BOSTON — CC Sabathia might never duplicate the incredible stretch he had late last summer, when he ultimately carried Milwaukee to the playoffs with 11 wins and a 1.65 ERA.

Naturally, no one will let him forget it.
But even with a new team, in a different league, the residue of that amazing run still is present. Just look at his current 10-0 record over the past two Augusts.
Sabathia lasted 62/3 innings Sunday night, and he benefited from five Yankees’ home runs off Boston ace Josh Beckett to score an 8-4 victory over the Red Sox at Fenway Park.
“(Beckett) is a great pitcher but this (Yankee) lineup is a tough lineup to face,” Sabathia said.
The win concluded a more-than-satisfying 7-3 road trip — with series wins against Seattle, Oakland and second-place Boston — to keep the Yankees a commanding 7› games in front in the AL East.
Sabathia (15-7) has won all five of his starts this August, after going 5-0 in six starts last August for the Brewers. Over his career in August, Sabathia is a stunning 33-9.
In their final regular-season appearance at Fenway, the Yankees (78-46) instantly jumped on Beckett as Derek Jeter drilled the game’s first pitch over the right field fence. It was Jeter’s 2,700th career hit.
“When you fall behind, that’s when you get in trouble (against Beckett), so you want to be aggressive,” Jeter said.
Leading off the second, Hideki Matsui also homered on Beckett’s first pitch. And Matsui’s eighth-inning blast gave him three multi-homer games on this trip, two of them at Boston. All of this came despite the two days Matsui missed early in the trip while getting his knee drained.
“I knew in my heart that I couldn’t use my knees as an excuse,” Matsui’s interpreter said. “I had to prove I could still produce.”
The Red Sox tied the game at 2 in the second, on RBI hits by Rocco Baldelli and Jason Varitek, but the Yanks went ahead for good in the third, after an RBI double by Mark Teixeira and an RBI groundout by Alex Rodriguez.
Robinson Cano’s solo homer in the fourth was his 19th of the year, matching his big-league high from 2007. A-Rod’s two-run shot made it 7-3 in the fifth, his first homer since Aug. 9 off Boston’s Jon Lester.
Beckett (14-5) lasted eight innings, giving up eight earned runs on nine hits. Paired with catcher Jose Molina, Sabathia gave up three earned runs on eight hits, with no walks and eight strikeouts.
“I was just being aggressive with my fastball and my two-seamer,” Sabathia said.
Cano’s second error of the game, on a blown pop-up, led to Boston’s unearned run in the fourth, cutting the lead to 5-3.
“It’s been a strange year, our club versus their club,” manager Joe Girardi said. “There’s been a lot of wild things that have happened.”
Now, if Molina should catch A.J. Burnett’s next start Thursday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, don’t read anything into it.
“I have not given anyone a personal catcher here,” said Girardi, who had no plans to alter that practice in light of Saturday’s 14-1 loss to Boston.
After being tagged for a career-high nine earned runs in five innings, Burnett and catcher Jorge Posada admitted to being off-page on pitch selection. Though Girardi classified Saturday as “a struggle,” he didn’t believe it was symptomatic of a bigger problem.
“People are making this a bigger story than it needs to be,” Girardi said. “I don’t really know if I have any concerns about (the situation).”
All parties acknowledged having certain levels of frustration as the Red Sox hammered Burnett for nine hits — three of them homers — with two walks in 97 pitches.
Burnett felt he had an exceptional curveball, and wanted to throw it more often, while Posada wanted to mix in other pitches to keep the Red Sox guessing. Later, Posada said that he “didn’t think” he was in sync with Burnett.
“It’s frustrating, because obviously he wants to throw a certain pitch and I want to throw another one,” Posada said. “When they’re hitting like that, it’s tough to get on the same page, too.”
As he did after allowing a run-scoring balk in Oakland with Posada as his catcher, Burnett said that Saturday’s responsibility rested on his own shoulders. “We throw the ball,” Burnett said after the game. “(The catcher) is there to aid.”
However, Burnett complained that he “didn’t have a lot of conviction” in his pitches Saturday. “I threw a lot of balls that I didn’t want to throw.”
That’s a troubling concept, since Girardi believes that the most essential part of pitching is throwing each pitch with conviction. The manager said he discussed that theme during a pitchers’ meeting in April.
“I’ll probably have that meeting again,” Girardi said.