The Red Sox continued their early-season dominance against their chief AL East foe, battering the Yankees in an 11-6 victory that gave Boston sole possession of first place in the division. The Sox took a one-game lead in the division, largely on the strength of their performance against New York.

On the year, the Sox are 7-1 against the Yankees, and 28-25 against everyone else; the Yankees, meanwhile, are 32-19 against clubs who do not hail from Boton. The Sox have won six in a row against the Yankees, including five straight in New York. It is the first time in 99 years that the Sox have won five straight games against the Yankees (or their earlier incarnation, the Highlanders) in New York to open a season since 1912.

WHAT WENT RIGHT FOR THE RED SOX (OR, NEARLY EVERYTHING THAT HAPPENED IN THE GAME)

–Wakefield wasn’t supposed to start against the Yankees this series, but the balky back of Clay Buchholz resulted in the 44-year-old claiming the start. And he was masterful through the first four innings of the game, allowing just one run on three hits, before seemingly tiring in the fifth, when he started to leave pitches up in or out of the strike zone. He ended up allowing five runs on five hits in 5 1/3 innings, striking out three and walking three.

The final line was far from overwhelming, but the knuckleballer’s signature pitch was moving all over the place, enough to unbalance the Yankees through the early innings and put the Sox in a position to win. That has been a common feature of Wakefield’s six starts this year, in which the Sox enjoy a 4-2 record.

–David Ortiz continued a torrid stretch at the plate, in what is fast becoming his best year since 2007. He lined another homer — his second in as many nights — in the top of the first inning and later took a walk to push his OPS for the year to 1.010 (as of that at-bat). Aside from the first couple games of this season, it marked the first time since the end of the ’07 season that Ortiz has had an OPS above the 1.000 plateau. Though he was hitless with a walk in four subsequent plate appearances to drop his OPS in 2011 to .999, he is nonetheless re-establishing himself as one of the top slugging threats in the game. He is now hitting .435 with a 1.480 OPS and three homers in June.

–Jacoby Ellsbury continued his outstanding season, going 3-for-5 with a double and a steal. He now has eight three-hit games this year, halfway to his career-best of 16 in 2008. He currently is on pace to amass 199 hits.

–Alfredo Aceves earned a save the hard way. He entered the game with one out in the sixth, and pitched the duration, logging 3 2/3 innings while giving up one run on four hits and a walk, striking out four. It was the first save of more than three innings by a Sox pitcher since Casey Fossum had a four-inning save on July 21, 2003. On a night when Jonathan Papelbon was likely unavailable after a 27-pitch outing on Tuesday, the fact that Aceves was able to offer a night off to the rest of the Boston bullpen could be felt in days to come.

–In his first start being paired with Wakefield since June 6, 2005, Jason Varitek handled the knuckleballer with aplomb. On a night when Wakefield’s pitches were dancing all over the place — both in and out of the strike zone — Varitek had a passed ball, but otherwise showed quiet hands while corralling almost all of the pitcher’s offerings. The two had an evidently good rapport, with Wakefield remaining in a steady rhythm in part because Varitek was catching his offerings and tossing them back to the mound.

In past years, the Sox were left in a state of panic anytime that Doug Mirabelli was unavailable to work with the pitcher. Now, between the work done by Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Varitek, those concerns are something that the Sox evidently will not have to contend with.

–There was a time when Derek Jeter was unquestionably the one member of the Yankees lineup that the Red Sox didn’t want to see at the plate with the game on the line. No longer. The future Hall of Famer is nearing the 3,000 hits milestone, but his .656 OPS ranks in the bottom 20 percent in the game.

With Aceves struggling upon entering Wednesday’s game, Jeter stepped to the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the sixth, representing the go-ahead run. Jeter went ahead in the count, 3-1, but then took a fastball for a strike before rolling over into a 5-4-3 double play. The outcome offered a reprieve to Aceves, who allowed singles to Eduardo Nunez and Francisco Cervelli — the Nos. 8 and 9 hitters in the Yankees lineup — upon his entry into an 8-4 game.

–Carl Crawford delivered an insurance two-run homer in the ninth. He now has six homers for the season, a pace that would leave him with 16 for the season, which would be the third highest total of his career.

WHAT WENT WRONG FOR THE RED SOX

–Every member of the lineup either scored or drove in a run while reaching base at least once. Wakefield did his job holding the Yankees off the scoreboard early. Aceves, Daniel Bard and Jonathan Papelbon closed the door late. The Sox took over first place. So what went wrong for the Sox? Beyond the middle innings stumble by Wakefield, and the fact that Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis both suffered three strikeout nights, virtually nothing.