BOSTON — Giancarlo Stanton called the Yankees’ win over the Red Sox on Friday night “a great first punch to the series.”
Stanton delivered the second blow Saturday, with a mammoth go-ahead grand slam in the eighth inning that sent the Yankees to a 5-3 victory at Fenway Park.
The win was the Yankees’ fifth straight and moved them into a tie with Boston for the top AL wild-card spot.
They’ll go for the sweep on Sunday to start this critical road trip against the Red Sox and Blue Jays.
“We love it right now,’’ manager Aaron Boone said. “[Sunday] becomes really important. Whether we win all these games, you’ve just got to live in the moment. I think our guys love being in this environment with a lot on the line. We’re gonna give you our best shot. It’s fun to be a part of.”
Especially when Stanton comes up with some a victory on the line.
After Boston right-hander Tanner Houck pitched around a pair of leadoff walks in the seventh and didn’t allow a run, he struck out Rougned Odor and Gio Urshela to start the eighth.
Brett Gardner worked out of a 1-2 count to draw a walk, then stole second with Aaron Judge at the plate.
Judge walked and Houck — who walked four in just 1 ²/₃ innings — was replaced by left-hander Darwinzon Hernandez to face the lefty-swinging Anthony Rizzo, whom the Yankees stuck with rather than going to righty-hitting Luke Voit.
Stanton said he had one thought in the on-deck circle: “They better get Rizzo out, because I’d obviously rather face a lefty over a righty anytime.”
Hernandez hit Rizzo with a 3-1 pitch to load the bases and Stanton hammered the first pitch he saw. It was a towering homer over the Green Monster in left that measured at an estimated 452 feet, silencing much of the sold-out crowd of 36,103.
“In this atmosphere, in this environment, just to take the air out of the building with one of those,’’ Boone said. “It was huge.”
The Yankees trailed 2-0 through five after the offense sputtered for much of the game against right-hander Nick Pivetta. But the Yankees scratched out a run in the sixth before Stanton turned the game around in the eighth.
Luis Severino, in his second appearance out of the bullpen since his return from Tommy John surgery, pitched two more scoreless innings, the seventh and eighth.
In the ninth, Aroldis Chapman gave up a one-out solo homer to Bobby Dalbec to cut the Yankees’ lead to two. He drilled Kevin Plawecki with a pitch and struck out Jose Iglesias before Kiké Hernandez grounded out to end it.
Yankees starter Nestor Cortes didn’t allow a baserunner until former Met Plawecki blasted a solo homer to give Boston a 1-0 lead in the third.
The Yankees got just a leadoff single from Stanton in the second off Pivetta, who retired 13 in a row after Stanton’s hit, before a Gio Urshela liner just got by Xander Bogaerts at shortstop and into left field with one out in the sixth.
Judge made a terrific play on a shot by Dalbec to prevent at least an extra-base hit — and perhaps a two-run homer — in the fifth.
The Yankees got their first run in the sixth when a Hansel Robles wild pitch scored Urshela from third. Judge then grounded to third and Gardner, trying to score though the infield was in, was thrown out at the plate thanks to a strong throw by Rafael Devers.
Stanton’s late-game heroics nullified the offense’s slow start and put the Yankees in a position to overtake the Red Sox for first place in the wild-card chase on Sunday.
“Given what’s at stake — and we all know what is — we’re in a better situation than [Friday] and the day before,’’ Stanton said. “Our job is to get out of this city in even a better situation [Sunday].”