Sale, Devers sparkle as Red Sox demolish Yankees

Chris Sale extended his recent dominant run with seven scoreless innings and Rafael Devers belted a grand slam in the top of the first as Boston rolled to an 11-0 shutout victory over the Yankees on Saturday night.

NEW YORK - Chris Sale and Rafael Devers ensured a proper rubber game of this weekend series will take place Sunday night at Yankee Stadium.

 The Red Sox ace and third baseman formed a history-making duo as the visitors brought the pain to New York on a steamy Saturday night in the Bronx.

 Sale extended his recent dominant run with seven scoreless innings and Devers belted a grand slam in the top of the first as Boston rolled to an 11-0 shutout victory.

 Sale retired the final 16 men he faced, with Giancarlo Stanton notching the only hit against him on a one-out single to center in the bottom of the first. Sale’s 11 strikeouts made it four times in the last five starts he’s reached double digits, as the Yankees swung and missed at 21 pitches of his 101 pitches.

 More than 500 pitchers have made at least 10 starts against the Yankees since 1920. Sale’s 1.61 career earned-run average and 11.62 strikeouts per nine innings put him atop a prestigious list that includes some of the game’s greats like Pedro Martinez, Bob Feller and many more. Sale joined Martinez among the six pitchers who have worked at least seven innings in a game at New York while allowing one hit or less and striking out 11 or more.

 Aside from Stanton’s liner through the box, the only other real hard contact against Sale came leading off the third. Aaron Hicks smoked a drive toward the home bullpen in deep right center, sending Jackie Bradley Jr. back to the wall. His leaping catch was yet another for the center fielder’s personal highlight reel, one of just four balls the Yankees hit out of the infield against Sale.

 At 21 years and 249 games, Devers became the youngest player in the history of the rivalry to hit a grand slam. Ted Williams for Boston (21 years, 10 months, 15 days) and Joe DiMaggio for New York (22 years, seven months, 10 days) were both surpassed when Devers sent a 1-2 breaking ball from Sonny Gray down the line in left, making it 4-0.

 It was the first career five-hit game for Devers, who scored two more runs after a double to right in the seventh and a single to left in the ninth. Half of his 24 career home runs have either forced a tie or given the Red Sox the lead, and Devers now has 14 RBI in his last 12 games. His grand slam was the seventh of the season for Boston and the third against the Yankees, matching the 1959 and 2013 Red Sox teams for that particular brand of damage done against their arch rivals.

 J.D. Martinez legged out an infield single and Mitch Moreland drew a walk ahead of the Devers grand slam, eating through 15 pitches. Xander Bogaerts lined a single to right to load the bases, and the two-out rally was a sign of things to come from the relentless Red Sox offense. Gray was lifted in the top of the third to loud boos from the season-high 47,125 on hand, charged with six earned runs and striking out none of the 16 men he faced.

 Martinez added a pair of RBI singles and a sacrifice fly, Andrew Benintendi and Brock Holt each chipped in RBI singles and Sandy Leon crushed a two-run homer to the second deck in right field in the seventh.