NEW YORK — If the Red Sox and Yankees are tied in the standings after 162 games, Friday’s win — and Boston’s overall dominance over New York this season — will loom large.

The Red Sox clinched the season series against their archrivals in runaway fashion, improving to 7-1 in the first eight of 13 matchups between the teams this year. Brayan Bello, as he often does, dominated New York’s lineup, holding the Yanks to three hits over seven shutout innings. The offensive hero was a more unlikely character, with light-hitting part-time catcher Connor Wong delivering the big hit in a 1-0 win, Boston’s seventh in a row over the Yanks.

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Bello and Yankees ace Max Fried dueled through six innings but Boston was finally able to break through in the seventh when Wong, who had just five RBIs all season entering Friday, laced an RBI double that plated the only run of the ballgame. For Wong, who was shaken up earlier in the game when a foul ball wen under his mask and him in the neck, the moment was his biggest at the plate all season.

“He’s a good offensive player,“ said manager Alex Cora. ”He was hitting the ball hard before the injury. He got injured. Carlos did his thing and he became a backup. He’s been a pro the whole time. Working hard on his defense. Offensively, too. Playing once a week but lately he has been playing a lot and you can see the results.”

Wong’s opportunity was set up by another clutch piece of hitting by Nathaniel Lowe, who has delivered in a few big moments in his first week with the Red Sox. With the Yankees going to a right-handed reliever, Lowe pinch-hit for Nate Eaton to lead off the seventh and, for the second straight night, pulled a double. In four games since signing with Boston, Lowe is 3-for-10 with two doubles, a homer, four RBIs and three runs scored.

“I was telling Bres (Craig Breslow) that his WAR went up the last few days,” said Cora. “We joke about stuff like that here. We saw an opportunity to improve that position and so far, so good.”

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Lowe, who had a down season with a Nationals team that improved to 53-75 with a win Friday, is familiar with big games after winning a World Series with the Rangers two years ago.

“I would call it refreshing because it’s right there, right in front of us every night,” he said. “We need to win. It’s not pressure to win. It’s just that we expect to win. So it’s a lot of fun.”

The Red Sox once again passed the Yankees with the win, sneaking a half-game above them and improving to 4-1 at Yankee Stadium so far this year in the process. Currently, it’s Boston that has possession of the top wild card in the American League over the Yankees and Mariners (who are 1.5 games back). The Red Sox are four games clear of the Royals and five clear of Cleveland.

Boston clinched at least a split of the four-game series with the Yankees this weekend and will have two shots to win it with ace Garrett Crochet and newcomer Dustin May on the mound over the weekend. In play for the Red Sox is their best season series performance against the Yankees since 2013, when Boston went 13-6 and then won the World Series.

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“We’ve played well. That’s it. We’ve been in this situation before,” said Cora. “There’s certain years we win seven in a row and then they beat us seven in a row. It’s two good teams playing for a spot in the playoffs. At this stage, that was fun.”

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