Mike Mussina gave the New York Yankees 6 shutout innings as they went on to beat the Boston Red Sox 6-2 in Game 1 of a day/night doubleheader in front of 37,091 at Fenway Park. The win for Mussina was his 20th of the season and the first time in his 18 year career that he has had 20 wins in a season.
Daisuke Matsuzaka finishes the season 18-3 with a 2.90 ERA.
Daisuke Matsuzaka tuned up for his likely ALDS Game 3 start with 4 innings of work this afternoon. He gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and 2 walks while fanning 5 on 73 pitches. He finishes the season with an 18-3 record and a 2.90 ERA.
Javier Lopez, Manny Delcarmen and Hideki Okajima were strong out of the bullpen for the Red Sox as they combined for 4 scoreless innings. Jonathan Papelbon had a rough 9th inning in a driving rain as he gave up 3 runs on 4 hits and a walk.
Dustin Pedroia led the Red Sox offense with 2 hits in 4 at-bats. Jacoby Ellsbury extended his hitting streak to 18 games with a RBI single in the 8th inning. Mark Kotsay and David Ortiz had the other hits for the local nine and Chris Carter drove in the other run.
Matsuzaka breezed through the first 3 innings allowing only a double to Robinson Cano but ran into some trouble in the 4th inning.
He started the inning by getting Johnny Damon to ground out and then he walked Bobby Abreu. With Alex Rodriguez at the plate, Abreu stole second before ARod worked a walk. Dice-K followed the walks with a strikeout of Jason Giambi but he left a pitch out over the plate for Xaiver Nady to drive out of the ballpark for a 3-run home run. Dice-K then gave up back-to-back singles to Cano and Cody Ransom but got Jose Molina to ground out to end the inning.
The Red Sox battled back in the 8th off of Joba Chamberlain.
Jason Bay worked a leadoff walk and Kotsay followed with a ground rule double to deep right. Brian Bruney came in for Joba and struck out Jed Lowrie. Chris Carter pinch-hit for David Ross and had an RBI groundout to cut the lead to 3-1 as Kotsay went to third. Damaso Marte came in for Bruney and Ellsbury greeted him with an RBI single to make it 3-2 Yanks. Mariano Rivera then came in and struck out Pedroia to end the inning.
The Yankees managed to get 3 runs in the 9th off Papelbon to put the game out of reach.
Tim Wakefield and Sidney Ponson will close out the season in the nightcap at 7:35 PM.
Notes and musings:
Yankees @ Red Sox 9.28.08 Game 1 boxscore
Sox on streaks:
Jacoby Ellsbury has a 18-game hitting streak
Dustin Pedroia has a 7-game hitting streak
David Ortiz has a 6-game hitting streak
Mark Kotsay has a 4-game hitting streak
