Yankees pound Red Sox early, hold off late comeback to land first punch with rivalry win

A rivalry that has featured its fair share of fisticuffs over the years has been relatively peaceful of late, and remained that way in its first iteration of the season.

The only punches thrown in The Bronx on Friday came from the Yankees’ bats, and they did not waste any time landing them.

The Yankees pounded Walker Buehler for seven runs in the first two innings and then hung on late to sink the Red Sox further into misery with a 9-6 win in front of a sellout crowd of 46,783 at the Stadium.

Jazz Chisholm Jr. led the offensive attack, continuing his tear since coming off the injured list Tuesday by going 3-for-5 with two steals and a three-run homer, which started the scoring in the first inning.

Aaron Judge added another ho-hum three-hit game to raise his average to .397 while Anthony Volpe and Paul Goldschmidt each clubbed home runs.

In the process, the Yankees (39-23) climbed to a season-high 16 games above .500 and continued to build distance between them and the fourth-place Red Sox (30-35), who have lost nine of their last 12.

The only real concern of the night for the Yankees (39-23) was Volpe leaving the game after three innings with a left elbow contusion that required X-rays and a CT scan.

The injury stemmed from taking Walker Buehler’s 89 mph changeup to the elbow in the bottom of the second inning, which forced in a run with the bases loaded to make it 7-0.