Red Sox beat Yanks for third straight day, lead East by 8½ games
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, one-hit 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 leagueleading 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. Walks 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.
Adams was called up from Triple-A and took the loss despite allowing just three hits — two of them homers — for three runs, walking one and striking out two in five innings. Houston Oakland Seattle Los Angeles Texas
Friday’s games
Boston 4, N.Y. Yankees 1 Chicago White Sox 3, Tampa Bay 2, 10 innings
L.A. Angels 7, Cleveland 4
Texas 11, Baltimore 3 Minnesota 6, Kansas City 4 Oakland 1, Detroit 0, 13 innings Houston 2, L.A. Dodgers 1 Toronto 7, Seattle 2
Saturday’s games W
70 65 63 55 48
L
41 46 47 56 63
Pct
.631 .586 .573 .495 .432 Boston 4, N.Y. Yankees 1 Chicago White Sox at Tampa Bay Kansas City at Minnesota L.A. Angels at Cleveland Baltimore at Texas Detroit at Oakland
GB
_ 5 6 1⁄2 15 22 Houston at L.A. Dodgers Toronto at Seattle
Sunday’s games
Chicago White Sox (Shields 4-13) at Tampa Bay (TBD), 1:10 p.m.
L.A. Angels (Skaggs 8-7) at Cleveland (Bieber 5-2), 1:10 p.m.
Kansas City (Duffy 7-9) at Minnesota (Santana 0-0), 2:10 p.m. Baltimore (Ramirez 1-4) at Texas (Perez 2-4), 3:05 p.m.
Detroit (Boyd 6-9) at Oakland (Cahill 3-2), 4:05 p.m.
Houston (Cole 10-3) at L.A. Dodgers (Buehler 4-4), 4:10 p.m.
Toronto (Gaviglio 2-4) at Seattle (Leake 8-7), 4:10 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees (Tanaka 9-2) at Boston (Price 11-6), 8:05 p.m.
Monday’s games
Moreland hit a two-run shot to right in the first, and then Martinez made it 3-0 in the fourth with a homer over the Green Monster. A fan who brought a broom to the game — apparently to cheer the Red Sox on to a series sweep — used it to retrieve the ball from light stanchion. Minnesota at Cleveland, 7:10 p.m. Seattle at Texas, 8:05 p.m.
N.Y. Yankees at Chicago White Sox, 8:10 p.m.
Chicago Cubs at Kansas City, 8:15 p.m. Detroit at L.A. Angels, 10:07 p.m. Philadelphia Atlanta Washington Miami New York Chicago Milwaukee Pittsburgh St. Louis Cincinnati