Andrew Miller gets the call, Yankees get the win over Red Sox

1:32 AM ET

NEW YORK — The clock is ticking on Andrew Miller’s time as the New York Yankees’ closer, and if Friday night’s game against the Boston Red Sox turns out to be his final appearance in that role, he played a hell of a farewell scene.

Not only did he post a rare four-out save in a 3-2 win, Miller got all four of those outs on strikeouts. And one of those strikeouts came at the expense of David Ortiz, who was at the plate with the bases loaded and one out in the bottom of the ninth inning. To borrow a favorite phrase from manager Joe Girardi, it was not what you want.

But it turned out to be more than you would expect from this watered-down version of the once-ferocious Yankees-Red Sox rivalry: an at-bat that featured three disputed ball-strike calls, two ejections, a game-saving strikeout and a Yankee Stadium crowd that sounded more like the Colosseum when the lions were winning.

To borrow another Girardi-ism, that is what you come to the Bronx to see.

With Brian McCann behind the plate, Yankees closer Andrew Miller struck out David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez with the bases loaded in the ninth inning to preserve a 3-2 win on Friday night. Adam Hunger/USA TODAY Sports

The Red Sox loaded the bases in the ninth on an infield single by pinch-hitter Josh Rutledge, a line shot by Dustin Pedroia and a bloop by Xander Bogaerts that dropped between Didi Gregorius, Aaron Hicks and Brett Gardner in short left-center field.

That set the stage for one of baseball’s last great confrontations: Ortiz against Yankee Nation, a battle that Big Papi has won more often than not.

It was just a week earlier when Ortiz belted a two-run home run off Dellin Betances to win a game at Fenway that sparked a Red Sox sweep. And of course, it was Ortiz’s two-run homer — a laser shot into the right-field seats off Yankees starter Michael Pineda in the first inning on Friday night, his 50th career regular-season home run against the Yankees — that gave Boston an early 2-0 lead.

And there they were again, Ortiz versus Miller, the Yankees’ closer until the return of Aroldis Chapman, who is due back from his suspension on …

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