MLB

Yankees stun Red Sox on homers by Marcus, A-Rod in ninth

He hasn’t moved into Bucky Dent or Aaron Boone territory, but Marcus Thames grabbed a sliver of Yankees lore last night when it comes to driving a red hot poker into the Red Sox.

As Thames’ ninth-inning laser off Jonathan Papelbon screamed toward the left-field seats, Thames raised his bat into the night and looked like the Statue of Liberty as Yankee Stadium erupted.

Two batters after Alex Rodriguez tied the score with a two-run bolt to center field off the Red Sox closer, Thames’ two-run homer carried the Yankees to a scintillating, 11-9, victory that was witnessed by 48,271.

“It’s an awesome feeling, especially off those guys over there,” Thames said.

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Thames’ first big league homer came in his first major league at-bat against Randy Johnson as a Yankee in 2002. Last night’s felt better he said.

Without Brett Gardner’s leadoff double in the ninth and Rodriguez’s blast to center on a first-pitch 94-mph fastball, Thames never gets the chance to produce a happy ending that turned around a bleak evening.

After copping a 5-0 lead in the first and a 6-1 advantage in the second against a miserable Daisuke Matsuzaka, the Yankees watched Phil Hughes give up a solo homer to David Ortiz in the fourth and a three-run homer to J.D. Drew in the fifth.

Boone Logan surrendered a solo homer to Victor Martinez in sixth and Chan Ho Park, fresh off the disabled list, gave up a back-to-back blasts to Kevin Youkilis and Martinez that produced three runs in the eighth.

After relievers Tim Wakefield and Daniel Bard provided 3 1/3 innings of scoreless relief, Papelbon entered looking to add to his career-high 22 straight saves.

But Gardner opened with an opposite-field double and after Mark Teixeira flied out, Rodriguez hit his second homer in 12 at-bats against Papelbon. Francisco Cervelli, who had an RBI double in the five-run first, took a 94-mph fastball off the left arm to precede Thames’ dramatics.

“They were just flat fastballs that weren’t located. Poorly-executed pitches on my behalf,” Papelbon said. “When you don’t execute your pitch the way you want to, usually in my situation bad things happen and as you saw tonight, bad things happened.”

The right-handed hitting Thames was signed for his prowess against lefties but with Nick Swisher unavailable against right-handers, Thames has started the last three games against righties.

“I wanted to get a fastball and I didn’t want to miss it,” Thames said of his approach. “I didn’t want to chase like I did against Bard [in the eighth].”

As Thames rounded the bases the Yankees poured out of the dugout to celebrate the victory that went to Javier Vazquez (2-4) in relief. And for the first time this season A.J. Burnett got to hit the hero in the face with a towel smothered in whip cream.

“We did it the hard way,” said Rodriguez, who contributed a two-run, bases-loaded single in the first inning and has 31 RBIs. “[Sunday] was devastating for us.”

That was when Mariano Rivera flushed a victory by giving up a grand slam to Jason Kubel.

Until the ninth-inning thunder, the Yankees were poised to answer questions about another flush job.

Oddly enough, if Jorge Posada (foot) and Swisher (biceps) been healthy, Thames wouldn’t have been in the starting lineup.

But he was and finished 2-for-4 with four RBIs and raised the batting average to .365.

As for the 19-20 Red Sox who trail the AL East-leading Rays by 8½ games, Dustin Pedroia warned people not to bury his club.

“There are a lot of games to go,” the second baseman said. “We will prove to everybody that this team won’t quit.”

george.king@nypost.com