Adrian Gonzalez hit a three-run eighth-inning home run to lift the Red Sox to a 5-1 win against the Chicago White Sox, spoiling Kevin Youkilis’s Boston return.

Youkilis, who spent 8 1/2 seasons with the Red Sox before being traded to the White Sox on June 24, was greeted with a standing ovation from the Fenway Park crowd during his first at- bat last night. Youkilis went 3-for-4 and scored Chicago’s lone run on a first-inning throwing error by Gonzalez.

The score was tied 1-1 in the eighth when Gonzalez followed walks to Carl Crawford and David Ortiz with a 393-foot homer to left-center field. Mike Aviles added a run-scoring single to cap Boston’s four-run inning.

The Red Sox improved to 46-44 while the American League Central Division-leading White Sox fell to 49-40.

The New York Yankees improved their Major League Baseball- best record to 55-34 with a 6-3 win against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays last night in the opener of a three-game series. Raul Ibanez hit an eighth-inning grand slam to snap a 2-2 tie for the Yankees, who have won seven of their past nine games.

The host Detroit Tigers also used a late-inning home run to snap a tie, with Brennan Boesch delivering a two-run seventh- inning blast in an 8-6 win against the Los Angeles Angels.

To contact the reporter on this story: Erik Matuszewski in New York at matuszewski@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Michael Sillup at msillup@bloomberg.net