David Ortiz homered in a second straight game Wednesday as the Red Sox jumped all over Yankees starter A.J. Burnett on their way to an 11-6 win.
They improved to 7-1 against the Yankees this season and moved into the AL East lead by one game.
Helped out by two Francisco Cervelli throwing errors on steal attempts, the Red Sox scored four times in the first two innings for the second straight night. They went on to take a 7-0 lead in the top of the fourth, only to watch the Yankees come back and make it 7-4 over the following two frames.
The Red Sox controlled the game from there, though. After Burnett was pulled in the sixth, Boone Logan walked in a run to make it 8-4. Those eight runs — seven earned — were all charged to Burnett in his worst start so far this season.
With the score 8-5, Carl Crawford and J.D. Drew homered in the ninth to put the game out of reach.
Derek Jeter had a double in five at-bats, leaving him 11 hits shy of 3,000 with eight games left in the Yankees homestand.
Thursday’s series finale will feature the third matchup between Josh Beckett and CC Sabathia already this season. Beckett prevailed in the first two, throwing 14 scoreless innings and striking out 19. Sabathia pitched well in the first matchup, yielding one run in 5 2/3 innings, but he gave up six runs over six innings in a May 14 loss.
Sabathia, though, has been stellar since that last defeat. He’s won four straight starts, pitching at least eight innings each time.
