You win some, you lose some. Of course, Red Sox Nation wishes the Sox would win every game.
The Yankees used a strong outing from Chien Ming-Wang and got homeruns from AROD and the Giambino as they went on to beat the Red Sox 6-2 at Yankee Stadium. Robinson Cano chipped in as well with 2 hits for the Imperio Malo.
It wasn’t the best of nights for Tim Wakefield. The knuckleball wasn’t as effective as it normally is. Plus it doesn’t help when your team leaves the bases loaded two times.
The Yanks got on the board in the 1st inning on an AROD homer. Johnny Demon led off with a single. Wake got Derek Jeter to fly out to Coco Crisp in center. With Hideki Matsui at the plate, Damon stole second. Matsui proceeded to strike out on a nasty knuckler. While AROD was at the plate, Damon drew a lot of attention from the crafty veteran, Wakefield, and took Wake’s attention away from AROD at the plate. Wake threw a knuckler that didn’t do much and AROD promptly said thank you very little and planted it in the stands. This made it 2-0 bad guys. Wake then got Jorge Posada, the AL batting avg. leader to fly out to Coco to end the inning.
Wang had to work a little in the second inning as the Sox left the sacks loaded. Wang retired the first two batters of the inning, Mike Lowell and Coco on a strikeout and a foul out to Mientkiewicz at first respectively. The light hitting personal battery mate for Wakefield, Dough Mirabelli got on base with a single. Alex “Don’t Call Me Joey” Cora got a single of his own, advancing Mirabelli to second. Wang then got Julio Lugo to ground to Jeter at short but he bobbled it allowing Lugo to reach, loading up the bases for the Red Sox hottest hitter, Kevin Youkilis. With the heart of Red Sox Nation on his sleeve, Youk struck out, ending the threat.
The Yanks added another two more runs in the 3rd inning when the Giambino planted a Wake offering into the third deck of Yankee Stadium. Cano followed that with a double of his own. Damon then reached base with infield single. With Jeter at the plate, Damon once again took Wake’s attention away from the batter and left a knuckler up in the zone that Mariah Carey Jeter hit to Manny in left. Manny came up throwing and probably would have gotten Damon advancing to third if not for Lugo cutting it off. While pitching coach John Farrell (a man who rarely gets mentioned), was at the mound visiting his pitcher, you could see Manny was not happy at all. Wake got out of the inning but the Sox were trailing 4-0.
Meanwhile, Wang Chung cruised through the third and fourth innings, only allowing a Coco walk. The Sox finally got on the board in the 5th inning. Lugo led off with a ground out to Gayrod at third. Then Youk hit a double to the cavernous center field and came around to score when Big Papi doubled to deep right, making the score 4-1.
The Yanks got two runs back in the 5th inning with two outs. AROD walked to lead off. Then Hip Hip Jorge hit into a double play. Bobby Abreu got on base with a single and stole second before the Giambino walked. Cano cleared the bases with a triple making the score 6-1 and the Yanks never looked back from here. The 5th inning was the last inning for Wake.
Wake went 5 innings, allowed 9 hits, 6 runs (all earned), walked 5 and struck out only 2.
The Sox managed to get one run back in the 7th. Wang retired Cora to lead off the inning, but then walked Lugo. Youk got him over to third on a double and chased Wang from the game. Joe Torre brought in Mike Myers to face Big Papi. Big Papi hit a sacrifice fly that brought Lugo in. Torre then summoned Brian Bruney from the pen and he got Manny to watch a called strike three.
Boston managed to load the bases up in the 8th but couldn’t do any damage. Bruney got Drew and Lowell out to start the inning. He then walked Coco and allowed Mirabelli to reach on his own throwing error. Scott “Don’t Call Me a Proctologist” Proctor came in and promptly hit Cora with a pitch but then got Lugo to end the inning on a fielder’s choice. This ended the Sox hopes and dreams for a 11.5 game lead.
Instead, they have to settle for a 9.5 game lead.
Technorati: Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees