The Boston Red Sox Thursday, September 20, 2018 * The Boston Globe David Price cannot shake his problems with the Yankees Peter Abraham NEW YORK — It’s inevitable the Red Sox will wrap up the American League East before too long. They have pushed through mini-slumps all season long and will again. But it was clear early on Wednesday night there would be no celebration with David Price on the mound at Yankee Stadium. Price has been one of the best starters in baseball since the All-Star break, efficient, powerful, and confident. But he cannot shake his problems with the Yankees, who beat the Red Sox, 10-1, before a crowd of 43,297. Price allowed six runs, four earned, on five hits over 5⅓ innings with four walks and only two strikeouts. The Yankees took advantaged of the HO scale right field at their ballpark to hit three home runs, two by backup first baseman Luke Voit. The longest was only 343 feet but they counted just as much as the short fly balls to left field that often result in home runs at Fenway Park. “Any time you give up a home run it’s frustrating,” Price said. “But everybody’s playing in the same park. It’s not like the fences move back when we hit or move forward when they hit. It’s part of it.” To Price’s point: The Sox have scored three runs in the first two games of the series, not hit a home run, and are 2 for 15 with runners in scoring position. The highest-scoring team in the majors has gone cold. The 103-49 Sox have scored 17 runs in their last seven games, hitting .216 with three home runs. “There’s a few guys struggling, we know,” manager Alex Cora said. “We’ve faced some good pitching, too, lately. It’s a combination of both. I do think that sometimes we’re getting too passive at the plate.” Since joining the Red Sox, Price is 2-7 with a 7.71 earned run average in 11 starts against the Yankees. In six starts at Yankees Stadium while a member of the Sox, Price is 0-6 with a 9.79 ERA, allowing 13 homers over 30⅓ innings. Price has faced the Yankees four times this season and been charged with 18 earned runs on 21 hits — nine of them home runs — over 15⅔ innings. “I expect to go out there and be great every fifth day. It doesn’t matter who I’m pitching against or the ballpark I’m pitching in,” Price said. “It just hasn’t been the case here in Yankee Stadium the past year or two. But I’ll get over it.” If the Red Sox face the Yankees in the Division Series, it’s a legitimate question whether Price (15-7) should be in the rotation. But Cora said Chris Sale and Price would be his first two starters in the Division Series regardless of opponent. “It’s not going to change my mind,” he said. Miguel Andujar homered with one out in the second inning, flicking a high fastball over the fence in right. Gary Sanchez walked and Voit singled. With two outs, Aaron Judge grounded to third base and the ball went between the legs of Eduardo Nunez, allowing two runs to score. Nunez was playing third base for the first time since last Thursday. He missed three games with a sore right knee and was the designated hitter on Tuesday. Nunez left the game in the ninth inning when his knee became sore again. He will not play tomorrow but Cora said the injury is not serious. Given what is now a yearlong history of issues with Nunez’s knee, third base remains a weakness. Voit hit the first of his home runs in the fourth inning. Sanchez walked again in the sixth inning and Voit followed with another home run. He has nine homers in 29 games with the Yankees. Sanchez was 6 of 12 with five home runs against Price in his career and the strategy was to pitch carefully to him. Voit foiled that. Joe Kelly followed Price to the mound and was hit hard, giving up singles to Andrew McCutchen and Judge before Aaron Hicks ripped a two-run triple to right field. Kelly has allowed seven runs on 10 hits in his last 4⅔ innings. Luis Severino, ostensibly the ace of the Yankees, came into the game 4-6 with a 6.35 ERA in 10 starts since the All-Star break. He allowed one run on six hits over seven innings with one walk and six strikeouts. Severino (18-8) walked Mookie Betts leading off the game before J.D. Martinez singled with one out and Betts raced to third. The Sox were set up for a big inning. But Xander Bogaerts, a .350 hitter with runners in scoring position, popped up to shortstop. Mitch Moreland then grounded back to the pitcher. The Sox did not advance another into scoring position until Nunez doubled to left field leading off the fifth inning. Nunez scored when Sandy Leon singled to right field. The hit snapped an 0-for-30 skid dating back to Aug. 23 for Leon. It was his first run batted in since Aug. 14. The Sox were not inspired as Severino retired the side from there. The leadoff hitter reached four times against Severino and scored once. Those champagne bottles are going to get dusty at this rate. The Sox now send Eduardo Rodriguez to the mound against Masahiro Tanaka on Thursday. Don’t look now, but the Yankees seem to be peaking at the right time Nick Cafardo NEW YORK — Don’t look now, but the Yankees may be getting their act together just in time for the playoffs. “It’s nice to get a couple of wins, because we’ve been so up and down the last couple of weeks, where it feels like maybe this game will get us to get going and then we fall back,” said Yankees manager Aaron Boone after Wednesday night’s 10-1 romp over the Red Sox. “You know when you play the Red Sox you have to be at your best because they can beat you in so many different ways. So to pull out a close one [Tuesday] night and pull away in this one, it definitely feels good. “You can feel the energy in the crowd and hopefully it’s something we can continue to build on and get it rolling as we get down to the end,” Boone said. While there’s no guarantee they’ll beat the slumping Oakland A’s in a one-game playoff for the American League wild card, if the Yankees prevail they will face the Red Sox in the Division Series. So be careful what you wish for. While New York’s back-to-back wins in the Bronx aren’t exactly a great sample of what’s to come should these teams meet in the postseason, the Yankees are getting healthy and confident. And that means Aaron Judge is back in the lineup, which seems to help everybody in the batting order. Slugger Luke Voit (4 for 4, 4 runs scored, 3 RBIs) blasted two opposite-field homers to the short porch in right field and created some excitement as the front office find of the year. Maybe those fly balls are can- of-corn outs at Fenway, but the games were played here at Yankee Stadium. Miguel Andujar smoked a homer, his 25th of the season, in the second inning off David Price that would have been gone anywhere. And so what we’re left with is the Red Sox still searching for that elusive divisional title that we thought they might have already wrapped up by now. Luis Severino, the 24-year-old Yankees ace who seemed to hit a wall , mixed up his pitches and threw more changeups, which made his 98-mile-per-hour fastball seem pretty electric. If Severino has found himself, then that spells trouble, because in any Game 1 scenario he is capable of shutting down the opposition. Severino was 3-6 with a 6.35 ERA in 10 starts since the All-Star break before Wednesday night’s start. Only Baltimore’s Dylan Bundy (7.13) and Andrew Cashner (6.71) have higher ERAs in that span. Severino lost in Minnesota last Wednesday despite allowing one run in 5⅔ innings on just 83 pitches in a 3-1 Yankees’ defeat. His average fastball velocity was 98.1 m.p.h. and was his highest single-game mark since June 26 (98.6). The Yankees have received very good pitching from J.A. Happ, a July 31 trade acquisition who has given a professional start every time out. And there’s Masahiro Tanaka, who is also capable of shutting anyone down when he’s on. Yankees starters have allowed two or fewer runs in 10 of their last 11 starts, going 5-3 with a 2.10 ERA. The Yankees bullpen has been strengthened now that closer Aroldis Chapman is back from left knee tendinitis, which kept him out for 25 games. Zach Britton and Dellin Betances are two tough set-up men, and veteran Dave Robertson is also solid. The one scary area for the Yanks is the defense. Catcher Gary Sanchez is a liability behind the plate, unable to block balls and often in the wrong glove position to stop balls from getting by him.