BOSTON — Contrary to popular belief, those were not toothpicks the Yankees were swinging Saturday. 

But they essentially would have served the same purpose as the lumber they did use, which has been ineffective the past few days. 

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Once again, the Yankees got shut down by a lefty, with their bats going silent and offensive woes growing louder in a third straight loss to the last-place Red Sox, this time 4-1 on a fine afternoon at a sold-out Fenway Park. 

For a second straight game, Jake Bennett and the Red Sox bullpen held the Yankees (48-34) to just three hits while Gerrit Cole got hit around, resulting in their seventh loss in the past 10 games. 

“With the way it’s going, we all expect to be better,” Cody Bellinger said. “They’ve been playing well. We’ve got to show up [Sunday] and take a game here.” 

A lineup that had been finding ways to win without the back-to-back AL MVP suddenly looks like it dearly misses Aaron Judge, not to mention Giancarlo Stanton and Trent Grisham, who are also on the injured list. Grisham should return within the week, but Judge and Stanton do not appear anywhere close to coming back, so the Yankees will have to figure out how to snap out of this funk without them. 

More immediately, they will try to avoid a four-game sweep by the Red Sox (35-46) on Sunday night. They will do so against righty Sonny Gray after faltering against three straight lefties in Connelly Early (six innings, two runs), Payton Tolle (seven innings, one run) and Bennett (6 ¹/₃ innings, one run). 

“Today I felt like we had some hard contact going, but kind of chasing uphill and a couple chances to get a big hit and weren’t able to do it,” manager Aaron Boone said. “We’ve got to find a way right now. It’s been obviously a rough weekend for us. But a chance to win one [Sunday].” 

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Cole got hit hard for a second straight start, giving up four runs on seven hits, including a pair of solo home runs to Masataka Yoshida (to lead off the bottom of the first) and former Yankees first-round pick Anthony Seigler (in the bottom of the second). 

But the bigger culprit was the offense. 

After Tolle took a perfect game into the sixth inning against the Yankees on Friday night, Bennett had a no-hitter into the fifth Saturday before Max Schuemann broke it up with a solo home run, which was ultimately the only thing standing between them and a shutout. 

Over the first three games of this four-game set, the Yankees have gone just 14-for-94 (.149) with eight walks. 

Some of their most dependable batters have contributed to the recent malaise. Ben Rice went 0-for-4 Saturday and is now 2-for-23 over his past six games. Bellinger went 1-for-2 with two walks, improving him to 2-for-19 over his past six games. Amed Rosario, who had been a reliable lefty killer early on, is now 7-for-42 over his past 15 games. 

The Yankees started the season 18-6 against lefty starters but have now dropped six of their past seven — including all three games of this series so far. 

“I think [Bennett] took the momentum from the last couple lefties that they threw,” Schuemann said. “They’ve all done a good job. … Just pounding the strike zone and having the confidence to pound the strike zone. We try to put good swings together, good at-bats together, it just hasn’t gone our way.” 

The only real threat of a rally the Yankees had all day came in the seventh inning, when Rosario and Bellinger led off with back-to-back singles. But Bennett responded by striking out Jasson Domínguez before the Red Sox went to the bullpen for Justin Slaten, who punched out José Caballero (who challenged strike three and was proved incorrect) and pinch hitter Jazz Chisholm Jr. to squash the threat. 

“Honestly, those guys are pitching really well right now,” said Austin Wells, who went 0-for-3 and is now batting .160 on the year. “Some young guys who’ve thrown well, who a lot of us don’t have a lot of experience facing before. So I think there’s a little bit of that to it.”