BOSTON — The New York Yankees outlasted the Boston Red Sox for the second straight day Saturday, beating their rivals 4-3 in front of a sellout crowd at Fenway Park to expand their lead for the top American League wild-card spot to 1½ games.
The Yankees' 83-65 record ranks third in the American League, three games behind the first-place Toronto Blue Jays in the AL East. With 14 games remaining, New York has an outside shot at claiming the AL East title and the league's top seed for the second consecutive year.
But Yankees second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr. doesn't believe the standings accurately represent the league's hierarchy. To him, the Yankees are the team to beat in the American League.
«I feel like any team that thinks they're better than us, they should know that when we step on the field, that we're coming with relentlessness and we're coming to step on necks,» Chisholm said. «We're not here to play around. We're going to do the job and get the job done.»
After going 2-for-4 with two stolen bases Friday, Chisholm finished Saturday 3-for-4 with a home run and three RBIs to move within one home run of becoming the third Yankee ever to post a 30/30 season and the first since Alfonso Soriano in 2003.
He said a recent «talk» among the players that occurred away from the ballpark helped spark the Yankees' recent turnaround after the team squandered a comfortable lead in the AL East in mid-June.
«Honestly, everybody just started locking in,» Chisholm said.
The Yankees are 13-5 since Aug. 24, a stretch that began with a win over the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. The success was buoyed by winning six of seven games against the Washington Nationals and Chicago White Sox — two of the worst teams in the majors — but it has also
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