BOSTON — — Max Fried earned his major league-leading 17th win and Jazz Chisholm Jr. had three hits — including a solo homer that moved him to the brink of the 30-30 club — leading the New York Yankees to a 5-3 victory over the Boston Red Sox on Saturday.
Fried (17-5) permitted two runs and nine hits in 5 1/3 innings. He was working on a shutout before Alex Bregman went deep with two down in the fifth.
Jarren Duran hit a solo homer in the eighth for Boston, but the Yankees added one in the ninth against closer Aroldis Chapman when Aaron Judge singled, took second on a wild pitch and scored on Cody Bellinger‘s double.
David Bednar pitched the ninth for his 24th save.
Chisholm had his third straight multihit game and drove in three runs. He stole his 29th and 30th bases of the season on Friday night and needs one home run to become the third player in franchise history with at least 30 homers and 30 stolen bases. Alfonso Soriano (2002 and ’03) did it twice.
The Yankees tagged Brayan Bello (11-7) for two runs in the first, sending eight men to the plate and scoring on Bellinger’s sacrifice fly and Chisholm’s infield single.
The Red Sox chased Fried in the sixth with three consecutive singles that cut the deficit to 4-2. But Luke Weaver came in and struck out Ceddanne Rafaela and Romy Gonzalez to end the inning.
The Yankees have beaten Boston three games in a row since losing eight straight against their AL East rivals. With Saturday’s win, New York pulled 2 1/2 games ahead of Boston in the race for the AL’s top wild card, which would give the Yankees home-field advantage in a possible first-round matchup with the Red Sox.
Yankees RHP Will Warren (8-6) will face Boston LHP Garrett Crochet (15-5) in the series finale on Sunday.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/mlb
