The Yankees did not have four of their best hitters in Sunday's lineup against the Boston Red Sox, but they hardly needed them. Without 1B Luke Voit (off), 2B DJ LeMahieu (thumb), RF Aaron Judge (calf) and DH Giancarlo Stanton (hamstring), others stepped up once again in the Yankees' 4-2 win at Yankee Stadium.

Chief among the fill-in players to make an impact was 1B Mike Ford, who batted fifth and went 2 for 4. Ford knocked an RBI single in the first inning, putting the Yankees (15-6) up 1-0. His next time up in the third inning, he blasted a two-run homer, with those three RBI proving the difference in a fifth straight win.

RF Mike Tauchman (2 for 4) and DH Clint Frazier (1 for 4), the latter of who is on a four-game hitting streak while batting .533 with two home runs and eight RBI since debuting last Wednesday, further proved Ford's point.

"I just think we have a ton of depth," said Ford, who bounced back from consecutive 0-for-5 performances last Wednesday and Saturday. "We have a ton of guys that could play elsewhere right now and help teams win, and it's just nice when us fill-in guys can come up and have some success."

Ford, who slashed .259/.350/.559 with 12 home runs and 25 RBI in 50 games as a replacement for the 2019 season, has shown flashes. Manager Aaron Boone sees room for more with Ford.

"Actually, you feel like Fordy's still working to kind of getting rolling here, a little bit," Boone said. "But when he's going good, he controls the strike zone and can hit the ball in the seats, and we saw him do that tonight.

"That's what he's capable of when he gets in that really good flow. He knows the zone and has that pull power and gives us a different look, obviously. Even though we had a bunch of different lefties in there at times, we're a little right-handed heavy, he gives us that left-handed thump that's nice to have."

A slot ahead of Ford, in the cleanup, spot, SS Gleyber Torres has done the same. After a slow start, Torres has a hit in six of the past eight games, going 12 for 25 (.480) his recent hot streak.

"I think I tried to do too much when I go to home plate," said Torres, who went 2 for 3 with a walk and run, scoring on Ford's homer. "The three weeks, I tried to do the adjustment. Finally, I'm finding myself and trying to do what I did last year, the first couple of years in the big leagues -- try to not do too much, try to be consistent every time when I go home plate and believe.

"I go to home plate to attack the pitch I can hit and I have a little more patience. That is the thing I wasn't having in the first couple of weeks of the season. I was just going to home plate and trying to swing at everything.

"Now, I'm more focused in that situation, trying to go to home plate with a really good plan, trying to be focused and to be simple -- try to put the ball in play and try to get a really good pitch to hit."

The Yankees eye a four-game series sweep Monday at 7:05 p.m. Riding a nine-game winning streak against the Red Sox (6-16), including 14 of 15 dating back to last year, the Yanks plan on keeping their foot down in a projected matchup between LHP Jordan Montgomery (2-1, 5.17 ERA) and LHP Martin Perez (2-2, 3.38 ERA).

"We've got a big one tomorrow," Boone said. "We got Perez, we got Monty going for us and it's nice that we've had success playing them of late, but tomorrow's a new day and that's kind of what we're focused on."

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