Yankees demolish Red Sox in statement victory to take series and important tiebreaker

With a nice breeze blowing in The Bronx and the worst of the summer heat just a memory, Sunday felt like an appetizer for the fall to come.And in a game and in a series that mattered, the Yankees played like a team that is hungry and ready for October baseball.They finally uncovered several offensive answers for lefty Boston pitching.They entrusted one of the larger games of the season to a struggling Will Warren, who responded by authoring his best start of his year.

And by the time it was winding down, the embarrassed Red Sox asked a position player to serve as their mercy-rule pitcher.Join Post Sports+ for exciting subscriber-only features, including real-time texting with Greg Joyce about the inside buzz on the Yankees.

If on Friday and Saturday night the Yankees did enough to steal two of the first three games of the series, on Sunday they did everything in a statement, 16-1 demolition of the Red Sox in front of 45,256, who left the park with a better chance of seeing playoff baseball in The Bronx than when they had entered.Because with the victory, the Yankees (78-59) clinched the tiebreaker over the Red Sox (74-63) by winning the season series, 7-6.Officially up four games for the top wild-card seed, the Yankees are effectively ahead by five because if the two clubs finish atop the wild-card standings with the same record, the Yankees would host the best-of-three, first-round series.Of course, Aaron Boone’s group also took steps toward ensuring that tiebreaker won’t come into play and would prefer looking ahead toward the AL East-leading Rays, anyway.The result — taking three of four and outscoring Boston, 26-9 — encourages.

But so does the manner in which the Yankees took control, punctuated by a spotless finale.Warren — whose ERA had risen from 3.45 to 4.39 over his previous 11 games, a span dating back to June 26 in which he had allowed 32 earned runs in 48 ⅔ innings (5.92) — looked like his excellent April self.He got into trouble in ...