Yankees wrap up Fenway sweep

BOSTON – It's been exactly four weeks, and the Yankees look much more like a good team than a bad one.

Might not have expected it in early April — back when the Yankees could hardly field a ground ball or round first base without getting in their own way — but on Sunday night, they finished off a three-game sweep of the Red Sox with an 8-5 win at Fenway Park.

After winning just three of their first nine games, the Yankees have won 13 of their last 16 and sit all alone in first place in the American League East.

"We always felt the ability was there," manager Joe Girardi said. "It was just, we looked so darn bad the first five games."

The Yankees lost four of those first five games, including two against these very same Red Sox, who made plenty of high-profile additions and entered the season as heavy favorites over their New York rivals.

But the Yankees look like a far different team these days, and this weekend they swept a three-game series at Fenway for the first time since 2006. They've now won five series in a row, their longest such streak since 2012.

"When we were 1-4, we looked about as bad as we could look," Girardi said. "(First place) probably seemed a really long ways away. But then we come out and win the next game, then we win a game in Baltimore, and you start to feel, OK, we're starting to play a little bit better here.

"It's been a big turnaround, but I felt our guys were capable of doing it. With the way our bullpen is, if you get in close games, you feel pretty good about the score staying relatively the same. If you score a few runs, you're going to win."

All three Fenway games were decided by three runs or less, so were each of the past six Yankees wins, but their bullpen has been dominant with Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller each still carrying 0.00 ERAs. Miller saved two games this series, including Sunday night, for his 10th of the year.

"For a 10-day period or whatever, two weeks, (the bullpen) has been about as good as you can be," Girardi said. "I don't imagine it could be much better."

Mark Teixeira hit a two-run home run in the first inning, his team-leading ninth homer of the year. Brian McCann and Carlos Beltran had back-to-back RBI doubles in the third, Brett Gardner hit a three-run homer in the top of the sixth, and starter Adam Warren didn't allow a run until the bottom of the sixth.

In that bottom of the sixth, though, it became a real ballgame. With two outs, Warren let four straight batters reach base, then Esmil Rogers allowed a three-run homer and let the tying run reach the plate before striking out rookie Blake Swihart to keep the Yankees in front.

Things got chippy in the late innings — Hanley Ramirez took exception to being hit by a pitch in the sixth, then Jacoby Ellsbury was plunked in the eighth — but the situation never escalated beyond both benches being warned and CC Sabathia stepping just outside of the Yankees' dugout as if ready to lead a possible charge.