Yankees Highlights: J.A Happ shuts down Red Sox in 5-1 win

The Yankees continued their march to the AL East title today, cruising past the rival Red Sox with a 5-1 win in Fenway Park. Pending the result of tonight’s Rays-Blue Jays game, the Yankees’ magic number to win the division sits at 11. They’ll look to clinch at least a series split in Boston tomorrow night, as Masahiro Tanaka squares off with Rick Porcello.

Winner(s) of the Game

You can’t stop J.A. Happ, you can only hope to contain him. After yielding one hit across six shutout last weekend against the A’s, Happ dominated the Red Sox in what was probably his best start of the season. He allowed just two hits and no runs while striking out seven over 6.1 innings. Don’t look now, but Happ now has a scoreless streak of 15.1 innings. He indicated to Bryan Hoch that he still wants to be a big part of the Yankees’ postseason run, and while I certainly won’t argue that the Yankees should let that happen, Happ has made his best argument to be included on the playoff roster over the past couple starts.

Elsewhere, the parrot got a good walk in today, as Edwin Encarnacion skied a huge shot over the Green Monster in the four-run fourth inning that won the Yankees the game:

He added an RBI single in the ninth inning to complete a two-hit, three-RBI day.

Loser of the Game

Aaron Judge was the only player to fail to reach base, so we’ll mention him here. Also, in the ninth inning, Aroldis Chapman yielded a solo shot to J.D. Martinez to spoil the shutout. It was Martinez’s seventh homer of the season versus the Yankees.

Chart

FanGraphs