BOSTON — In this maddeningly inconsistent year, why wouldn’t the Yankees go into Fenway Park to face the hottest team in the American League and come away with one of their most resounding victories of the season?
The Yankees kicked off the nine-game stretch that will close out — and likely define — their season with an 8-3 over the Red Sox, scoring seven runs in the first three innings in support of Gerrit Cole, who didn’t give up a hit until the fourth before he faltered in the sixth.
“It’s a great opportunity to erase the whole roller coaster we’ve been on [this season] and start a new one,’’ said Giancarlo Stanton, whose three-run blast in the third inning helped break the game open.
It was the Yankees’ fourth straight win and they improved to 9-4 since a seven-game losing streak threatened to derail their season. And it came against the Red Sox, who had won seven in a row heading into Friday.
The victory brought the Yankees back to within a game of Boston for the top AL wild-card spot — and two ahead of the Blue Jays for the second wild-card slot thanks to Toronto’s loss at Minnesota — with eight games to play.
“It was good to see them kick off the series like that,’’ manager Aaron Boone said. “They’re all important — it’s one, though.”
The Yankees took care of business early and held and fended off an attempted comeback when Wandy Peralta struck out Bobby Dalbec to end the seventh inning. The Yankees cruised from there.
“I didn’t feel like the game was ours until the last out,’’ Cole said. “I don’t think I ever feel that way — especially against this team.”
The Yankees got to Boston’s Nathan Eovaldi early and often. The right-hander had a 2.30 ERA in 10 starts against the Yankees while with Boston. The Yankees were more aggressive on Friday.
DJ LeMahieu and Anthony Rizzo opened the game with singles and Aaron Judge drove a double to center field that scored LeMahieu for the first run of the game. Rizzo scored on a Stanton groundout and Gleyber Torres added a two-out single to drive in Judge to make it 3-0.
The Yankees scored four more when they batted around in the fourth.
Rizzo started the inning with a double, Judge walked and Stanton drilled a three-run homer.
The inning somehow got worse for Boston from there, as Eovaldi was knocked out after just 2 ²/₃ innings. Reliever Hirokazu Sawamura got Kyle Higashioka to hit a pop-up, but converted first baseman Kyle Schwarber overran the ball and it dropped behind him for an RBI single.
The 7-0 lead gave Cole plenty of room to work with. The Yankees’ ace was coming off a rough start at home against Cleveland, when he matched a season-worst Sunday by giving up seven earned runs.
On Friday night, Cole pitched around some early walks, aided by two double plays in the first five innings.
Kiké Hernandez and Schwarber opened the bottom of the sixth with base hits, putting runners on the corners for Boston with no one out and giving some life to the packed house of 36,026.
Cole came back and got Xander Bogaerts looking for the first out, but Rafael Devers homered to cut the Yankees’ lead to 7-3.
A Torres blast to center to lead off the seventh just got over the wall for his eighth homer to add to the Yankees’ lead.
Clay Holmes retired the first two batters in the seventh, but consecutive singles knocked him out of the game, leaving Peralta to face Dalbec, who was pinch-hitting for Schwarber. Peralta got the slugger swinging to end the threat and the lefty pitched a scoreless eighth.
Chad Green closed it in the ninth, as the Yankees improved to 2-6 at Fenway this season.
“It was a great first punch to the series,’’ Stanton said of beating Boston, which had won the first seven meetings between the two teams this season.
And he added they are “definitely aware” of how the standings look this time of year.
“If we take care of business, it doesn’t matter,’’ Stanton said of the final three series, against Boston, Toronto and Tampa Bay. “If we get wins, we’ll be in the best position possible.’’
