What happened to the Boston Red Sox team that swept four games from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim this past week? Things got so bad for the Red Sox on Saturday against the New York Yankees that Jonathan Van Every had to make his second relief appearance in a Sox uniform.
Mark Teixeira had three home runs and five RBIs while Francisco Cervelli had three hits and five RBIs to lead the Yankees to a 14-3 win in front of 37,138 at a rainy Fenway Park.
After sweeping the Angels to get back above .500, the Red Sox fall to 15-16. The win for the Yankees moves them to 21-8 and they now find themselves just a ½ game back of the first place Tampa Bay Rays. For those scoring at home, the Red Sox are in fourth place, 7½ games behind the Rays.
Clay Buchholz had been the Red Sox most reliable starter this season but he just didn’t have it on Saturday. He was okay during his first two innings but allowed six runs (five earned) in the final three he worked. Those runs came on nine hits and five walks and Buchholz struck out just one.
Manny Delcarmen had a walk in an inning and Ramon Ramirez allowed a hit and run and had to leave the game with tightness in his triceps. Scott Schoeneweis once again stunk up the joint as he was tagged for four runs on three hits and three walks with two strikeouts. Even Daniel Bard couldn’t avoid the funk as he allowed a run on two hits and a walk. JVE gave up two runs on two hits and had a strikeout of Brett Gardner in the 9th.
Victor Martinez had a 2-run homer off his former Indians teammate CC Sabathia and Darnell McDonald had a solo shot. Kevin Youkilis added two hits in the losing cause for the local nine.
The Yankees took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third but McDonald’s home run in the bottom half cut it to one. After Sabathia purposely hit Dustin Pedroia in retaliation for last night’s beanings of Robinson Cano and Derek Jeter, VMart blasted a two-run homer into the Monster seats.
Cervelli’s RBI single tied it up in the top of the 4th and from there the Yankees scored eleven unanswered runs.
The Red Sox will look to avoid the sweep behind Jon Lester, who has pitched well of late. A.J. Burnett will start for the Yankees in the ESPN Sunday night game of the week that begins at 8:05 p.m.
