The Yankees got their heads right over the weekend in their home sweep of Kansas City and carried that momentum to Fenway Park, handling the scuffling Red Sox in the first rivalry meeting of 2026. Luis Gil had little trouble shutting down a brittle Boston offense, and the previously-slumping Giancarlo Stanton smashed two extra-base hits to lead New York’s offensive attack. The Bomber bullpen took care of the rest of the paperwork in a 4-0 final as the Yanks collected their league-leading fifth shutout win.
In Gil’s previous outing, the Angels feasted on his fastball, taking him yard off the pitch three times in five innings. Tonight, though, a struggling Red Sox lineup simply couldn’t square him up. Gil allowed a pair of knocks in the first two innings, but from that point he did not allow a hit for the rest of the night. The fastball wasn’t the overpowering offering we saw in his rookie year—in the New England chill, he only averaged 93.6 mph on it—but the Red Sox just couldn’t make hard contact.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees had just extended the lead to 3-0, giving him some extra cushion. He responded by retiring the top of the order in four pitches. He finally lost his command with two walks in the seventh, but some excellent relief work from Brent Headrick preserved his scoreless outing. He finished with 6.1 innings pitched, two hits, three walks, and two strikeouts, only permitting two Boston hitters to even reach scoring position.
The first of Stanton’s two salvos came in the second inning when he put one out of sight—at least, from the vantage point of the YES booth. Stanton’s 111.5 mph blast left the yard at such a high arc that neither Joe Girardi and Michael Kay really saw it go. The launch angle was an absolutely comical 41 degrees—usually a pop-up, unless you have freakish power like Stanton does. That swing busted him out of a 1-for-21 skid.
Big G’s second big hit came following a pair of walks issued by Early to Amed Rosario and Aaron Judge. By this point in the game, Early was losing his edge, nibbling around the strike zone and playing with his food after getting to two strikes. Rosario walked on four pitches, but Judge worked his way back from 0-2 down. So did Stanton. Once he’d gotten the count full, Early was forced to re-enter the strike zone—and he was punished. Giancarlo pounded a changeup off the Monster, scoring both Rosario and Judge to supplement the Yankee lead.
After surrendering lhis third free pass of the inning, Early was finally lifted. The Yankees went on to leave the bases loaded against reliever Jack Anderson—and José Caballero burned their final ABS challenge—but the damage was done.
An unlikely but welcome source helped add on against Anderson in the eighth inning. Ceddanne Rafaela began the frame with a spectacular leaping catch to rob Stanton of what would’ve been his third extra-base hit, but Cody Bellinger slapped an opposite field single to start a rally which was immediately converted by Randal Grichuk. Inserted into the lineup to face the left-handed Early, Aaron Boone opted to keep Grichuk in against the right-handed reliever. Grichuk rewarded the decision with a double into the left-center gap. Bellinger hustled around to score all the way from first to give New York a big insurance run.
Boston’s Carlos Narváez led off the eighth with a single, leading to a call for Tim Hill—who delivered a quintessential Tim Hill performance. He got all three of Roman Anthony, Willson Contreras, and Masataka Yoshida to roll over on grounders to retire the side and set the stage for David Bednar in the ninth. The Yankee closer worked around a Rafaela single to complete the shutout, striking out pinch-hitter Jarren Duran for the 27th out.
The Bombers seek to extend their winning streak to five games tomorrow night. It’ll be two top-flight lefties and former NL East foes facing off: Max Fried against Ranger Suarez. First pitch is once again set for 6:45 pm; as a Wednesday night game, coverage will be on Prime Video.