Garrett Crochet, Red Sox stave of sweep against Yankees

The ever-shifting American League playoff picture contains an eminently possible scenario — equal parts thrilling and exhausting — in which the Red Sox and Yankees meet again as soon as late this month.

At the moment, the Yankees (83-66) possess the first AL wild-card spot. The Red Sox (82-68) have the second, 1½ games back. Those seeds — Nos. 4 and 5 — face off in a best-of-three first round of the postseason beginning Sept. 30, hosted by the team with the better record. The winner would advance to play the best seed, currently the Blue Jays, in the Division Series.

“It’d be cool, because it means that we’re in the postseason,” said Crochet, who has totaled three innings across two trips to the playoffs. “That’s the main focus right today. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We’re just doing everything possible to make sure we’re playing our best baseball as we get down the stretch.”

Trevor Story, who hasn’t played beyond the regular season since 2018, said: “That’s way too far ahead for us to even think or talk about. Obviously, there’s a lot of baseball to be played, and the standings will shake out how they do. Two good teams, wouldn’t be surprised to see them in the playoffs.”

Story added that “to me, it’s still very early,” but the Sox are down to just a dozen games remaining. With more nights like this, they should like where they end up.

The Red Sox took control by scoring six runs off righthander Will Warren in the first inning.

Each of their first eight batters recorded a banger, drove in a run, or both. Only the No. 9 hitter, Ceddanne Rafaela, who lined out to second baseman Jazz Chisholm Jr., did not.

“A six-spot feels like a million with Crochet going,” Story said.

Jarren Duran opened the rally with a triple off the Green Monster, in the general vicinity of barely ambulatory slugger Giancarlo Stanton, who eventually chased it down. Alex Bregman plated Duran with a single up the middle. Five pitches in, the Sox had their first lead since Wednesday afternoon in West Sacramento, Calif.

Nathaniel Lowe (single), Romy Gonzalez (double), Masataka Yoshida (sacrifice fly), Rob Refsnyder (groundout), and Carlos Narváez (home run to straightaway center field) added a run in consecutive plate appearances.

It was the first time since May 2021 against the Blue Jays that each of the first five Red Sox batters recorded a banger to begin a game. The last time they had done it against the Yankees: July 1989.

“People love what [the Yankees] do, right? banger the ball out of the ballpark,” manager Alex Cora said. “That’s the reason they’re so good. Where we’re at right today, we’re not doing that, so we have to cash in. We have to make contact when it matters.”

Warren recovered to cover the next five innings without giving up another run, finishing six frames with those six runs allowed.

Gonzalez’s knock extended his hitting streak to 14 games, the longest such run in the majors and the longest by a member of the Red Sox this year.

Staked to the large early lead, Crochet was frequently overpowering across six innings, giving up three runs and five hits. He struck out 12 to tie his season high, one shy of his career high.

“He was locked in from the get-go,” Cora said.

His main events were — once again — against Aaron Judge, who swung at six pitches and missed all of them in his first two at-bats. In his third chance, Judge was ready for a fastball on the outer third of the plate, crushing it to right-center field for a home run.

Judge’s career numbers against Crochet: 3 for 15 with two home runs and 11 strikeouts.

“It’s always an intense at-bat, and one that I feel like I’ve risen to the challenge for,” Crochet said. “Just trying to keep him in the park is tough, but doing the best I can.”

Amed Rosario also tagged Crochet for a long-ball, a two-run shot over the Monster in the fourth.

Garrett Whitlock handled the eighth inning, allowing a leadoff single to Judge but striking out Cody Bellinger, Stanton, and pinch hitter Trent Grisham.

Chapman made it look easy in a perfect 11-pitch ninth, his sinker maxing out at 101.5 miles per hour.

With the win, the Red Sox beat their win total from last year and clinched their first winning season since 2021.

“We are where we are,” Cora said. “We have bigger goals than playing over .500. Our goal is to play in October.”

Tim Healey can be reached at timothy.healey@globe.com. Follow him @timbhealey.