BOSTON — Didi Gregorius and Austin Romine each hit two-run homers off Chris Sale, and Domingo German struck out nine on Sunday night, helping the Yankees avoid a four-game sweep with a 9-6 victory over the Boston Red Sox.
Five days after allowing a career-high eight runs to the Minnesota Twins, German (13-2) took a no-hitter into the fourth and allowed four hits and a walk through five and a third innings. He has won four straight decisions and 10 of his last 11.
After trimming the Yankees’ lead in the American League East from 11 games to eight and winning the first three games of the series by a combined score of 38-13, the Red Sox committed three errors and fell into third place, nine games behind the Yankees in the division. The teams play four games in New York next weekend and four more at Fenway Park in September.
[The Yankees wanted Marcus Stroman. The Mets got him.]
The Red Sox had won five of six against the Yankees and Rays and moved briefly into playoff position, but with the loss Boston fell behind both Tampa Bay and Oakland for the A.L.’s second wild-card berth. The Rays visit Boston for three games, starting on Tuesday night.
Romine made it 2-0 in the third and Gregorius gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead in the fourth. After Andrew Benintendi hit a two-run homer for Boston in the fourth, the Yankees chased Sale (5-10) with two more in the sixth.
Sale allowed six runs on five hits and three walks, striking out seven in five and a third innings. In his previous two starts, he had only permitted two earned runs while striking out 22 in 12 innings.
The Yankees made it 8-3 on a two-run throwing error by center fielder Jackie Bradley Jr. in the seventh. Bradley hit a one-out single in the bottom half, took second on Christian Vazquez’s single to shortstop and went to third when Gregorius made a bad flip throw for an error.
Bradley scored on a sacrifice fly, and Rafael Devers doubled to put runners on second and third. But Adam Ottavino got Xander Bogaerts on a weak pop-up to right field, ending the inning.
The Yankees extended their lead to 9-4 in the eighth when Cameron Maybin doubled, took third on a groundout and scored on Marcus Walden’s wild pitch.
Benintendi had a two-run single with two outs in the ninth, his third hit of the game. Bogaerts also had three hits.