Everyone I talked with yesterday, whether they be Yankees fans or Red Sox fans…they didn’t think the Yankees had much chance in a game that was Jon Lester vs. AJ Burnett. However, this is why we play the game, eh? Burnett pitched well, probably the best he’s pitched against the Sox in a long while and Lester never recovered from a long, long first inning.
Lester started the game with trouble. He threw 43 pitches in the inning. He was lucky that only one run scored on a Cano double. However, that inning made sure that Lester was going to have a short outing and we’d have to rely on our middle relief to get a win. The Sox gave Lester the lead back in the bottom of the 4th when Pedroia hit a 2 run HR off of AJ Burnett. The downside is that it was all we could get against AJ who had historically struggled against the Sox in a Yankees uniform. We had a real chance to break that inning wide open, but Burnett locked it down and got the outs after the Pedey homerun.
Lester pitched 5 innings and was done for the night. His pitching line was 114 pitches, 5 IP, 7 H, 1 R, 3 BBs and 6 Ks. Alfredo Aceves came out in relief of Lester in the 6th inning. Aceves ended up getting the bases loaded against him, but got himself in and out of trouble. ceves also hit Mark Teixeira right on the knee in the inning. Teixeira stayed in the game at the time, but a little bit later was pulled with a right knee contusion. In the 7th, Aceves got himself into a little bit of trouble as well. He walked Andruw Jones after a 14 pitch at bat and then hit Jesus Montero. Tito made the pitching change and brought Daniel Bard into the game. Bard gave up a 2 RBI double to Russell Martin and suddenly the Yankees were leading. He gave up another run on a RBI single to Eric Chavez. The Yankees did what most people cannot do, they got to Dan Bard. The Yanks lead 4-2 and that’s all she wrote.
We did make things a wee bit dramatic in the 9th inning and made Mariano Rivera work. Jed Lowrie got a walk, Jacoby Ellsbury got a walk and then Marco Scutaro got a single to load the bases with two outs. Adrian Gonzalez came to the plate with the game on the line. He ended up striking out to end the game.
Here is Gonzo’s comment about that at bat after the game:
“”That pitch was down. I should still be hitting. It’s a 2-2 count.”
Red Sox 2 Yankees 4 BOXSCORE
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