NEW YORK (AP) - With the Yankees trailing Boston by two runs with one on and two outs in the eighth inning, Mark Teixeira stepped to the plate against nemesis Vicente Padilla.

After falling behind 2-0 in the count, Padilla lobbed in a 51 mph curveball for a strike. Teixeira turned on the next pitch, sending it deep into the right-field bleachers. He stared at the ball as he took four short steps up the line, then went into his home run trot.

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``There's no problem. If he hits me again, there might be a problem,' Teixeira said with a laugh. ``But until then, we'll just play baseball.'

When the Yankees and Red Sox meet, there's always something. Often, more than one thing.

New York wasted Teixeira's homer, which capped a comeback from a five-run deficit, when All-Star center fielder Curtis Granderson misplayed Pedro Ciriaco's ninth-inning fly ball into an RBI triple that led the Red Sox to an 8-6 victory Saturday night.

``Weird plays happen,' Teixeira said. ``Curtis is a Gold Glove-caliber defender and right off the bat, didn't see it off the bat. That happens. Unfortunately, it was in a big spot tonight.'

Teixeira hit a go-ahead, two-run triple off Padilla in the seventh inning at Fenway Park on July 6, sparking a weekend war of words. Padilla accused Teixeira of wronging Latino teammates when they played together on the Texas Rangers in 2006-07, and Teixeira said Padilla threw at hitters and ``didn't have a lot of friends in the game.' Padilla responded Teixeira would ``be better off playing a women's sport.'

Teixeira said he's been trying to put the tiff behind.

``Emotion is part of the game, but if you let the emotions get the best of you, especially as a hitter, you swing too hard or you swing at pitches over your head, that does you no good,' he said.

Padilla wouldn't discuss anything with media. As reporters approached him in the locker room, he said: ``About what? One bad day?' before turning and walking out.

Rafael Soriano (2-1) relieved to start the ninth and walked Jacoby Ellsbury with one out. Ciriaco hit a hard fly ball toward center field and thought Granderson would catch it. Then Granderson went in on the ball and sprinted back in an attempt to catch up.

``I thought I had a chance,' Ciriaco said, ``so I run like a hurricane.'

Ellsbury scored as Granderson fell. Ciriaco, who had three hits, came home on Dustin Pedroia's sacrifice fly.

Adrian Gonzalez had four RBIs for the last-place Red Sox, who built a 6-1 lead for Jon Lester.

``We were good tonight, and we were lucky,' Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. ``He hit that ball, a knuckleball, 380 feet. It's tough to catch. He's pretty hot right now, so I'd say he was good and we were lucky.'

A three-time All-Star, Granderson had expected to make the catch.

``I didn't think it was hit as hard as it was,' he said. ``And, by the time I tried to get back on it, I couldn't get enough steam to get back to it.'

It was Granderson's second fielding flub against the Red Sox. The Yankees were ahead 3-1 in the second game of a July 7 doubleheader when Granderson called for Daniel Nava's fly ball and allowed it to bounce off his glove as right fielder Darnell McDonald moved past him. Granderson initially was charged with an error, but the official scorer later changed it to McDonald's.

``We haven't seen much of that, him getting turned around like that,' Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. ``But it just shows that it's part of the game and sometimes players are going to have the wrong read on balls. It's going to happen in the course of the season, and it won't be the last one, I'm sure.'

Andrew Miller (3-1) got one out for the win, and Alfredo Aceves finished for his 22nd save in 26 chances.

CC Sabathia allowed a season-high six runs and eight hits in six innings and is 1-3 with a 7.76 ERA in his last five starts against Boston.

``It sucks, not being able to go out and pitch the way you want, especially against a team in your division,' he said. ``I think they're just being patient, making me throw a lot of pitches and fouling off some good pitches. It's a case of me not making good pitches, and they having good at_bats.'

Still, the Yankees have an 8 1/2-game lead in the AL East - the largest of any division leader.

``'It's tough, but we're in a really good spot right now,' Teixeira said. ``We're playing good baseball. It's not like it's the last day of the season and we're going home. The best thing about baseball is we get to come back tomorrow, we get a chance to win a series and put more distance between ourselves and the Red Sox.'

NOTES: New Yankees RF Ichiro Suzuki raced into the right-center gap to rob Gonzalez of an extra-base hit with a catch just in front of the warning track in the seventh. ... The Yankees have outscored the Red Sox 18-12 in the first inning this year. ... Chris Stewart, who has turned into Sabathia's regular catcher, homered in the third. He had gone homerless in 105 at_bats since connecting for San Francisco off the Los Angeles Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw on Sept. 20. ... Friday night's game took 2:41, the shortest Yankees-Red Sox game by time since New York's 1-0 win on Sept. 11, 2005, lasted 2:11, according to STATS LLC.