Yankees stick it to Red Sox, force tie atop AL East

Yankees hit four homers in hammering Red Sox 8-1 at Yankee Stadium on Friday night.

NEW YORK — A chant broke out from the Yankee Stadium right field bleachers as the Yankees were hitting in the seventh inning Friday night.

Red Sox suck!

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Within a few seconds, most everyone among the biggest crowd of the season, 47,120 strong, chimed in on this muggy Friday night in the Bronx to turn the serenading into a loud roar.

The Yankees had a lot of fun, too, beating up on the Red Sox 8-1 in the opener of a showdown weekend series.

This was total domination by the Yankees, who forced a tie atop the American League East standings after they had dropped out of first during their recent 2-4 roadtrip.

Left-hander CC Sabathia (5-3) dialed up a great one-run, seven-inning start and the Yankees did what they do best in homering the Red Sox to death.

Six of the Yankees runs scored on four homers, two of the blasts courtesy of slumping first baseman Greg Bird.

The Yankees were up just a run until scoring four in the fourth off usually solid Red Sox lefty starter Eduardo Rodriguez (9-3). With a run in on a Gleyber Torres sacrifice fly, fellow Baby Bomber Miguel Andujar hit a two-homer, then Bird followed with the first of his two homers to make it a 5-0 ballgame.

Later, Aaron Judge went deep with a man on in the seventh, then Bird provided the icing to this cakewalk by hitting his second homer of the night in the eighth, the Yankees’ last two long balls coming off Red Sox reliever Justin Haley.

Sabathia set the tone by setting down the Red Sox 1-2-3 in a 12-pitch first inning, then he got the crowd more into the game in the second when he set down three in a row after Steve Pearce hit a leadoff double inside third.

The Baby Bombers then put the Yankees in the lead, as Torres led off the bottom of the second with a blast over Mookie Betts’ head in center that turned into his first career triple and Andujar followed with a bloop single to center.

Sabathia was working on a shutout in the fifth when back-to-back doubles by Mookie Betts and Andrew Benintendi produced the Red Sox only run.

NOTABLE

— Third baseman Brandon Drury, recalled from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Friday, did not play. He’s expected to make his first major league start at first base on Saturday night.

— Rehabbing right-hander Masahiro Tanaka threw a three-inning, 48-pitch simulated game at the Yankees’ minor league complex in Tampa. He’s expected to start a minor-league rehab game next Wednesday and then come off the DL to pitch in the Yankees’ doubleheader in Baltimore the following Monday.

— Chad Green pitched the eighth and Chasen Shreve worked the ninth to complete the shutout.

LOOKING AHEAD

Saturday: Boston Red Sox at Yankees, 7:15 p.m., ESPN. LHP Chris Sale (7-4, 2.56) vs. RHP Sonny Gray (5-5, 4.93).

Sunday: Boston Red Sox at Yankees, 8:05 p.m., ESPN. LHP David Price (9-5, 3.66) vs. RHP Luis Severino (12-2, 2.10).

Randy Miller may be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @RandyJMiller. Find NJ.com on Facebook.

PROSPECT SPOTLIGHT

Tyler Nunez, a C from Lake Nona HS, is a 6'2 190lb athletic catcher who provides strength with the bat and glove. During BP, Tyler stuck with a middle of the field approach while staying on a line. He impacted the ball well with his compact and direct path, T90EV. He showed off his real athleticism behind the plate by posting a 2.04 pop time while staying around the bag on every throw. He is a good looking athletic uncommitted catcher to keep an eye on.