BOSTON — Giancarlo Stanton had gone 0-for-9 over his previous two games. The Yankees slugger was 0-for-17 against left-handed pitching on the season. Aaron Boone gave him Sunday off to rest, combining it with Monday’s scheduled day off to create a two-day break ahead of the Yankees’ series opener at Fenway Park.
The break worked. The ballpark helped. The rivalry did the rest.
Stanton drove in three runs with a solo home run and a two-run double, both off Red Sox left-hander Connelly Early, as the Yankees rolled to a 4-0 victory Tuesday night. It was New York’s fourth straight win, their major league-leading fifth shutout of the season, and the kind of performance from Stanton that reminds everyone what this lineup can look like when all its parts are functioning.
Stanton’s first inning to remember in weeks
The home run came in the Yankees’ second inning. Early threw a 1-0 slider. Stanton was waiting for it. He drove it 111.5 mph off the barrel, a towering shot that cleared the Green Monster at Fenway and landed in the light tower above. His third home run of the season gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead and announced that the dormant bat was awake.
It was the Yankees’ 19th home run in their last eight games. It extended a streak of consistent power production that has carried this offense through a rotation that has been patchy at times in April. But more than the number, the quality mattered. A 111.5 mph exit velocity off a premium left-hander’s breaking ball is not a fluke. That is Stanton at full power.
Boone described what the moment meant to the Yankees’ offense, framing the home run in the language of a team that needed exactly that kind of impact from its veteran DH.
“Just some really good at-bats, obviously to get us going with a G-esque moonshot,” the Yankees manager said.
A 4-0 shutout at Fenway
The decisive Yankees blow came in the sixth inning. Amed Rosario led off with a walk. Aaron Judge followed, working a walk of his own after losing an ABS challenge that pushed him to 0-2 in the count. Stanton then roped a full-count double off the left-center scoreboard, scoring both runners. Luis Rojas, the third-base coach, aggressively waved Judge home from first base and the Yankees captain beat the throw to make it 3-0.
Randal Grichuk, who had entered the night 2-for-20 on the season and under real pressure after Anthony Volpe’s impending Yankees return, delivered in the eighth. His RBI double to the gap scored Cody Bellinger, who had just extended his hitting streak to nine games with a single. The final was 4-0.
Stanton received a warm reflection of what that night meant at Fenway, a ballpark where he has historically excelled. Coming in, the Yankees star owned a .316 batting average with eight home runs and a .932 OPS in 40 career games at the park. He stepped into Tuesday with the weight of a cold stretch and left with three RBI, a 2-for-4 line and a reminder of why the Yankees built their middle-of-the-order around him.
Stanton was asked about what the rivalry brings out in him and why a night at Fenway felt different even when the standings suggest a clear gap between the two teams.
“It’s always a fun rivalry game, no matter where each team is in the standings,” theYankees slugger said. “It’s just a good experience, a good pure baseball place to play. You’ve got to raise your game in those types of situations.”
Gil earns his first win of 2026
The shutout would not have happened without Luis Gil’s most disciplined start of the season. The Yankees right-hander, who entered the game 0-1 with a 7.00 ERA and legitimate questions about his rotation spot with Cole and Rodon nearing their returns, held Boston to two hits across 6 1/3 scoreless innings.
He did not have his best stuff on a cold Fenway night. His velocity was down. The Yankees pitcher walked three batters and hit one more. Boston’s only hit of note before the eighth inning was a Marcelo Mayer double in the second. The Red Sox did not collect another hit until Carlos Narvaez singled in the eighth. For long stretches, Gil simply took what the situation offered and got through innings efficiently.
Brent Headrick, Tim Hill and David Bednar finished the shutout. It was the fifth shutout of the Yankees’ season, the most in the major leagues.
Gil, who has pitched well against Boston throughout his career (three earned runs in 33 2/3 career innings against them), spoke through an interpreter about what he focused on in a start where the results mattered more than the aesthetics.
“My focus is to execute pitches, get strikes out there and then at the end, let them figure it out,” the Yankees pitcher said.
The win moved Gil to 1-1 with a 4.85 ERA. It was not a statement performance that closes the debate about his role when Cole and Rodon return. But it was a win, and it was a shutout, and it was exactly what a pitcher in Gil’s situation needed to produce in a moment that required an answer.
Ben Rice, whose four-game homer streak ended with a 0-for-4 night including four strikeouts, will not need the reminder. The Yankees are 14-9. They go back to Fenway on Wednesday with Max Fried on the mound.
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