On a night when the Red Sox honored their former gritty second baseman Dustin Pedroia, they won on Friday seemingly in a fashion after his own heart.
Though they were far from perfect, Boston took the first game of its weekend series with the rival New York Yankees 5-3 in front of a soldout crowd at Fenway Park thanks to a gutsy bullpen performance and an opportunistic offense.
The win helped them keep pace with the AL East with the Tampa Bay Rays topping the L.A. Angels and moved them to 4.5 games ahead of the Yankees for second place in the division.