Derek Jeter’s 3-run homer in the top of the 8th spoiled an otherwise great outing by Curt Schilling as the Yankees held on to beat the Red Sox 4-3 in front of the 382nd consecutive sellout at Fenway Park. The score had been tied at 1-1 before the home run. Schilling had been locked up in a pitcher’s duel with Roger Clemens, who ended up going six innings. Mariano Rivera picked up his 28th save despite struggling and giving up a run in the 9th inning.
The local nine got on the board in the bottom of the 1st inning. Jacoby Ellsbury led off and reached on an error by Yankees left fielder Johnny Demon who dropped the fly ball. Clemens then got Dustin Pedroia to fly out. David Ortiz worked a walk off of Clemens and came around to score as my Red Sox MVP, Mike Lowell, drove him in with a single for a 1-0 lead. Clemens got J.D. Drew to fly out and the slumping Jason Varitek to ground out on a great diving stop by Doug Mientkiewicz.
Both pitchers were cruising right threw the lineups. Big Schill only had allowed two hits through four innings as only Jeter singled in the 1st and Mientkiewicz in the 3rd. In the even innings, 2nd and 4th, he set the Yankees down 1-2-3. After the hit by Lowell in the 1st, Clemens only allowed a walk to Julio Lugo in the 2nd through the first four innings.
Robinson Cano got the Yankees on the scoreboard in the 5th inning as he led off with a home run off Schilling to tie the game at 1. After the Cano hit, Schilling actually retired nine straight batters to get himself to the top of the 8th inning.
The Sox had chances to score in the 6th off of Clemens and in the 7th off of Yankees reliever Joba Chamberlain, who took over for Clemens at the start of the inning. The chance to score in the 7th was started off by an Eric Hinske double to start the frame. The game was delayed for a few minutes as an idiot fan decided to run on the field and take Cano’s hat (more on this in the notes and musings section). After Cano got his cap back, Coco Crisp sacrificed Hinske over to third base. Joba reared back and got Lugo to strike out and Ellsbury to ground out to Mientkiewicz, who barely beat Ellsbury to the bag.
Schilling came back out to start the 8th inning for the Sox. He started off the inning with a strikeout of Melky’s “Got a Gun” Cabrera. Mientkiewicz followed that with his second single of the night. Jason Giambi, pinch-hitting for Jose Molina, delivered a wall ball single that almost got out, moving Mientkiewicz to third. Bronson Sardinha came in to pinch-run for Giambi. Schilling then got Demon to ground out as he shattered Demon’s bat. Pedroia’s only play was to first base. This set the stage for the Yankees’ captain. Jeter took Schilling’s last pitch of the night and planted it in the Green Monster seats for a 3-run homer and a 4-1 Yankees lead. Javier Lopez was summoned from the bullpen to face Bobby Abreu and Abreu greeted him with a double in the gap. Terry Francona went to the bullpen again, this time for Manny Delcarmen to face AROD. He made AROD look silly as he got him to strikeout swinging on a curveball.
Schilling (8-8) was strong throughout the night except for that last pitch. He wasn’t able to sneak an inside fastball past Jeter. Schilling went 7 2/3 innings, allowing 6 hits, 4 runs and no walks. He struck out two on 90 pitches.
The bottom of the 8th saw Chamberlain (2-0) give up his first earned run of his MLB career. After he had gotten the first outs of the inning, Lowell took a 98 mph fastball and crushed it up into Green Monstah seats to cut the lead to 4-2. Yanks pitching coach Ron Guidry came out for a visit to make sure the young Joba was ok after giving up the home run. He showed he was as he got Drew looking on a curveball for strike 3 and the third out.
Eric Gagné came on for the 9th inning for the Red Sox. Guess what folks. He actually pitched a perfect inning, including one strikeout.
Mariano Rivera came on to close out the game for his bullpen buddy but had some troubles. He walked Varitek to start the 9th. He then got ground balls from Hinske and Coco for outs. Each ground ball moved Varitek up a base. Lugo then smacked a double that easily scored Varitek cutting the lead to 4-3. Rivera then hit Ellsbury with a slider in the knee. The HBP ended Ellsbury’s 14-game hitting streak. Pedroia then battled with Rivera and worked a walk to load the sacks for Big Papi. Big Papi, who had one walk-off homer on the week, was unable to get the job done as Rivera jammed him with a cutter that went to shallow left and was caught by Jeter for the final out of the game.
With the win, the Yankees get back to within 4 1/2 games of the beloved Sox. More importantly, it allowed them to stay 2 1/2 games head of the surging Detroit Tigers in the wild card race. I will say I am a little bit concerned with the lead being down to 4 1/2 in the AL East. The Sox just need to keep winning ballgames and not worry about what anyone else is doing.
The Sox now head out on their final road trip for 6 games in 7 days against Toronto and Tampa Bay. It all starts tomorrow night with Tim Wakefield on the Rogers Centre mound in Toronto at 7:07 PM on NESN.
Notes and Musings:
Manny Ramirez is itching to get some at-bats. He asked Terry Francona before the game if there was any wear he could go to play. With the season being over for all the Sox minor league teams, this isn’t going to happen. I guess that’s a good sign that Manny will be back soon.
This is the first time Schilling and Clemens have matched up against each other since their battle in Game 7 of the 2001 World Series.
Jorge Posada was in the lineup for the Yanks today albeit at DH. He said he was feeling better after yesterday’s collision at home plate with Eric Hinske. Hinske had some scratches and still was a little sore.
Speaking of being sore, Kevin Youkilis was still feeling sore after being hit with a Chien-Ming Wang pitch. Youk should return to the Sox lineup tomorrow.
No word on who will catch Tim Wakefield tomorrow night in Toronto. Doug Mirabelli is hoping to be ready to catch him but only if his hamstring is feeling up to it.
Daisuke Matsuzaka will have his start on Wednesday pushed back and will likely start on Saturday in Tampa. Either Clay Buchholz or Julian Tavarez will start for him.
It was a bit chilly to start the game tonight. Game time temperature was 55°. A nice crisp mid-September evening.
Amalie Benjamin’s account of the idiot who ran onto the field.
Someone just came out of the stands, from near the tarp on the first base side, and ran onto the field. Not only did he make it onto the field, but he grabbed Robinson Cano’s hat on his way into the outfield. He also tried to make contact with Eric Hinske on his way.
He was tackled, quite nicely, by security at the warning track in front of the scoreboard in left field. He was quite the unwilling prisoner, struggling to get away from the security guards after being grabbed.
The Yankees won the season series 10-8.
