Red Sox Out-Slug Yankees in Rubber Match

New York - The Boston Red Sox aren't looking over their shoulder for the Yankees. The Yankees can't even see the Red Sox from the cellar of the AL East.

The Red Sox expanded their AL East lead as the Yankees dropped the final game at Yankee Stadium, 7-4, on Sunday.

David Ortiz put Boston on the board with two outs in the first inning with a mammoth solo blast in to the upper deck off of Chien-Ming Wang.

Boston added to its lead in the top of the third with another run but the Yankees struck in the bottom half with a three run home run off the bat of former Red Sox first basemen, Doug Mientkiewicz off of starter Julian Tavarez (1-2). But the Sox never looked back.

With the Yankees ahead 3-2 in the fifth Short Stop Alex Cora belted a two run shot in to the right-centerfield seats to put the Sox up 5-3.

Like a prize fighter sensing a knock-out blow, Manny Ramirez came up in the eighth and padded the Sox lead by going yard off of reliever Sean Henn with a two-run shot.

Reliever Jonathan Papelbon came in for a perfect ninth and continued to dominate the competition by converting his eighth save in the month of April and remaining perfect on save opportunities for the season.

Boston (16-8) remains atop the AL East and New York fell to an AL East worst (9-14). The Red Sox have a four- game lead in the East and are 6 1/2 ahead of the Yankees.