Red Sox win series opener, ending rough stretch against Yankees

NEW YORK — Six agonizing tries later, the Red Sox beat the Yankees again, 5-3, Friday night.

Read more Brayan Bello being demoted to Triple-A also sends a message to the rest of the Red Sox

Their most recent win over their rival had been in the first game of their best-of-three Wild Card Series last year — October baseball, but before the calendar had actually flipped to October.

It was before Garrett Whitlock’s 47-pitch heartbreaker in Game 2. Before Cam Schlittler’s season-ending masterpiece in Game 3. Before Sonny Gray said in December he never wanted to play for the Yankees. Before Isiah Kiner-Falefa said in February that the Yankees were an easier playoff matchup than the Red Sox for the Blue Jays. Before Schlittler, the Walpole native, dominated his childhood team again in his Fenway Park debut in April, and before the Red Sox totaled three runs in the Yankees’ three-game sweep of that series, all but triggering the firings of manager Alex Cora and six coaches.

There isn’t a whole lot of heat in this version of the rivalry, but this one felt — and mostly looked — good. The Sox started with a former Yankee, Gray, who matched his season-high with 6⅓ innings, and closed with a former Yankee, Aroldis Chapman, who worked around a pair of walks in the ninth inning to record the save.

Willson Contreras and Andruw Monasterio hit home runs off lefthander Ryan Weathers (six innings, five runs). Contreras added another hit and RBI, and Monasterio snared Anthony Volpe’s line drive up the middle for a rally-killing unassisted double play in the fourth.

“Just a great game all around,” said interim manager Chad Tracy, who visited the current Yankee Stadium for the first time in any capacity.

Gray said: “There was definitely some juice.”

Chapman limped around the mound a bit in pursuit of the save because he has been dealing with a minor hamstring issue for about a week, Tracy said. But he has managed it and was able to pitch in the series opener, albeit wildly.

“We’re keeping an eye on it, but he’s grinding,” Tracy said. “He did a nice job. He obviously didn’t have his command the first couple of hitters, but then, like he always does, bears down and got it done.”

In his return to Yankee Stadium, a personal house of horrors through the years, including his 2017-18 stint with the Yankees, Gray limited the damage to three runs and eight hits. Ben Rice and Trent Grisham tagged him for home runs, but Gray was relieved that they were solo shots — acceptable on a night when he had “not even close” to his sharpest repertoire, he said.

Read more Trump pardons former congressman convicted of insider trading

He lowered his ERA in the Bronx to 5.95.

Gray’s outing featured virtually no pushback from the announced crowd of 43,750 (not a sellout).

In December, upon joining the Red Sox via trade with the Cardinals, Gray said that he “never wanted to go [to the Yankees] in the first place” and that it “feels good to me to go to a place now where, you know what, it’s easy to hate the Yankees.” His comments triggered an outrage cycle in New York.

Six months later, New York fans seemed indifferent about it. Gray garnered only a smattering of boos during pregame introductions, when the stands were not even half-full, and no discernable crowd reaction during the game.

Gray wondered if heightened emotion on his side led to his not being in top form.

“I’ll learn from it and be able to control my emotions and my energy and be able to just make pitches,” he said. “Felt really good, but I felt like my stuff just stayed up … It was fun. I’ve been back here and pitched, but first time with the Red Sox. But I’m glad we came away with a win.”

The Sox (27-35) took the lead for good in the third, when Contreras’s two-out check swing resulted in a soft bouncer to the third-base side of the mound. He beat it out for a single.

In the fifth, after the Yankees (37-26) had cut the deficit back to one, Contreras opened it up again with a two-run shot into the second deck in left field.

Lefthander Danny Coulombe relieved Gray in the seventh and got the final two outs of the inning. The last one was harder, though, because Contreras and Monasterio collided and dropped a foul pop from Rice. Monasterio said neither called for it.

Read more Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner says ‘Maine had my back.’

Coulombe struck Rice out swinging on the eighth pitch of the at-bat.

“Next time, I’m going to call it,” Monasterio said. “I promise.”