Yankees find their Fenway mojo

Things have certainly turned around for the Yankees and their performance at Fenway Park over the weekend essentially locked up their first American League East title since 2006.

The Yankees beat the Red Sox, 8-4, Sunday to take two-of-three in the weekend showdown, finish their road trip 7-3 and extend their lead to 7 1/2 games with only 39 games remaining for Boston.

Yankee captain Derek Jeter told everyone who would listen on Friday, when he was also responding to criticism from Jim Rice, that the Yankees have a short memory and their 0-6 mark at Fenway to start this season meant nothing now.

Over the weekend, the Yankees went out and proved Jeter’s point.

“We’re not worried about what happened here a month ago,” Jeter said. “We feel as though we’re playing a lot better than we did early in the year. You have to be able to forget about it and have a short memory, just like I said when we came in here. We’re not thinking about the first couple of series here.”

From the very beginning Sunday night, the Yankees proved a point - they are the better team than the Red Sox right now.

Jeter opened the game by blasting a first pitch fastball from Josh Beckett over the fence in right field for career hit No. 2,700 and the Yankees were off to the races.

“We’re happy with it,” Jeter said. “If we pitch and hit like we’ve been doing, then we feel like we’re capable of beating anybody. It’s not always going to happen but it was a good trip.”

With his team having won its 10th series in 11 following the All-Star break, Jeter sounded just as calm and measured as ever afterward, telling everyone that the Yankees have to continue their blazing hot summer when they return home on Tuesday night against Texas.

“It’s important regardless of where we’re playing, it’s like it’s important now to go home and play well,” Jeter said. “We need to continue to win games and if we do that, at the end of the year, we’ll be where we want to be.”

Yankee manager Joe Girardi could breathe a sigh of relief on Sunday night as his team finished its final Fenway test of the regular season.

“It’s better,” Girardi said. “We had a great road trip, 7-3, you go out West, you get in here Thursday morning at 8:30 and then to win two-out-of-three where we were 0-6 here and had not played well and got hammered in the middle game, I thought it was a big win.

“This is a real tough place to play and to win two out of three, that’s a very good job by our guys. We were 0-8 before this all started and to be able to win six out of seven is really good.”

The good vibes for New York were apparent to everyone, including the Red Sox, many of whom couldn’t help but concede that the they are the better team now.

“They just beat us,” Red Sox outfielder Jason Bay said. “Early on, we were the better team when we played them and right now they’re the better team. That’s really just the way it goes. Over the course of a season, it’s not always the best team winning. It’s the better team at the time. And right now, they’re definitely better than we are.”

Sox skipper Terry Francona said he isn’t concerned about his team’s psyche right now, even with the division likely out of the picture before September begins.

The Red Sox now lead the Texas Rangers by one game in the wild card race, with Tampa Bay three games back.

“We’re okay,” Francona said of his team, which begins a four-game series with the White Sox tonight. “We don’t need to reassess our team or anything like that. We know it’s a late night tonight. The White Sox are already sitting there waiting but we’re okay. We just need to come out and play. Our guys do a good job of that.”