CINCINNATI — The Yankees finally scored a run in extra innings as visitors for the first time this season.
And it still wasn’t enough.
By the end of Tuesday night, the result was the same as it has been all year once the Yankees play past the ninth inning on the road, as they suffered a crushing, 5-4, 11-inning loss to the Reds at a suffocatingly hot Great American Ballpark.
Gavin Lux delivered the walk-off single against Mark Leiter Jr. in his second inning of work to hand the Yankees (45-34) their ninth loss in their past 12 games.
In the process, their lead atop the AL East was cut to one game by the Rays, the smallest the Yankees’ lead has been since April 22.
“We got to play better, that’s it,” said Aaron Judge, who popped out to leave the bases loaded in the top of the 10th. “We’re not playing that great. But we got to learn from it. We got to move on. We got to turn the page. We got to get to the next one. We got a lot of winners in this clubhouse. Guys know how to move on from tough stretches and we’ve done that before.
“We’ve got to figure it out. It’s on us.”
The Yankees fell to 1-6 in extra innings this season, including 0-5 on the road.
Gavin Lux (center) is doused with water by teammates after hitting the game-winning single in the 11th inning of the Yankees’ 5-4 loss to the Reds on June 24, 2025.IMAGN IMAGES via Reuters Connect
When Judge, as the automatic runner, scored on a wild pitch in the top of the 11th inning, it marked the Yankees’ first run in extras as the visiting team in their eighth extra-inning game of the season.
“I don’t think that’s emblematic of who we are as an offense,” manager Aaron Boone said. “I feel quite certain we’re a really good offense. We haven’t gotten some hits. … We’re going to break through and get hot here eventually.”
The game got to extras in the first place after Jonathan Loáisiga quickly erased a 3-0 lead in the bottom of the seventh after Carlos Rodón had tossed six shutout innings.
Jazz Chisholm, held back by Aaron Boone, is ejected during the ninth inning of the Yankees’ 11-inning loss to the Reds.Getty Images
Rodón threw a season-low 88 pitches, but admitted he was “huffing and puffing” and “gassed” by that point — attributing it to the heat (it was 91 degrees at first pitch) and some long at-bats by the Reds (42-38).
Loáisiga also left the game with a trainer after Christian Encarnacion-Strand tied the game with a three-run double, feeling wiped out by the heat after being under the weather Monday.
From there, the Yankees used Fernando Cruz to finish the seventh, Luke Weaver to handle the eighth then Devin Williams to pitch the ninth.
Christian Encarnacion-Strand, hitting a single in the third inning, later hit a three-run double in the seventh inning to help propel the Reds to a 5-4, 11-inning comeback win over the Yankees on June 24, 2025.Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
Williams needed just nine pitches to retire the side, but Boone said he did not consider sending him back out for the 10th because the Yankees are not yet at a point in the season when they feel comfortable asking him to get more than three outs.
So Leiter, who threw 27 pitches Monday, kept the Reds at bay in a 12-pitch bottom of the 10th then felt good enough to come back out for the 11th.
At that point, former starter JT Brubaker was the only arm left in the bullpen, with Ian Hamilton and Tim Hill both down because of workload concerns as the Yankees near the end of a 16-day, 16-game stretch.
Aaron Judge hits a single in the fourth inning of the Yankees’ 11-inning loss to the Reds.Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
Elly De La Cruz beat out an infield single to lead off the frame before Spencer Steer hit an RBI single to tie it 4-4.
Then, after Tyler Stephenson walked to load the bases, Lux delivered the winner.
“I fought as hard as I could, unfortunately came up on the losing [side] and they beat me,” Leiter said.
Yankees starter Carlos Rodón held the Reds scoreless over six innings, but had to settle for a no-decision.Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
Boone described it as a “warrior’s effort” by Leiter.
“Just respect the heck out of him for taking the ball there in a really tough spot,” Boone said.
The Yankees did not help themselves in allowing the game to get to that situation.
After Reds top prospect Chase Burns dazzled early in his MLB debut — striking out the first five hitters he faced while hitting triple digits on the radar gun — the Yankees got to him the second time through the lineup.
Ben Rice crushed his 14th home run of the year in the fourth inning before Anthony Volpe made it 3-0 with a two-run triple that got past the dive of center fielder TJ Friedl.
But that was all the offense they produced until scratching one more run across in the 11th — going 1-for-9 with runners in scoring position a night after going 0-for-12 — which only delayed the pain.
Reds rookie Chase Burns allowed three runs in five innings in his MLB debut.Katie Stratman-Imagn Images
“There’s going to be stretches where we’re real hot and we string off a few in a row,” Rodón said. “Then there’s going to be stretches like this where it’s just kind of ride the wave. Just keep going and put our head down.”
