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YANKEES 3, RED SOX 0

Another game of tough luck for Chris Sale

Red Sox starter Chris Sale pitched into the ninth inning Thursday and struck out 10.John Tlumacki/Globe staff

Red Sox manager John Farrell tried to do right by Chris Sale on Thursday night, sending him out for the ninth inning against the Yankees trailing by a run. The hope was Sale could get through one more inning then watch his teammates rally for a victory.

Instead, the unfortunate ace allowed two more runs and the Sox were left with a 3-0 loss that had some fans booing at Fenway Park.

The Sox have lost five of their last seven games to fall to 11-10. The defending World Series champion Chicago Cubs arrive at Fenway on Friday for a three-game series that is now a test of whether the Sox are the contenders they claimed to be coming out of spring training.

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Sale blamed himself, saying he needed to hold the Yankees down in that final inning.

“I wanted to go out there. I’ve got to do better; I have to,” he said. “Can’t go out there and ask for the ninth inning, want the ninth inning and do that. That’s just unacceptable.”

Masahiro Tanaka needed only 97 pitches for the shutout. He allowed three hits, all singles, and struck out three without a walk. The Sox grounded into 16 outs as Tanaka threw his splitter and slider for strikes.

“He was wearing out the bottom of the zone,” Sale said. “That’s all you can ask of someone who features the pitches that he does. The moral of the story is I got flat-out outpitched. That’s it.”

The Sox hitters bear some responsibility. Tanaka went to a three-ball count three times in the game and retired the final 14 batters he faced on 37 pitches.

But Farrell did not feel the Sox were too anxious.

“He had good presentation to the bottom of the strike zone with the late split, late action to the slider. Balls that we did hit hard, right at people. So a quality game on his part,” he said.”

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Until he allowed consecutive hits by Aaron Hicks, Chase Headley, and Matt Holliday in the ninth inning, Sale was nearly as good as Tanaka.

He struck put 10 without a walk and allowed five hits over the first eight innings.

Sale has 52 strikeouts, second most for a pitcher in his first five starts for a team. Hall of Famer Randy Johnson had 55 for Arizona in 1999.

Sox starter Chis Sale stands at the mound with Dustin Pedroia (left) and Xander Bogaerts in the ninth inning, waiting for manager John Farrell to get the mound. Farrell took Sale out of the game after he gave up a run in the ninth. John Tlumacki/Globe Staff

The game lasted 2 hours and 21 minutes, the quickest between the teams since 1994.

The Sox have scored 13 runs in their last seven games, hitting .202. They are 5 of 44 (.114) with runners in scoring position in that stretch and have been shut out three times.

The Cubs have Jake Arietta, John Lackey, and Kyle Hendricks lined up to pitch. If Farrell has an alternative lineup in mind, now may be the time to try it.

“It’s a week. I don’t want to say this is something that’s what our club is,” he said. “We’ve had ballgames where this same lineup has produced. It’s put together big innings. It’s put together a number of quality at-bats, a high number of hits. Hasn’t been the case the last couple of nights.”

Shortstop Xander Bogaerts pointed out the obvious, that the Sox have not yet adjusted to the absence of David Ortiz.

“We definitely miss him,” Bogaerts said. “We’ve got to do it without him. We’re trying; we’re trying to put up good at-bats, trying to get guys on base. But having [Ortiz] in the lineup is something the opposing pitchers definitely were afraid of.”

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Ortiz announced his retirement 17 months ago, so not like the Sox didn’t know what was coming. This is their team and their team doesn’t take advantage of opportunities very well. Sale has a 1.19 earned run average in five starts and the Sox have scored four runs when he has been on the mound.

In his first appearance against the Yankees since being traded to the Red Sox, Sale retired nine of the first 10 batters he faced, seven by strikeout, and had Fenway in a minor uproar.

That quieted in the fourth inning when the Yankees stitched together a run.

Hicks reached on a single to right field, a ball Mookie Betts didn’t get a good jump on. When Headley grounded back to the mound, Sale had a shot at a double play but lost his grip on the ball and took the sure out at first base.

A passed ball charged to catcher Sandy Leon moved Hicks to third base. With the infield in, Holliday fouled off three two-strike pitches before cracking a line drive to left field. The sacrifice fly scored Hicks.

The passed ball was the result of a mix-up, Sale throwing a breaking ball that Leon did not expect.

The Sox wasted a leadoff single by Hanley Ramirez in the second inning. Ramirez then singled with two outs in the fourth inning and was erased at second base when Mitch Moreland grounded to shortstop.

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Bogaerts singled to open the fifth inning before Jackie Bradley Jr. swung at the second pitch he saw and grounded into a double play started by first baseman Chris Carter. The Sox did not get another runner on base.

Sox third baseman Marco Hernandez dives for a line drive in the third inning that got by him and ended up being a single by Yankee Ronald Torreyes. JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF

Peter Abraham can be reached at peter.abraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @peteabe.