The first Major League Baseball game to be played in the UK turned into a run-fest as the New York Yankees held on to beat rivals the Boston Red Sox 17-13 at the London Stadium.

Baseball in what is considered its purest form should be a low-scoring battle of pitchers, but any new fans among the sell-out crowd of 59,659 - a record for the major leagues this season - saw something of an arcade version as the teams piled up six home runs and 37 hits between them.

Aaron Hicks, Brett Gardner and Aaron Judge cleared the fences for the Yankees, while Michael Chavis had two three-run shots for the Red Sox to go with Jackie Bradley Jr's solo shot in the sixth.

It saw the so-called 'Evil Empire' extend their run to 12 wins out of 13, moving further clear at the top of the American League East.

In contrast, this version of the Red Sox often looked about as far from being capable of defending their World Series crown as they were from Boston, hitting well but without the pitching needed to win consistently.