Boston Red Sox's Kyle Schwarber celebrates his solo homer in front of New York Yankees catcher Kyle Higashioka in the third inning of an American League Wild Card playoff baseball game against the New York Yankees at Fenway Park, Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2021, in Boston. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

BOSTON (AP) — Xander Bogaerts and Kyle Schwarber homered off Yankees ace Gerrit Cole, and Nathan Eovaldi took a shutout into the sixth inning to help the Boston Red Sox beat New York 6-2 Tuesday night in the AL wild-card game.

Bogaerts also made a perfect relay to throw out Aaron Judge at the plate when the game was still close, sending the Red Sox into the AL Division Series against the Tampa Bay Rays. Game 1 in the best-of-five matchup is Thursday night in St. Petersburg, Florida.

With Bucky Dent in the crowd and Aaron Boone in the Yankees dugout, Boston chased Cole in the third inning and beat New York in the playoffs for the third straight time. The Yankees, who lead the majors with 27 World Series championships, have not won it all since 2009.

A year after baseball took its postseason into neutral site bubbles to protect against the pandemic, a sellout crowd of 38,324 — the biggest of the year — filled Fenway Park to rekindle one of the sport’s most passionate rivalries. Enough Yankee fans were among them to fuel a raucous back-and-forth of insulting chants.