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Red Sox 4, Yankees 2

David Ortiz blast in 8th beats Yankees

David Ortiz delivered a lightning bolt Friday in the form of a two-run homer in the eighth — then acknowledges a higher power for the help Friday night.Barry Chin/Globe Staff

David Ortiz joked in spring training that relief pitchers such as Dellin Betances of the Yankees were why he had decided to retire. At 6 feet 8 inches tall with a devastating fastball, Betances can make even the best hitters look silly.

Ortiz was hitless in seven career at-bats against Betances, striking out four times.

“He’s one of the pitchers in the game today who has the best stuff. He’s good, man,” Ortiz said.

On a cold Friday night at Fenway Park, Ortiz faced Betances in the eighth inning with an opportunity to change the game. The result left you wondering whether Big Papi should give retirement another thought.

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Ortiz hammered the first pitch he saw over the wall on left-center, his two-run homer lifting the Red Sox to a 4-2 victory in the first game against their rivals this season.

It was the fourth homer of the season for Ortiz, No. 507 for his career.

“He’s amazing,” Hanley Ramirez said.

In a 2-2 game, Betances allowed a one-out single to Xander Bogaerts before starting Ortiz with a curveball on the outside corner. He was waiting for it.

Betances threw Mookie Betts three curveballs in the seventh inning. Then in the eighth inning, five of his eight pitches to Dustin Pedroia and Bogaerts were breaking balls.

Ortiz was watching the whole time.

“Making up my mind,” he said.

When Ortiz came up, he kept his hands back, waited on the pitch and drove it the other way.

“It wasn’t a bad pitch. I just put a good swing on it,” he said.

The ball was hit on a line and the 40-year-old Ortiz ran hard out of box, expecting it to hit the wall. But it cleared with a few feet to spare.

“I was flying. I don’t trust that Green Monster,” Ortiz said.

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Betances did not regret throwing a curveball.

“I’ve done that a lot to lefties where I’m going for a first-pitch strike, trying to use that outside corner. He just had a great at-bat,” the righthander said.

“There’s nothing I could really do differently there unless I’m not trying to throw it for a strike, bury it, and hope he swings over it . . . I mean, for him to hit that ball the way he did, he’s been great his whole career. All I can do is tip my cap to him.”

Before Friday, Red Sox hitters were 5 for 46 (.109) against Betances and had struck out 26 times. He had allowed two earned runs over 22⅔ innings.

“That’s a rarity for Betances to leave his breaking ball up like he did,” Sox manager John Farrell said. “Once David saw it up, he attacked.”

Red Sox pitchers retired the last 13 Yankees in a row. Starter Henry Owens set down the final four batters he faced before Matt Barnes, Koji Uehara (1-1), and Craig Kimbrel (seventh save) each worked an inning to send last-place New York to its third straight loss.

The 13-10 Red Sox have won five of six. There were an unusual amount of empty seats for a Yankees game, although a sellout of 37,115 was announced. Those who stayed home surely regretted it.

“That was fun to watch,” said David Price, who faces the Yankees on Sunday night. “Good win for everybody in here.”

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Owens was fortunate to give up only two runs considering he put 10 runners on base over six innings and threw 49 of his 92 pitches for strikes.

Owens allowed six hits, walked three, hit a batter, and struck out three. He also threw a wild pitch and featured a fastball that hit 90 miles per hour twice all night.

It was a vast improvement over his erratic outing against the Astros in Houston on Sunday, but still worrisome given the lack of velocity.

Owens threw Alex Rodriguez an 87-m.p.h. fastball that was up and over the outside corner in the second inning. Rodriguez extended his arms and sent the ball crashing into the Monster Seats in left-center for his fourth home run.

Brett Gardner added an RBI single in the fifth inning.

“I just wanted to finish strong and keep the momentum on our side,” Owens said.

The Red Sox did little with Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka for much of the night. Down 2-0 in the seventh inning, they came back.

Travis Shaw and Brock Holt had singles with one out. Tanaka struck out Ryan Hanigan for the third time, but could not get Jackie Bradley Jr.

Tanaka started Bradley with a splitter off the outside corner and he went the other way with it, driving the ball off the wall in left for a two-run double.

Holt got a good break off first with two outs and scored easily.

“Outstanding base-running to tie it up,” Farrell said.

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And then Ortiz broke the tie an inning later.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, Ortiz and Rodriguez are the only players age 40 or older to homer for different teams in the same game. The records date to 1913.

“If you told me 10 years ago that Big Papi and I would be hitting home runs at 40, I would have laughed,” Rodriguez said.

Ortiz said he was looking forward to watching these games from the stands next season. Or is he?

“If I get bored I’ll just call up the Red Sox and tell them to activate me again,” he said.

Ortiz was joking. Pretty sure.


Peter Abraham can be reached at pabraham@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @PeteAbe.