The spotlight was on Jacoby Ellsbury, playing in Fenway Park against the Boston Red Sox as a member of the New York Yankees for the first time. The crowd was silenced quickly, the boos and jeers didn’t really matter. Ellsbury had a good day on the field, and the Yankees came away with the 9-3 win.

This wasn’t the reception Damon got in 2006, not nearly as hateful. Ellsbury silencing the fans at his first at bat probably had something to do with it. He hit a triple due to fan intervention off Lester’s third pitch of the game, and set the tone for the Yankees dominance from the get go, coming in for a run off of Jeter’s single. Carlos Beltran gave the Yankees a 2-0 lead with a single right after that.

By the time David Ortiz hit a 482 feet home run off of Masahiro Tanaka, the Yankees were already up by four runs. Mike Napoli followed Ortiz with a home run of his own, but then made an error that helped the Yankees begin another rally, finally killing off the game, scoring more off an Ellsbury double, another Jeter single that brought home The returning son and finished their streak of scoring with a Carlos Beltran home run, his fifth of the season.

Lester (2-3, 2.67 ERA) had a game to forget. He allowed 11 hits in 4.2 innings, walking four and striking out seven. The Yankees came out of the fifth inning with a 8-2 lead. Tanaka wasn’t perfect, giving up those two home runs, but made things difficult enough during his seven innings,improving to 3-0 this season. He struck out seven and allowed seven hits, followed by a strong finish from Dellin Betances, who has a 0.93 ERA so far this season, pitching in a total of 9.2 innings.

Ellsbury didn’t have the best of starts to the season, but the previous series against the Red Sox got him and most of the Yankees into the form expected of them. He was 2-for-5 with 2 RBIs against his former team, improving to a .342 batting average. It was a very good day for Jeter, McCann and Beltran as well, with the latter improving to 13 RBIs this season. Jeter has hit in 11 straight games and reached base in all 15 games he’s played.

The Yankees are looking good, and they have players back from their injuries. They are 12-8, winning eight of their last 11 games, as Tanaka seems very difficult to beat, heading a rotation that is improving as we go along. For the defending champions Boston Red Sox things are a little different with struggles everywhere, dropping to 9-12 and losing for the third time in five days, giving up five runs or more in four of their last five games.

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