The New York Yankees are heading back to the American League Division Series.
New York defeated the rival Boston Red Sox 9-2 in Game 2 of their AL wild-card series, finishing off the first-round sweep from Yankee Stadium on Wednesday night.
Luis Garcia Jr. opened the scoring with a solo blast and Cody Bellinger chipped in with two hits - including a three-run homer in the sixth - while starter Max Fried allowed just one run on three hits in six innings to earn the victory.
The Red Sox had yet to score a run in the series against New York heading into the top of the sixth of Game 2, before Willson Contreras finally put Boston on the board with a solo homer off of Fried.
Nick Sogard would add another homer an inning later, but it wouldn’t be enough as the Red Sox would go onto be eliminated from the postseason, being outscored 18-2 across the two games.
This marks the second straight season that New York has knocked off Boston in the wild-card round after a three-game battle last October.
The Bronx Bombers will now head down to Florida for a best-of-five ALDS against the Tampa Bay Rays, with Game 1 scheduled for Saturday.
The Yankees will hope to have superstar slugger Aaron Judge back in the lineup after the three-time MVP missed both games against Boston with a calf injury.
Judge took live batting practice on the field at the Yankees’ Double-A affiliate in Somerset, NJ earlier on Wednesday, but manager Aaron Boone told reporters that it was “probably too early to tell” if he would be available for Game 1 against the Rays.
