BOSTON — The New York Yankees, the co-cellar dwellers of the A.L. East along with the Tampa Bay Devils Rays, are looking for something — anything — to right the ship before everyone involved goes overboard.

The Yankees, in their minds, think last night could be at least a momentum boost.

During New York’s 9-5 victory over Boston in the first of a three-game set, the Yankees figure they got a little bit of spark. Their manager, Joe Torre, got ejected for only the second time this season for arguing with third-base umpire Jerry Crawford. The New York offense, which has been dormant of late, exploded for 11 hits.

“I think we showed some fight tonight,” said Torre. “That’s something we really need to go out there and really assert ourselves, and that doesn’t mean throw at people.”

What Torre was referring to was with one-out in the bottom of the ninth the Yankees’ Scott Proctor was ejected after hitting Kevin Youkilis with a pitch that was high and tight. Torre said that Proctor immediately went into his office and told him he wasn’t trying to hit Youkilis. Torre agreed and wanted to make that point clearly known.

“The pitch to Youkilis unfortunately hit him, but it wasn’t that far inside,” said Yankees’ Johnny Damon. “By no means were we trying to do that.”

What the Yankees are desperately trying to do is crawl out of this dark hole their in, and they feel they’ve taken that step with last night’s win.

“It sure looks like it,” said Damon. “Robinson Cano (2-for-4 with two RBI) and Bobby Abreu (2-for-4) got a couple of big hits, and obviously I would like to get some hits myself. It seems like we’re going to be all right. We just need to keep going out there and plugging away. They’ve got (Curt) Schilling [today] and hopefully we can get to him early.”

The last 48 hours have been interesting for the Yankees with all the controversy surrounding Alex Rodriguez, but most of the players in the visitor’s clubhouse didn’t seem to mind, at least not publicly. The fans wore masks, made comments and mocked the Yankees’ third baseman every chance they had. Still, after the New York victory, the players weren’t surprised by the reactions.

“The fans thought about what they were going to do all day instead of going out and enjoying the nice weather,” said Damon.

If New York was looking for a spark, it came when Torre was ejected. The manager explained afterward that he was just looking for an explanation on a play, and Crawford singled for him to talk. The two were behind the third base bag when things escalated and Torre was ejected.

“When I went out we started discussing things and I got hot and he got hot,” explained Torre. “The result is I’m sitting in here.”

The Sox chipped away at the Yankees lead in the ninth, and when Proctor hit Youkilis, everyone in the park thought something was going to happen. But Yankees catcher Jorge Posada talked to Youkilis and explained it wasn’t intentional.

“He went out of his way to talk to Youkilis,” said Torre.

It’s only going to get more interesting today when the best rivalry in baseball picks up where it left off last night. New York, anyway, is hoping to capitalize on its momentum.

jmcdonal@projo.com