BOSTON — The Red Sox ran the Yankees out of the building on Sunday night at Fenway Park.
Wreaking havoc on the bases with nine steals against Jose Trevino and his pitchers, the Red Sox manufactured their way to a 9-3 win over the Yankees to take the series in front of a sellout crowd of 36,718.
It marked the first time this season the Yankees (50-24) have lost a rubber game after winning each of their first six, leading to only their fourth series loss in 23 series.
With their team speed on display throughout the night, the Red Sox’s nine stolen bases broke a single-game franchise record.
It also marked a tie for the second-most steals the Yankees have given up in a single game in franchise history, trailing only the 13 they allowed in a 1907 game.
The Red Sox (37-35) took advantage of Trevino, who entered the night with the weakest throwing arm among 60 qualified catchers, with an average speed of 71.3 mph.
Trevino and Marcus Stroman were the battery for the first six steals before the Red Sox swiped four more against the Yankees’ bullpen.
The activity on the bases played a key part in the Red Sox taking a 4-1 lead, which the Yankees had trimmed to 4-3 by the sixth inning.
But after the Yankees blew a key chance to tie the game or take the lead in the seventh, the Red Sox blew it open by scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh and two more in the eighth.
The Yankees will now be tasked with shaking off the back-to-back losses into an off day Monday before welcoming the Orioles into The Bronx on Tuesday for a divisional showdown.
The Yankees received a scare in the seventh inning, when Anthony Rizzo collided with reliever Brennan Bernardino at first base and took a tumble on which he appeared to jam and/or land on his right wrist.
Rizzo eventually got to his feet but left the game with what the Yankees called a “right lower arm injury.” He is set to see the team physician and undergo imaging on Monday in New York.
With Bernardino dropping the flip from first baseman Dominic Smith on the play, the Yankees loaded the bases with no outs, trailing 4-3.
But the Red Sox brought on reliever Zack Kelly, who retired the next three batters in order to get out of the jam without any runs scoring.
He began by throwing three straight balls to Gleyber Torres, who eventually whiffed at a pitch in the dirt for strike three.
Trevino then struck out on three pitches before DJ LeMahieu smoked a line drive that went right to center fielder Ceddanne Rafaela for the third out.
The night began with Aaron Judge crushing his 26th home run of the year, a sky-high blast off Kutter Crawford that cleared the Green Monster to put the Yankees up 1-0 in the first inning.
The Red Sox picked up their first steal in the bottom of the inning from Jarren Duran, and while he was stranded at second base, it set the tone for what was to come.
Stroman got himself in trouble by walking Enmanuel Valdez with two outs in the second inning, which ex-Met Dominic Smith followed with a bloop to right-center field to put runners on the corners.
With Rafaela at the plate, Smith took off for second, but Trevino could not get a good enough handle on the ball and did not even throw down.
Rafaela then drove in both runs with a single up the middle that put the Red Sox ahead 2-1.
Stroman led off the third inning by walking the speedy David Hamilton, which again came back to hurt. Hamilton stole second, took third on Rob Refsnyder’s single to left field and then came in to score as Rafael Devers grounded into a double play.
In the fifth inning, the Red Sox pushed their lead to 4-1 off Stroman with more action on the bases.
Hamilton led off again with a single and immediately stole second on the first pitch to Refsnyder.
Two pitches later, he swiped third base, putting him in position to score on Rafael Devers’ fly ball to center that went for a sacrifice fly.
Trevino got some revenge in the top of the sixth inning when he led off with a home run over the Green Monster, his eighth of the year.
Anthony Volpe then provided some strong base running of his own.
After singling, he took off on a pitch that Juan Soto grounded to second and made it all the way to third.
That set him up to score on a wild pitch to make it a 4-3 game.