BOSTON — Xander Bogaerts’ costly base running decision took the bat out of J.D. Martinez’s hands.

Bogaerts ended the seventh inning with Martinez at the plate when he got caught stealing third base. Yankees lefty Aroldis Chapman stepped off the rubber and threw him out at third.

The game remained tied 2-2. The Yankees scored in the ninth on a double by Andrew Benintendi, an infield single by Jose Trevino and a perfect squeeze bunt single by Isiah Kiner-Falefa to beat the Red Sox 3-2 on Saturday.

Bogaerts doubled off Lou Trivino with two outs. Yankees Manager Aaron Boone then brought in Chapman to face the left-handed hitter, Alex Verdugo.

Chapman hit Verdugo with a fastball to put two runners on base.

“We cannot get picked off there,” Red Sox Manager Alex Cora said. “They got their matchup with Dugie. They hit him. We got a matchup with J.D. In that spot, it’s Chapman against J.D. Obviously, Chapman is slow to the plate and all that but we’ve just got to let the game settle there and let J.D. take his chances there. Obviously, he (Bogaerts) is not perfect, right? He’s done it before. But in that situation, it’s early. I thought we had a pretty good chance to get to their bullpen from there on. But they were prepared for that (steal attempt). He’s been stealing third a lot with two outs. So they were ready for it and they got it.”

Bogaerts was not available to the media after the game.

“You live with the sword, you die with the sword,” Martinez said. “If he had stole, it would have been second and third and a whole different situation. All of a sudden, he (Chapman) is scared to bounce something. It’s baseball. I’m not mad at him for doing that. It just happens.”

Bogaerts, Martinez and Rafael Devers combined to go 1 for 14 Saturday.

Devers is 6 for 44 (.136 batting average) in August. Bogaerts is 10 for 45 (.222) and Martinez is 8 for 41 (.195).

“It’s tough. It’s the core of the lineup,” Martinez said. “Us three, we’ve got to hit. If we don’t, most of the time it’s tough to win games. That’s on us. That’s on us to figure it out.”

Cora added, “It’s part of it and all the guys have to pick it up. Right now, there’s a few guys that are swinging the bat well. Obviously they’re going through their downs right now. But that’s part of 162. We expect these guys to produce and they’re going to be OK. At one point, all of them are going to get hot at the same time. Others are going to slump. That’s the beauty of this game. At one point, they were the hottest hitters in the game. Right now, they’re finding their strokes. So we just keep working and they’ll be OK.”

EVEN WITH KIKÉ Hernandez on his way back, the Red Sox are likely to stick with Tommy Pham in the leadoff spot, Cora said Sunday.

It’s been a sore subject for the Red Sox all year, as they’ve struggled to find anybody who can get on base with regularity.

Before he got hurt, Hernandez had a .273 on-base percentage. Since then, the Sox have cycled through a handful of guys, nobody who has been able to run away with the job.

As a team, the Sox’ .288 OBP from the leadoff spot ranks 25th in MLB.

Cora has been impressed with Pham, who has come up with some big hits during his first two weeks with the Sox since being acquired from the Reds before the trade deadline. But he hasn’t fixed the problem of getting men on base for the No. 2 hitter, Rafael Devers.

Pham entered Sunday with just a .255 OBP and 19 strikeouts to two walks in 11 games with the Sox.

Asked who will leadoff when Hernandez returns from the injured list, Cora said, “We haven’t gotten that far. Good question. But I do believe Tommy is doing an outstanding job, so there’s a good chance he’ll stay there.”

Pham is 11 for 49 (.224) with four doubles, three home runs and nine RBI with the Sox.

“Still trying to find some things,” he said. “I really don’t like the strikeouts. But every day I feel like I’m getting closer.”

He said the expectations of playing in Boston have been “pretty much what I thought it would be.”

“I played in St. Louis,” he said. “The Cubs-St. Louis rivalry is pretty good, the Padres-Dodgers rivalry. I mean, it’s nothing as historic as (Red Sox-Yankees), but we’re talking 40,000-plus fans, loud. If anything, playing winter ball might be a little bit harsher, when you’re batting .100 and the expectations of the fans there are booing at you.”

HERNANDEZ HIT SECOND for Double-A Portland on Sunday in his fifth minor league rehab game. After missing more than two months with a hip injury and receiving a platelet-rich plasma injection, Hernandez is now expected to return to the Sox on Tuesday.

In five rehab games, he’s 3 for 16 (.188) with two doubles, one walk and six strikeouts.

He’ll likely take over in center field, where Jarren Duran has been getting the majority of the at-bats but struggling. Over Duran’s last 33 games, he’s hitting .167 with 42 strikeouts in 124 plate appearances.

The Sox are also expecting to get Rob Refsnyder back on Tuesday. Refsnyder was 2-for-3 with a walk and two home runs on rehab with Portland on Sunday. He was hitting .309 with an .855 OPS in 33 games with the big league club before landing on the injured list with a sprained right knee.

“We’ve got some capable guys we can move around,” Cora said. “Kiké can play second, Christian Arroyo is playing great at second base right now, Jarren is playing center and all of the sudden you’ve got Rob here, so I think the roster is getting there.

“I always say the perfect roster is the one on the last day of the season when you’re drinking champagne, that’s the perfect one. But during the season you move people around, call people up and this and that. I think we’re going to be in a good place when these guys get here.”

PADRES SUPERSTAR SHORTSTOP Fernando Tatis was suspended for 80 games Friday because he tested positive for Clostebol, a performance-enhancing drug.

The baseball world is starting to react and Cora was asked about it before Boston’s game against the Yankees on Saturday.

“Obviously we make bad decisions, right? And you have to pay the price,” Cora said. “It’s something that MLB, it’s been on top of it for a while. Just hopefully, he learns from this one and moves forward. This is a kid that’s very talented. He’s a very good player. And next year, he’ll be back.”

The 23-year-old Tatis finished fourth for the NL MVP in 2020 and third for the award in 2021.

Last year, he led the National League with 42 home runs, slashed .282/.364/.611/.975, belted 31 doubles, drove in 97 runs and scored 99 runs.

The suspension will continue into the 2023 season. He’s ineligible to play in the 2022 postseason.

He hadn’t played in 2022 because of a broken wrist.

Cora was asked how difficult it is for baseball that a young star has been suspended for PED use.

“On that topic, I can’t,” said Cora, who earned a year-long suspension in 2020 for his involvement in the Astros’ 2017 illegal sign stealing scheme. “That’s the way I see it. I made a mistake and I paid the price. And that’s the way I see it. It’s hard for me to judge him. But at the same time, I understand that MLB’s been proactive about this. Hopefully he learns from this – he learns from a few things. I learned from my mistake. I read a few things that (Padres president of baseball operations) A.J. (Preller) said about this situation. And hopefully from this, he moves forward and he can go out there and perform and do the things that he used to do a few years ago.”

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