NEW YORK — Instant reactions as Brayan Bello outduels Max Fried and the Red Sox (70-59) clinch the season series over the Yankees with a gritty 1-0 win in the Bronx:

1) It was Bello’s night in the Bronx. The righty has always dominated the Yankees and that continued Friday with a stellar seven-inning performance that was as crisp as any Bello start in recent memory. Bello allowed just three hits and walked one batter. He struck out five.

Alex Cora could have sent Bello out for an eighth inning at 92 pitches but decided what he had seen was enough. The outing only teetered for a brief moment in the sixth, when Austin Wells led off with a single and Trent Grisham smoked a line drive the other way. The problem for the Yankees? The liner was right at Trevor Story, who caught it and threw to first base to pick off Wells for the double play.

Bello, who also allowed three hits in seven scoreless innings against the Yankees on June 15, has a 3.07 ERA this season. He has become a legit No. 2 starter.

2) The unlikely offensive hero of the night was Connor Wong, whose sixth RBI of the season was a massive one. A scoreless tie became a 1-0 lead when the Sox, in their first taste of action against New York’s bullpen, hit back-to-back two-baggers off Mark Leiter Jr. The red-hot newcomer Nathaniel Lowe pinch hit and hit the first pitch he saw into the corner before Wong sent him home in the next at-bat.

Boston didn’t do much against $218 million Max Fried, who bounced back nicely from a prolonged cold stretch. Fried held the Sox to four hits in six shutout innings, striking out seven and walking three.

Boston had just six hits, but doubled the Yankees in that category.

3) With the victory, the Red Sox clinched the all-important season series against the Yankees. Boston is now 7-1 against New York this year (the teams will play 13 games).

The Red Sox now own the tiebreaker over the Yankees for playoff seeding purposes. If the teams finish with the same record, the Red Sox will be the higher seed because head-to-head record is the first tiebreaker.

4) The two high-leverage relievers who pitched after Bello were utterly dominant.

For the second straight night, Garrett Whitlock and Aroldis Chapman made quick work of the Yankees. Whitlock needed 14 pitches in a 1-2-3 eighth and struck out Anthony Volpe and pinch-hitter Giancarlo Stanton to end the inning. Chapman entered to boos in his former home and after getting some great defense from David Hamilton for the first out of the inning, struck out Trent Grisham and Ben Rice.

5) In his major league debut, Jhostynxon Garcia got a look at what major league arms have to offer. He struck out three times and walked, registering an 0-for-3.

6) Garcia’s second at-bat was interrupted… by a squirrel. The hyper-active rodent got much too close than it should have to the rookie while he was stepping into the batter’s box, then danced around the infield as Fried stepped off. The squirrel even made a dash at first baseman Ben Rice that was enough for Rice to flinch.

7) Remember that tough call when David Hamilton came off the base momentarily in San Diego and it was ruled that Xander Bogaerts tagged him out? That play repeated itself in the third when Nate Eaton came off the bag, momentarily, and was ruled to have been caught stealing on a replay review. A game of inches, indeed.

8) Home plate umpire Lance Barrett must have had an early dinner reservation in Manhattan. Barrett worked with an ultra-large strike zone all night, as evidenced by a brutal sequence for Aaron Judge in the first inning. Bello struck out Judge on four pitches. He never swung, and none of the pitches were in the zone.

9) The Red Sox and Yankees will play their only matinee of their long weekend series Saturday afternoon. First pitch is at 1:05 p.m. ET. The pitching matchup will pit Red Sox ace Garrett Crochet (13-5, 2.43 ERA) against New York righty Will Warren (7-5, 4.25 ERA). NESN will carry the game.