After opening salvo, Porcello douses fire

Red Sox righty holds Yankees to one hit

BOSTON — After Boston manager Alex Cora was ejected in the first inning, Rick Porcello ensured there was no need for further outbursts.

Porcello pitched a one-hitter, retiring his final 21 batters and striking out a season-high nine in leading the Red Sox over the New York Yankees 4-1 victory Friday.

Cora was ejected one pitch into the bottom of the first.

“It definitely got emotional, but I think more than anything it probably fired us up and might have got us locked in,” Porcello said.

Porcello walked none, faced one batter over the minimum and needed only 86 pitches in a game that took 2 hours, 15 minutes — the fastest nine-inning Yankees-red Sox game since May 6, 1994.

Steve Pearce homered for the fourth time in two nights as the Red Sox won for the sixth time in seven games to open a season-high 7½game lead in the American League East and at 77-34 moved 43 games over .500 for the first time since

1946.

Porcello hit Brett Gardner with an 0-and-2 pitch starting the game, and New York’s Luis Severino (14-5) answered with a high-and-inside fastball when Mookie Betts led off the bottom half.

Plate umpire Adam Hamari warned both dugouts, and Cora came charging out of the dugout claiming it was retaliation for the pitch that hit Gardner.

Severino said there was no intent on the pitch to Betts, other than to come inside. “If I’m going to hit somebody, I’m not going to miss,” he said. “I’m not trying to hit nobody.”

Betts, who barely had a chance to get up and dust himself off before Cora was ejected, wouldn’t speculate — or say openly, anyway — on Severino’s intent. “It was up and in. Maybe it slipped. I’m not sure,” Betts said.

Miguel Andujar’s leadoff homer in the third was the lone hit allowed by Porcello (14-4), who matched his season high for strikeouts and pitched his first complete game since July 23 last year.

Porcello had a 3-0 lead after the first, when Andrew Benintendi doubled and Pearce, who homered three times Thursday, hit a two-run drive over the Green Monster. Eduardo Nunez added an RBI single in the first, and Mitch Moreland singled in a run in the fifth.

Severino allowed four runs, seven hits and three walks in 5 2/3 innings, dropping to 0-3 in four starts since a July 7 victory at Toronto.

Elise Amendola The Associated Press Rick Porcello gets doused by two Red Sox teammates after pitching a one-hitter in Boston’s 4-1 win over the Yankees on Friday at Fenway Park. He struck out nine.