NEW YORK (AP) Austin Wells homered twice in a nine-run eighth inning, Heliot Ramos hit a three-run homer in the fifth and the New York Yankees widened their lead in the AL wild-card race and clinched the season series against the Boston Red Sox with a 16-1 victory on Sunday.
Wells opened the eighth with a homer off Jovani Moran and then connected against infielder Andruw Monasterio’s 49.8 mph slider for a three-run shot.
It was the seventh time a Yankees player homered twice in an inning and Wells is the sixth player to achieve the feat. Wells was the first Yankee to homer twice in an inning since Gleyber Torres on Sept. 21, 2022, against Pittsburgh.
Paul Goldschmidt also homered in the eighth. Jose Caballero started at shortstop for rookie George Lombard Jr. (right knee discomfort) and launched a three-run drive off Monasterio’s 49 mph slider.
The Yankees took control of a scoreless game with a five-run fifth after center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela’s glove was determined to be on the grass when he caught Jazz Chisholm Jr’s sinking liner – trapping the ball and resulting in a hit. The Red Sox challenged, but the call was upheld. Goldschmidt hit a two-run single off Ranger Suarez (5-4) two batters later.
Ramos hit his first homer since being acquired from San Francisco at the Aug. 3 trade deadline. It was the outfielder’s first homer overall since July 20 and he also had his first multihit game with the Yankees.
Ramos entered Sunday 7 for 59 in his first 20 games for the Yankees. His biggest hit since being acquired helped the Yankees (78-59) move four games ahead of the Red Sox (74-63) and win seven of 13 meetings to clinch the head-to-head tiebreaker if both teams finish with the same record.
New York starter Will Warren (9-6) allowed Nick Sogard’s RBI single in the eighth among six hits in seven-plus innings.
The Yankees won for the 10th time in 14 games and scored their most runs this season. New York also finished with 18 hits for its second-highest total.
Suarez allowed season highs of six runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. Monasterio gave up five runs.
Red Sox: LHP Payton Tolle (8-6, 3.09 ERA) opens a three-game series against Seattle on Monday at Fenway Park.
Yankees: RHP Elmer Rodríguez (0-2, 4.70) opens a three-game series against the Angels in Anaheim on Monday.
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