Alex Verdugo and Austin Wells each had two hits while Gleyber Torres drove in two runs as the New York Yankees beat the host Boston Red Sox 8-2 on Sunday night to take the rubber match of a three-game series.
The Yankees jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning for the second consecutive night and never looked back, with New York starter Carlos Rodon (11-7) allowing two runs and five hits in 6 1/3 innings. Rodon walked one and struck out seven.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. started in center field in his Yankees debut, going 1-for-5 with a run and a stolen base.
Rafael Devers and Danny Jansen had two hits apiece for Boston. Jansen was making his Red Sox debut.
Rob Refsnyder and Connor Wong hit back-to-back home runs in the fourth as Boston fell to 5-4 against New York this season.
Red Sox starter Tanner Houck (8-7) lasted six innings, yielding four runs (three earned) on five hits. He walked four and fanned two.
Verdugo ripped a double to open the game and later scored on Aaron Judge’s one-out single. After Wells put a ground-rule double into the right field stands, Houck struck out Chisholm, but Torres sent a two-out, two-run single up the middle to extend the New York advantage to 3-0.
Houck settled in, but a Ben Rice sacrifice fly made it 4-0 in the fourth.
Refsnyder deposited Rodon’s second pitch of the bottom of the fourth into the Green Monster seats to get the Red Sox on the board. Wong followed with another solo shot as Boston pulled within 4-2.
However, Wells gave the Yankees some insurance with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly.
With runners on the corners and one out, New York reliever Jake Cousins struck out Dominic Smith and Jarren Duran to get out of the seventh unscathed.
Oswaldo Cabrera then hit a two-run double in the eighth for the Yankees. DJ LeMahieu closed the scoring with a sacrifice fly in the ninth.