Red Sox crush Yankees to claim AL East crown

With Mookie Betts leading the way, Boston celebrates in New York after an 11-6 victory.

NEW YORK -- This third straight American League East title for the Red Sox feels defined by resilience.

Rookie manager? More than welcome.

Ailing club cornerstones? No problem.

An occasionally faulty bullpen? Just one more obstacle to overcome in the late innings.

Alex Cora has handled his roster with aplomb, coaxing career years out of a handful of key pieces. Stars like Mookie Betts and J.D. Martinez have taken the reins in the lineup. And 46 come-from-behind wins serve as a testament to Boston’s collective will and resourcefulness.

The latest example of this came Thursday night at Yankee Stadium, with the Red Sox finally putting New York away after missed opportunities the previous two evenings. What remained of the largest crowd at the ballpark in the Bronx this season, a sellout of 47,351 fans, looked on helplessly as Boston celebrated in front of them after an 11-6 victory.

Cora made enough of the right moves, Betts was a catalyst atop the lineup and Steven Wright was nails in relief while the Red Sox offense spent the final five innings battering the Yankees into submission. Betts capped a 4-for-5, five-RBI, three-run tour de force by crushing his 30th home run of the season in the top of the eighth, a towering three-run shot to the stands in left that served as the final nail in New York’s coffin.

Boston’s three runs in the seventh erased a one-run deficit, a rally started against Chad Green and finished against Dellin Betances. Jackie Bradley Jr. smoked a leadoff homer down the line in right to tie the game, with the ball settling in the second deck to make it 6-6. Christian Vazquez singled to right, Betances was summoned and the bases were loaded three batters later after an Andrew Benintendi double to right and a Martinez intentional walk.

Up stepped Xander Bogaerts in a 5-for-28 hole and needing just a sacrifice fly. He lifted a drive to deep center that chased home pinch runner Tzu-Wei Lin, giving the Red Sox the lead. Aaron Hicks gifted Boston an insurance run on the same play when he fired a one-hopper to third that caromed off Miguel Andujar and into the stands, an error that saw Benintendi awarded home plate all the way from second base.

Wright had slowed the relentless New York attack by that point, his knuckleball dancing through the cool night air. He set down nine of the 10 men he faced after entering in the fifth, allowing just a two-out single to center in the seventh by Didi Gregorius. Ryan Brasier worked a 1-2-3 eighth and Craig Kimbrel recorded the final three outs in the ninth, cementing the 10th AL East crown for the Red Sox since 1975.

Boston looked on the ropes after the fourth, with starter Eduardo Rodriguez coughing up his second multiple-run lead of the night and Giancarlo Stanton striking what seemed to be a hammer blow. The slugger’s two-out grand slam to the boxes in right came after Rodriguez had issued three of his career-high seven walks in succession with two outs. Heath Hembree was summoned and left a slider within range of Stanton’s powerful bat, turning a 4-2 Boston advantage into a 6-4 deficit.

Betts led off the fifth with a double to deep left, the second of his two rockets that crashed off the wall. That chased Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka, and it was the ballyhooed New York bullpen that was last to buckle under pressure. David Robertson induced Martinez to ground into a double play, allowing Betts to slip in the back door from third base, and Green fanned the side in order in the sixth before the wheels came off.

Martinez’s single up the middle in the first and Betts’s two-run single to center in the second gave Boston a quick 3-0 lead. Luke Voit responded for the Yankees with a historic two-run homer to center, the 246th for the Yankees this season to set a new club mark. It was also Voit’s 10th and gave New York 12 men in double figures, the first team in Major League history to accomplish that feat.

Only one Red Sox team has won more games in a regular season. The 1912 club captured 105 on their way to a World Series crown, and with 104 so far this season Boston has nine more chances to match and exceed that total.