NEW YORK _ Joe Kelly entered to a boisterous Bronx cheer as he jogged into a seventh-inning jam at Yankee Stadium.
A venomous greeting was expected, after Kelly's role in the April 11 Yankees-Red Sox brawl at Fenway Park.
But on Tuesday night, the two historic rivals _ owners of baseball's best records _ were battling for first place.
And the Yankees got even with Kelly and the Red Sox.
Aaron Judge's tie-breaking RBI single off Kelly pushed the Yankees toward a 3-2 win before 45,773 revved-up fans, on hand for the three-game series opener.
Giancarlo Stanton hit two solo homers off Boston lefty starter Drew Pomeranz, while Yankees ace Luis Severino struck out 11 batters in a six-inning no-decision.
It was the third two-homer game for Stanton this season, and it helped draw the Yankees (25-10) even with the Red Sox (25-10) atop the AL East.
And for the first time since 1953, the Yankees have won 16 of their last 17 games.
Pinch-hitter Neil Walker's one-out double started the Yanks' rally in the seventh.
After Gleyber Torres and Brett Gardner walked, around a balk by reliever Heath Hembree, Kelly entered and gave up the go-ahead, line single to left by Judge.
Torres was thrown out at the plate by left fielder Andrew Benintendi, who had driven in the tying run in the Boston seventh.
"There's urgency with the day; we treat today like it's really important, up against a really good club in the division. But it's another game," Yankees manager Aaron Boone said before the game. "Whatever happens today, we turn the page and it's on to the next one tomorrow."
Around the Yankees, the general feeling has been that Stanton is always a swing or two away from locking into his A-swing _ the one that carried him to the 2017 NL MVP award with Miami.
"Look, anytime you have the ability that Giancarlo has, I feel like that's imminent (that) he will have that breakout week," Boone said before the game. "Whether that's now, whether that's tomorrow _ whatever _ it'll happen."
Despite the relatively slow start, particularly against right-handed pitching, "the one thing that I'm excited about is ... he's still gotten a lot of big hits for us, he's getting on base and he's been a part of us winning ballgames," Boone said.
"I think that's comforting, knowing that at some point he will find that good rhythm and eventually go off."
Leading off the second inning, Stanton rocketed one that took less than four seconds to land in the left-field seats, at 111.5 mph according to MLB Statcast.
And leading off the fourth, Stanton blasted one out to right field _ his ninth homer of the year _ for a 2-0 Yankees lead.
On the heels of his first complete game shutout on May 2, at Houston, Severino tossed four scoreless innings against the Red Sox.
And he was one strike away from avoiding trouble in the fifth.
But ex-Yankee Eduardo Nunez wound up scoring after reaching base on a strikeout-wild pitch to open the inning.
With two outs, Mookie Betts singled and Andrew Benintendi followed with an RBI single to center, fighting back from 0-and-2 to a full count.
Using his change-up to great effect, Severino fought back from down 3-and-0 to Hanley Ramirez (who weakly fouled off a 3-and-0 change-up), getting him to ground out and maintaining a 2-1 lead.
Severino faced one batter in the seventh, yielding and infield hit to Nunez.
The right-hander exited to a standing ovation, then watched from the dugout as that inherited runner scored.
After getting two quick outs, David Robertson gave up a game-tying RBI triple to Betts, who lashed a 2-and-2 breaking ball to left field _ beyond the diving attempt of Gardner.
Robertson struck out Benintendi, ending the inning. Chad Green tossed a scoreless eighth ahead of Aroldis Chapman's eighth save.
