Scuffling Yankees hear boos as Reds sweep three-game set

A day dedicated to booms gave way to significant boos in the ninth inning.

On an afternoon the Yankees allowed three home runs and were no-hit until there were two outs in the fourth inning, the loudest jeers were heard when the contest was just about over.

A many-hop single approached center fielder Trent Grisham, who waited for the slow roller to reach him, one-handed it and booted it.

Jeimer Candelario safely took second base because Grisham didn’t hustle.

On a July 4 when the Yankees didn’t hit or pitch well, that clinched the trifecta: Aaron Boone’s group is playing poorly in every way.

Their pitching let them down, with Marcus Stroman allowing three home runs in five innings and Tim Hill and Jake Cousins combining to allow three seventh-inning runs.

The Yankees’ offense was asleep until the fifth inning and awoke too late against Frankie Montas, of all people.

And the Yankees’ effort halted before the game did as the Reds finished off a sweep with an 8-4 win in front of 43,154 exasperated fans in The Bronx on Thursday.

“Not good,” Boone said after his club was swept for the first time in a three-game set this year and swept for the first time ever at home in a three-game interleague series. “We got to play better on all fronts.”

The Yankees (54-35) have lost 13 of 17 and haven’t won a series in three weeks, since taking three of four in Kansas City from June 10-13.

The list of problems is growing.

Their offense showed some signs of breaking out, but the unit could use a reliable leadoff hitter, cleanup hitter and bats 5-through-9.

In other words, Juan Soto and Aaron Judge need help.

Stroman was not terrible but was not good, either, making it nine straight games the Yankees have not had a starting pitcher complete the sixth inning.

An overworked and over-injured bullpen showed signs of being overworked and over-injured.

“You got to get beat down a little bit to see what you’re made of,” said Judge, adopting a common refrain around the club: This adversity can help.

In attempting to energize a slumbering offense, Boone shook up the order by bumping Ben Rice to leadoff and dropping Anthony Volpe to sixth, a move that worked: Rice crushed his first major league home run in the fifth inning.

But that blast, which followed Austin Wells’ solo shot three batters earlier, made it 5-2 Cincinnati.

Soto came through with a two-run dinger in the seventh that accounted for the final score in a game when arguably each Yankees run was scored in garbage time.

The Yankees were buried because they were no-hit by Montas, an oft-injured Yankee for a season and a half, until Alex Verdugo’s double in the fourth.

Against a Reds (42-45) club that entered the series in fourth in the NL Central, the Yankees scored 10 total runs in three losses.

And the Yankees were buried because Stroman’s three mistakes were punished.

The righty lasted five innings in which he allowed five runs, all on three home runs.

First it was Nick Martini who jumped on a cutter in the second inning.

Next it was Jonathan India who hammered a down-the-middle sinker for a long homer into the left-field seats in the third.

Finally it was Spencer Steer who turned around a splitter and deposited it into the short porch in right for a three-run shot in the fifth inning that made it 5-0.

“A lot of our mistakes are ending up in the seats,” said Boone, whose staff allowed seven home runs to Reds hitters in the series.

“I don’t think this is something that will last,” said Stroman, whose ERA has risen from 2.82 to 3.58 in his past four starts. “The confidence in this group is very consistent. And I feel like we’re going to come out of this pretty soon.”

Asked for another heavy day of work, the bullpen buckled.

The Reds ran away in the top of the seventh, when they loaded the bases against Hill and Cousins and watched Jake Fraley clear the bases with a triple to the wall in right-center.

Boos were heard, but not to the decibel level registered on what seemed to be an ordinary single in the ninth.

“That’s what kind of defines a team, is how we respond out of this,” Judge said. “… We got everybody in this room who knows how to do that.”