NEW YORK _ During spring training, Alex Rodriguez took one look at what the Yankees' regular-season lineup might accomplish and made a prediction.
"It has an opportunity to be record-breaking and put up numbers we have not seen in a really long time," A-Rod said on March 19 in Tampa.
With their former slugger and occasional team adviser looking on in his role as an ESPN analyst Sunday night, the Yankees continued to build on a historic first-half offensive resume.
Aaron Hicks hit three of their six home runs and Luis Severino pitched 6 2/3 scoreless innings as the Yankees coasted to an 11-1 victory over the Red Sox in front of a sellout crowd of 46,795 at the Stadium.
A night after being outhit 17-2 in an 11-0 loss, the Yankees outhit the Red Sox 16-4. Aaron Judge (No. 22), Gleyber Torres (No. 15) and Kyle Higashioka (first major-league hit) also hit home runs, with five of the six coming off David Price.
After taking two of the three games in the series, the Yankees (54-27) pulled into a virtual tie atop the AL East with the Red Sox (56-29) and set a franchise record by hitting their 137th homer before the All-Star break. The previous record was the 134 they hit in the 2002 and 2012 seasons.
Hicks' three-homer night was the first by a Yankee since ... A-Rod, of course, who did it July 25, 2015, in Minnesota.
Severino, coming off seven shutout innings last Tuesday in Philadelphia, allowed two hits and three walks. He is 13-2 with a 1.98 ERA, the lowest among American League starters, and a 0.95 WHIP. In Severino's last 15 starts, he is 11-1 with a 1.70 ERA.
Judge, who had three hits, homered in the first, an inning in which Torres added a three-run blast that made it 4-0 and showed Price that it again was not going to be his night against the Yankees.
The left-hander entered the night 9-5 with a 3.66 ERA this season, but the numbers that matter were these: 15-12 with a 4.67 ERA against the Yankees, including 2-5 with a 7.42 ERA in eight previous starts against them while wearing a Boston uniform.
Price added to those ignominious numbers, allowing eight runs and nine hits, including five homers, in 3 1/3 innings.
After Severino walked one and struck out two in a 15-pitch first, the Yankees went to work on Price.
After Hicks grounded out, Judge ripped a 2-and-2 fastball, which came in 94-mph and a little high, into the netting overhanging Monument Park.
Giancarlo Stanton (two hits) then continued to terrorize lefty pitching, smoking a single to left, which improved the slugger to 29-for-82 against lefties this season. Didi Gregorius followed with a laser over the head of Mookie Betts for a double.
Torres, batting fifth, then jumped on a first-pitch fastball and sent it to right-center, giving Severino a four-run lead.
Severino provided a shutdown inning, needing 14 pitches to set the Red Sox down in order.
Hicks' two-run bomb made it 6-0 in the bottom of the second and Severino faced his first, and only, jam in the third.
Mookie Betts worked a two-out walk and Andrew Benintendi lined a single to left, Boston's first hit of the night, which put runners at the corners. Benintendi stole second, giving the Red Sox two runners in scoring position, but Severino struck out J.D. Martinez swinging at a full-count changeup, a pitch he said he abandoned in his previous start against the Phillies but had a better feel for Sunday.
