Alex Rodriguez doubled to break a sixth-inning tie, moved into the top 25 on baseball's career hits list and helped the New York Yankees beat the Boston Red Sox 8-6 on Sunday.
The win gave the Yankees the edge in the three-game series and moved them 6 1/2 games in front of last-place Boston in the bunched-up AL East. New York leads the division by 3 1/2 games heading into the All-Star break.
Yankees prospect Rob Refsnyder had his first career hit with a single in the seventh inning and then added a two-run homer in the ninth to make it 8-4. The Red Sox cut it to 8-6 in the ninth thanks to two New York errors, but Andrew Miller got Shane Victorino on a pop-up to shallow left to end it.
Brian McCann also had two hits, including a two-run homer, and Nathan Eovaldi (9-2) pitched five innings for the Yankees.