Yankees hold on to beat Red Sox, move 2 1/2 games ahead for first wild card
The Yankees' Jazz Chisholm Jr. watches his home run during the fifth inning against the Red Sox on Saturday at Fenway Park in Boston. Credit: AP/Mark Stockwell
BOSTON — Yankees general manager Brian Cashman’s top priority at the trade deadline was improving an erratic bullpen. He added three relievers before the deadline, but only one, David Bednar, has performed as expected.
“We’ve got a little time to see if we can have it click in,” Cashman said at Fenway Park on Friday afternoon. “In the meantime, we just got to win our games regardless of performance.”
The Yankees won Friday night and made it two straight over the Red Sox with a 5-3 victory on Saturday afternoon. And those wins, against a team that started the season 8-1 against the Yankees, came in large part because of the bullpen, not despite it.
“It’s been big,” Aaron Boone said. “Obviously, we talk about the hiccups a lot, but again, through this month or whatever now it’s been, we’ve had a lot of this, too, where guys have performed, have closed out games.”
In Friday night’s 4-1 victory, Fernando Cruz, Devin Williams and Bednar held Boston at bay. On Saturday, after Max Fried departed with one out in the sixth and a 4-2 lead, Luke Weaver, Williams, Cruz and Bednar got the job done. They allowed one run and one hit, a solo homer by pinch hitter Jarren Duran off Cruz in the eighth that made it 4-3, but Cruz struck out the next two batters he faced.
Bednar, by far the most effective of the relievers brought on by Cashman, pitched the ninth with a two-run lead thanks to Aaron Judge’s two-out single off former teammate Aroldis Chapman and Cody Bellinger’s RBI double off the Green Monster in left-center (Bellinger had fallen behind 0-and-2 in the count before working it full in a nine-pitch at-bat). Bednar retired the Red Sox in order for his 24th save, seventh with the Yankees.
“We have a lot of studs in the bullpen,” said Jazz Chisholm Jr., who had three RBIs and three hits, including his 29th homer. That brought him within one home run of becoming the third Yankee to record a 30-30 season (30 homers, 30 stolen bases).
The outspoken Chisholm called the Yankees “the best team in the league.” He has said that pretty much from Day 1 after arriving via trade last season and has said it multiple times in 2025, even as his club has staggered at times.
“I feel like any team that thinks they’re better than us, they should know when we step on the field, we’re coming with relentlessness and we’re coming to step on necks,” said Chisholm, who has 40 homers, 98 RBIs and 48 steals in his 162 games with the Yankees over two seasons. “We’re not here to play around. We’re going to do the job and get the job done.”
The Yankees (83-65) have been far better of late, improving to 21-9 in their last 30 games. They moved 18 games over .500 for the first time this season in extending their lead over Boston to 2 1⁄2 games for the American League’s top wild-card spot.
The Yankees are 7-4 in their 12-game stretch against the three division leaders and a top wild-card contender, with Will Warren taking on Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet on Sunday night in the finale. They stayed three games behind the AL East-leading Blue Jays, who scored three runs in the bottom of the ninth to walk off the Orioles.
The Yankees did their most impressive work in the early part of the afternoon, getting to a pitcher they rarely have had success against — righthander Brayan Bello, who came into the day 5-3 with a 1.95 ERA in 10 career starts against them. He entered the game with 14 scoreless innings in two 2025 starts against the Yankees, outdueling Fried each time, but this time he allowed four runs, five hits and three walks in five innings.
The Yankees took a 4-0 lead into the bottom of the fifth before Alex Bregman’s 316-foot homer off the Pesky Pole in rightfield.
Fried (17-5, 3.03 ERA), who faced traffic throughout most of his 105-pitch outing, limited the damage in allowing two runs, nine hits and two walks in 5 1⁄3 innings in which he struck out six. He became the first pitcher in the majors to earn 17 wins this season.
After Fried allowed a one-out RBI single by Connor Wong in the sixth to make it 4-2, Weaver came on to face Ceddanne Rafaela. The righthander fell behind 3-and-1 but struck him out swinging at a changeup in the dirt and then struck out Romy Gonzalez swinging at a 96-mph fastball.
“We’re playing good all-around baseball,” Fried said. “We’re defending really well . . . Really good at-bats, and we’re pitching. When you’re able to do all those different things, a lot of times it comes out in wins.”
In the first inning, Bellinger hit a sacrifice fly to the warning track in center and Chisholm trickled a dribbler down the third-base line for an RBI single to make it 2-0. Chisholm poked a soft liner through the wide-open left side of the infield for an RBI single and a 3-0 lead in the third. His homer to right in the fifth made it 4-0.
The Yankees had their chances to blow open the game. With two runs already home, they loaded the bases with one out in the first inning, but Jose Caballero and Austin Wells (who struck out four times) were called out on strikes. With a run already home, runners on second and third and two outs in the third, Wells struck out swinging. And in the eighth, with the Yankees leading 4-2 and runners on second and third, Wells struck out swinging and Ryan McMahon grounded out.
Erik Boland started in Newsday's sports department in 2002. He covered high school and college sports, then shifted to the Jets beat. He has covered the Yankees since 2009.
More Yankees headlines
