Austin Romine and Gio Urshela homered, James Paxton threw 6 2/3 shutout innings and the New York Yankees blanked the host Boston Red Sox 5-0 in the finale of a four-game series Monday.

Paxton (13-6) won his eighth straight start, giving up four hits and three walks and striking out seven. The victory was the Yankees' 14th in 19 meetings with the Red Sox this season, their most over Boston in a single year in the expansion era (since 1961).

New York won for the 12th time in its last 16 games, while Boston lost its third straight. The defeat officially eliminated the Red Sox from American League East division title contention.

The highlight of the night came before the game for Boston as beloved slugger David Ortiz threw out the first pitch in his first trip to Fenway Park since being shot in the Dominican Republic in June. Former teammate Jason Varitek caught the offering from Ortiz, and the local icon delivered a speech to fans thanking them for their support while he recovered.

Once the contest got underway, Eduardo Rodriguez matched zeroes with Paxton over the first four innings before Romine went yard with one out in the fifth to snap the scoreless tie. The blast was Romine's seventh of the season.

Rodriguez (17-6) lost for just the second time in his last 17 starts, with both coming against New York. He allowed one run on five hits and a walk over six innings with nine strikeouts.

Urshela, making his first start since being activated from the injured list (groin) Sunday, led off the seventh against Darwinzon Hernandez with his 19th homer, and the Yankees added two more in the inning on a DJ LeMahieu RBI single and Gleyber Torres sacrifice fly.

Luke Voit's RBI single in the ninth completed the scoring for New York.

Earlier Monday, the Red Sox announced they parted ways with president of baseball operations Dave Dombrowski. The team won the AL East from 2016-18 under his guide, including a 2018 World Series title, but is all but eliminated from the postseason this year.

-Field Level Media