Another August sweep of the Boston Red Sox put the Yankees in prime position for a September playoff run.

Chien-Ming Wang took a no-hit bid into the seventh inning, Robinson Cano homered twice off Curt Schilling and the Yankees beat Boston 5–0 yesterday for their third straight win over the Red Sox.

Wang and a pair of rookie relievers combined on a two-hitter in a game that included two ejections. Derek Jeter went 4-for-4.

Boston manager Terry Francona — already miffed at the commissioner’s office for sending a security official into his dugout a night earlier to check whether he was wearing his uniform shirt — got hot again, and this time it had nothing to do with the style police. Francona was ejected in the seventh inning after umpires reversed a call and ruled Kevin Youkilis out for running out of the basepaths to elude a tag by third baseman Alex Rodriguez on J.D. Drew’s sharp grounder. Boston trailed 2–0 at the time, and the decision gave the Yankees a key double play. The Red Sox never recovered.

Last year, the Yankees swept a five-game series at Boston from August 18–21, opening a 6 1/2-game lead and taking control of the division race.

With this sweep, the Yankees closed within five games of the AL East leaders and put themselves in position to possibly end the day in the wild-card lead. New York, which began the day one percentage point behind the Seattle Mariners, had not finished a day in playoff position since April 10, when the Yankees were 4–3.

Seattle had lost five straight entering a 10-day trip that began with a makeup game in Cleveland yesterday.

A day after Roger Clemens took a no-hit bid into the sixth inning, Wang (16–6) did the Rocket an inning better.

The right-hander tied for the major league leads in wins, improving to 13–2 since June 1 when he beat Boston to start his run.

With the sellout crowd of 55,067 starting to sense a special day was possible, Youkilis reached leading off the seventh when he grounded to shortstop Jeter, whose throw pulled first baseman Jason Giambi off the bag for an error. Jeter’s throw was to the plate side, and Youkilis slid under Giambi’s tag, prompting Yankees manager Joe Torre to come out and discuss the call with first-base umpire Ted Barrett.

Mike Lowell followed by grounding a clean single to right, putting runners on first and second and bringing up Drew, who hit the grounder to A-Rod. Replays showed Youkilis went onto the infield grass to avoid the tag by Rodriguez, who then threw to first for a double play.

With the call reversed, Boston was left with a runner at second base and two outs, rather than runners at second and third with one out. Wang then struck out Jason Varitek.

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Chase Utley hit an RBI single off Billy Wagner in the ninth inning and the Philadelphia Phillies completed a huge sweep of the first-place Mets by rallying for an 11–10 victory yesterday in one of the wildest games of the season.

By winning four straight against the Mets, Philadelphia moved within two games of the NL East leaders and suddenly set up an exciting September pennant race.

Mets nemesis Pat Burrell homered twice. Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand also connected for the Phillies, who wasted leads of 5–0 and 8–5 before falling behind 10-8 in the eighth. That’s when the Mets called on the struggling Wagner, who hadn’t pitched since last Friday after experiencing a tired arm.

Looking for a six-out save, Wagner (2-2) gave up Burrell’s solo shot in the eighth and immediately ran into trouble in the ninth.

Jayson Werth hit a leadoff single, then stole second and third on consecutive pitches with one out. Pinch-hitter Tadahito Iguchi’s single to left tied it at 10.

Jimmy Rollins was intentionally walked after Iguchi stole second, bringing up Utley, who entered the game leading the NL in batting average. The All-Star second baseman, playing his third game after missing a month with a broken hand, worked a full count before lining a single to right field to score Iguchi and send the crowd into a frenzy.

Fans chanted “Sweep! Sweep! Sweep!” as they left the ballpark following a game that lasted exactly 4 hours, New York’s longest nine-inning game this season. One man held a broom he sneaked in. It was Philadelphia’s first four-game sweep over any team since doing it against the Mets in September 2003 at the old Veterans Stadium. The Phillies have sliced five games off New York’s lead with five straight wins while the Mets have lost five in a row. Philadelphia will be two games behind the loser of the Arizona–San Diego game in the wild-card standings. Wagner has blown his last two save opportunities and is 29-of-33 this year with two blown saves against Philadelphia. The All-Star closer left the Phillies to sign with New York before last season.

Tom Gordon (2–2) pitched a scoreless inning for the win after the Mets scored five times off the trio of J.C. Romero, Antonio Alfonseca and Jose Mesa in the eighth to take a 10–8 lead.