BOSTON — Rick Porcello pitched a one-hitter, Steve Pearce homered for the fourth time in two nights and the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 4-1 Friday after Manager Alex Cora’s ejection to open a season-high 7½-game lead in the AL East.
Miguel Andujar’s leadoff homer in the third was the only hit allowed by Porcello (13-4), who matched his season high with nine strikeouts and walked none. He needed only 86 pitches in his first complete game this season. The games lasted just 2 hours, 15 minutes.
Porcello got defensive backing in the ninth when Jackie Bradley Jr. made a leaping grab at the center-field wall of a Neil Walker drive for the second out.
Cora was ejected one pitch into the bottom of the first. Porcello hit Brett Gardner with an 0-2 pitch starting the game, and New York’s Luis Severino (14-5) answered with a high-and-inside fastball when Mookie Betts led off the bottom half. Plate umpire Adam Hamari warned both dugouts, and Cora ran out to argue.
Cora had barely made it to the tunnel before Andrew Benintendi doubled and Pearce, who homered three times Thursday, hit a two-run drive. Eduardo Nunez added an RBI single.
Severino (14-5) pitched 52/3 innings, allowing four runs, seven hits and three walks, dropping to 0-3 in his last four starts. New York has lost three straight games for only the second time this year; Tampa Bay swept the Yankees from June 22-24.
Mitch Moreland added an RBI single in the fifth for Boston, which has won 6 of 7.
NOTES: RF Aaron Judge (broken right wrist) is getting closer to swinging a bat again, Manager Aaron Boone said. Judge, out since taking a fastball from Kansas City right-hander Jakob Junis on July 26, could take some swings later this weekend in Boston or next week when the Yankees visit the Chicago White Sox, Boone said. … Ian Kinsler started at second base, but left after straining his left hamstring while scoring a run after walking in the first inning. Kinsler is headed to the DL and Tony Renda will be called up from Triple-A Pawtucket. … Mookie Betts moved from right field to second base, his first appearance there since 2014.
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