Contreras, Gray lead Red Sox to complete road victory over Yankees

The Red Sox entered Friday night's game in rough shape, after slogging through a tumultuous week at Fenway Park.

They likely sought a hot start in Yankee Stadium to wash away some of that funk. But they didn't get it.

A six-pitch top of the first set the stage for a Ben Rice solo homer in the bottom of the first, with the Yankees' home run leader sending the fifth pitch of Sonny Gray's night deep into the right field bleachers.

Considering the way that bad news and worse vibes seemed to have been snowballing all week, anyone tuning in on Friday night could have been forgiven for immediately tuning out.

But then, the strangest thing happened.

The Red Sox ... played like a solid baseball team.

The usual (good pitching, solid defense) was complemented by timely hitting, a couple of big bops, and a few strokes of good luck, resulting in a 5-3 win over the Yankees.

The win only improved the Red Sox to 27-35 but provided at least a brief respite from the week that was.

That's the big picture. Here are the three takeaways from the win.

• Monasterio, Contreras combine for game-changing sequence

Andruw Monasterio, who blasted a solo shot to left in the top of the fourth inning, closed out the bottom of the fourth with a dandy of a double play.

After Spencer Jones singled in Jazz Chisholm to cut the Red Sox' lead to 3-2, Monasterio caught a liner up the middle off the bat of Anthony Volpe and then made a glove-first dive to narrowly beat Jones back to the bag at second.

With the Red Sox holding a 3-2 lead, they seemed to be in line to be retired in order in the top of the fifth. But a particularly lazy effort from Chisholm on a two-out grounder from Wilyer Abreu ... 

... gifted the Red Sox an opportunity. And Willson Contreras capitalized.

Contreras demolished a 1-1 changeup that Ryan Weathers left out over the plate, sending it 419 feet out to left field in a hurry.

The Red Sox were in a little trouble in the bottom of the fourth, with the tying run on second and one out. But the rally-killing double play was followed by a very timely home run by Contreras, thus giving the Red Sox some badly needed breathing room.

• Sonny Gray headlines effective pitching night

Sonny Gray was devastatingly efficient in what ended up being tied for his longest outing of the year, as he needed just 79 pitches to record 19 outs in the Bronx. 

Ryan McMahon laced a leadoff single in the seventh inning before Gray struck out Austin Wells, but interim manager Chad Tracy opted to go to the bullpen -- in the form of Danny Coulombe -- as the Yankees' lineup turned over. Gray looked like he could have gone longer, but Tracy didn't want to chance it.

After allowing three runs, Gray's ERA actually climbed from 3.06 to 3.20, but he improved to 7-1 in his 11 starts this season.

Coulombe pitched around a two-out error by Contreras ...

before Justin Slaten needed just five pitches to retire the Yankees in the eighth.

Aroldis Chapman showed some expected rust while pitching for just the third time since May 20, as he walked leadoff man Max Schuemann on four pitches before issuing another four-pitch walk to Amed Rosario with one out in the ninth. Chapman recovered to induce a shallow pop to right and a grounder to first to end the game to lock down his 13th save of the season. The three bullpen arms combined to allow no hits in 2.2 innings of work.

• Red Sox brass taking new approach with Brayan Bello

Along with Isiah Kiner-Filefa's eyebrow-raising comments about the clubhouse culture at Fenway Park, Brayan Bello's on-field and postgame meltdown was among the major lowlights of the week for Boston. The team, of course, opted to send the pitcher down to Triple-A Worcester, and chief baseball officer Craig Breslow explained that the team is giving Bello an outside-the-box instruction on how to rediscover his abilities as a starter.

To be frank, pitching in Worcester might not make Bello fall in love with baseball. Polar Park is lovely and all, but when Bello signed a six-year, $55 million deal with the Red Sox, it wasn't to pitch against Scranton.

Nevertheless, his issues starting games this year have left the organization with no answers. So it's time to ask the 27-year-old to fall in love.