Red Sox win third straight over Yankees

BOSTON — Nathan Eovaldi pitched eight dominant innings and closer Craig Kimbrel held on during a shaky ninth to help the Boston Red Sox beat the second-place Yankees for the third game in a row and expand their lead in the AL East to season-high 8½ games with a 4-1 victory on Saturday.

One night after Rick Porcello threw an 86-pitch, onehit complete game, Eovaldi shut out the Yankees on three hits in sending them to their season-high fourth straight loss.

Down to their last strike, the Yankees rallied against Kimbrel on back-to-back doubles by Giancarlo Stanton and Didi Gregorius.

A pair of walks loaded the bases before Greg Bird hit a routine flyball for the final out.

J.D. Martinez hit his big league-leading 33rd home run and Mitch Moreland also connected against Chance Adams, who made his debut in the majors.

The Red Sox, with the best record in baseball, go for a fourgame sweep Sunday night with David Price scheduled to face Masahiro Tanaka.

Eovaldi (5-4) struck out four and walked one. He has pitched 15 shutout innings since he was acquired from Tampa Bay last month for a minor league pitcher.

Kimbrel was one strike away from a perfect inning before the Yankees rallied. Walked to Aaron Hicks and Gleyber Torres brought up Bird.

The Yankees were missing Aaron Judge and Gary Sanchez, and they had to shuffle their rotation when J.A. Happ contracted hand, foot and mouth disease just as Sonny Gray was sent to the bullpen because of ineffectiveness.

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