Those three straight knockouts by the Red Sox last week in Boston became more of a distant memory Friday night, as the Yankees opened another four-game series against their rivals with a 4-2 win in front of a sellout crowd in The Bronx.
It was the Yankees’ third win in four games and sent the Red Sox to a season-high fifth straight defeat.
James Paxton recovered from another rough first inning to deliver a solid outing and the Yankees used a grand slam from Gleyber Torres off Eduardo Rodriguez — also in the first — to open a 7½-game lead in the AL East over second-place Tampa Bay, which was idle, and an 11½-game edge over Boston.
The victory began a stretch of 19 games in 17 days for the Yankees, who are in need of more depth from their starters. Paxton was much-improved over his previous two starts, when he gave up 14 runs (11 earned) over a combined 7¹/₃ innings.
The outing wasn’t all good for Paxton, whose first-inning struggles continued when he allowed a two-out, two-run homer to J.D. Martinez. Paxton has given up a homer in the first inning of each of his past four starts and his ERA in opening frames this season is 11.36.
The issue will no doubt fuel the talk of using an opener during Paxton’s starts, but the Yankees are not in a position to do that with CC Sabathia on the injured list.
The Yankees, however, didn’t trail for long.
DJ LeMahieu, back after missing four games with a tight groin, led off the bottom of the first against Rodriguez with a single, and Aaron Judge and Edwin Encarnacion walked to load the bases with no one out.
Following a visit from pitching coach Dana LeVangie, Aaron Hicks fouled out before Torres lined a homer into the left-field seats to give the Yankees a 4-2 lead. The shot snapped a 3-for-22 slide for Torres, who filled in at shortstop for Didi Gregorius, who was nursing a strained finger in his left hand.
Neither team scored again.
Paxton then came out and struck out the side in the second — in line with his typical recovery, as he lowered his season ERA in that inning to 1.42.
The lefty retired eight straight following Martinez’s home run and eight of the last nine he faced before being pulled after the sixth — allowing just two runs and a pair of hits — in a 100-pitch performance.
Rodriguez also settled down following his rocky opening. The Yankees had two on and no one out in the third, but the lefty got Hicks, Torres and Gio Urshela to keep it a two-run game.
A two-out double by LeMahieu was wasted when Judge whiffed again to end the seventh.
Tommy Kahnle tossed a scoreless seventh and Zack Britton did the same in the eighth before Aroldis Chapman finished the job with an easy ninth.
In his previous nine outings entering Friday, Chapman had allowed nine runs (eight earned) in 8²/₃ innings. Opposing batters had nine hits in that span, but he had also struggled with his control, walking eight batters.
The win continued a turnaround for both teams, as the Red Sox seemed to be surging up the division last Saturday and the Yankees’ rotation was in the midst of a horrific week.
Their fortunes began to turn with Sunday night’s Yankees win. Then, while the Yankees split a two-game series at the Stadium with the Diamondbacks, the Red Sox were swept at home by the Rays and weren’t factors at the trade deadline.
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