peralta, who have also tested positive over the past week.

New York was also without first baseman Luke Voit, who went on the injured list Friday with a bone bruise in his left knee.

Rodriguez (7-5) allowed two hits over 5 2/3 innings, retiring 10 straight during one stretch and finishing with eight strikeouts. Hirokazu Sawamura got the final out of the sixth, and Tanner Houck pitched the final three innings, closing out Boston's three-hitter for his first big league save.

Arroyo hit a two-run drive during a three-run second inning against starter Jordan Montgomery (3-5). He also had a double against Domingo Germán in the seventh.

Martinez connected against Justin Wilson in the eighth, lining his 19th of the season into the right field seats for a solo shot that made it 4-0.

Montgomery pitched three-run ball over six innings with three hits, two walks and four strikeouts. New York failed to score with Montgomery on the mound for his fifth straight start, matching Bill Short in 1960 and Fritz Peterson in 1967 for the longest such streak in franchise history, according to STATS.

The AL East-leading Red Sox improved to 7-0 in the 19-game season series and beat New York for the eighth consecutive time, their best run in the rivalry since winning eight straight meetings from 2008-09.

The fourth-place Yankees were coming off a disappointing first half that ended Sunday when Houston's Jose Altuve hit a walk-off homer in an 8-7 New York defeat. They're now nine games back of Boston and likely to be without Judge and their other COVID-19-positive players for at least 10 days.

New York promoted four hitters from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre: first baseman Chris Gittens, infielder Hoy Park, outfielder Greg Allen and catcher Rob Brantly. Outfielder Trey Amburgey was called up Thursday, when left-hander Zack Britton was activated from the 10-day injured list.

The 26-year-old Amburgey started in right field for his major league debut. He hit .312 with seven homers for the RailRiders this season, but he was 0 for 2 Friday.

Allen pinch hit for Amburgey in the seventh and singled in his first at-bat this year. Park followed with a rally-killing groundout as a pinch-hitter in his first big league action.

Struggling Yankees closer Aroldis Chapman pitched a scoreless ninth, striking out one and walking one on 23 pitches.

BIG TEST

At least one of Judge, Urshela and Higashioka was not vaccinated, the Yankees said. Manager Aaron Boone said he expects each of the players who tested positive to be out at least 10 days from the time of their positive test. Some of the players are experiencing mild symptoms, but Boone said none has gotten seriously ill.

Yankees ace Gerrit Cole compared the news to being struck by "an invisible, microscopic truck."

Players had another round of rapid testing Friday that revealed no other positives.

THE WAIT CONTINUES

Boston had planned to start top prospect Jarren Duran in center field Thursday before that game was called off. The lefty-hitting Duran was formally promoted Friday but sat out against the left-handed Montgomery. He will instead get his first start Saturday versus Cole.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Red Sox: Houck was called up from Triple-A. He's likely to join the rotation next week. ... INF/OF Marwin Gonzalez was placed on the 10-day IL with a right hamstring strain, and RHP Austin Brice was designated for assignment.

Yankees: Voit experienced swelling in his knee over the weekend and had it drained, but Boone said the slugger had lingering pain this week. The 2020 major league home run leader was expected to get a platelet-rich plasma injection Friday night, and there's no timeline for his return. Voit had surgery on the same knee in March to repair a partially torn meniscus.

UP NEXT

Cole (9-4, 2.68 ERA) is set to face another AL All-Star on Saturday in Red Sox RHP Nathan Eovaldi (9-5, 3.66).