Major League Baseball
BOXSCORE | RECAP
NY Yankees 14, Boston 2
When: 7:05 PM ET, Wednesday, October 3, 2012
Where: Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York
Temperature: 69°
Umpires: Home - CB Bucknor, 1B - Dale Scott, 2B - Dan Iassogna, 3B - Bill Miller
Attendance: 47393
Yankees 14, Red Sox 2: Robinson Cano homered twice and drove in six runs as host New York clinched the American League East and the top seed in the AL playoffs by routing rival Boston.

Curtis Granderson added a pair of home runs to finish one off the league lead with 43, and Hiroki Kuroda (16-11) pitched seven strong innings for the Yankees, who finished two games ahead of the Baltimore Orioles in the East and one game ahead of the AL West champion Oakland Athletics. New York will open the playoffs on Sunday at the wild-card winner.

Daisuke Matsuzaka (1-7) lasted just 2 1/3 innings and was charged with five runs for the Red Sox (69-93), who finished with their worst record since 1965.

The Red Sox held a 1-0 lead after the first inning but the Yankees quickly responded on Granderson’s towering three-run homer in the second. Cano ended Matsuzaka’s night with a two-run blast in the third and connected again in the fifth, sending a drive into the second deck in right for his 33rd homer.

Cano added a two-run single in the sixth and finished 4-for-4 with a walk and three-runs scored. The All-Star second baseman heads into the postseason on a roll with nine straight multi-hit games and is batting .615 (24-for-39) during that span.

GAME NOTEBOOK: The Yankees will play either the Baltimore Orioles or Texas Rangers, who will meet in the wild-card game on Friday. … New York 1B Mark Teixeira went 0-for-3 and is 1-for-12 since returning to the lineup on Monday. … Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine will reportedly be fired before the weekend after one season.
Top Game Performances
Starting Pitchers
Boston   NY Yankees
Daisuke Matsuzaka Player Hiroki Kuroda
Loss W/L Win
2.1 IP 7.0
2 Strikeouts 4
6 Hits 7
19.29 ERA 2.57
Hitting
Boston   NY Yankees
Pedro Ciriaco Player Robinson Cano
2 Hits 4
0 RBI 6
0 HR 2
3 TB 10
.667 Avg 1.000
Team Stats Summary
 
Team Hits HR TB Avg LOB K RBI BB SB Errors
Boston 8 0 11 .242 13 9 2 2 1 0
NY Yankees 15 4 30 .405 20 5 14 7 1 0