Photo Credit: AP Photo/Frank Franklin II
The Red Sox had lost 2 straight to the Blue Jays while the Yankees had lost 2 straight to the Royals. Both teams hoped to right the ship with a friday rivalry game in the Bronx. Clay Buchholz has historically struggled against the Yankees and he was shelled in his first outing at Fenway.
This time, Clay Buchholz didn’t show much struggle at all. He was using all his pitches and his fast ball had some serious life on it. He pitched 7 strong innings and his only real mistake was a pitch to Russell Martin for a 2 run HR which barely went out of the park. Basically, Clay was dealing. After the game, Joe Girardi said it was the best he has ever seen Clay and that his stuff was electric. Buchholz’s pitching line was 7 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 1 BB, 7 Ks.
And the Red Sox bats had Clay’s back. Bartolo Colon was dealing himself. He was throwing some high heat and continuing pitching with dominance. Honestly, I’ve never seen Colon pitch this well. Colon gave up a monster HR to Gonzalez in the 4th. It was followed by a sac groundout from Crawford that scored Youkilis from 3B. Colon left the game in the top of the 7th and handed the ball over to Joba Chamberlain. Let’s just say Joba didn’t have his best stuff. Joba didn’t get a double play ball behind him with a defensive oops from Cano and after that…the Sox were able to capitalize on the mistake. Pedey got a single, Gonzo scored on a sac fly to bring the go ahead run and then Youk hit a nice 2 run home run off of Joba to give the Sox a 5-2 lead. I am sure Youk felt that HR was even sweeter since it was off Joba…or maybe us fans just wanna think that.
Clay gave the ball over to Bard and Pap to finish the game and that’s when it got a little hairy…and not in the good Eck “hairy cheese” way. Bard’s command seemed WAY off. Granderson triples off of Bard in the 8th, followed by a wild pitch which scores him. That was followed by Bard walking Jeter and hitting Cano and a double steal. Luckily, Bard got out of the inning with a strike out and a groundout, but let’s be honest…it was pretty ugly. Papelbon took the mound in the 9th and also brought a wee bit of drama. He gets two quick outs to start the game and then gives up a single to Jeter, allows Jeter to take second and then gives up an RBI single to Granderson. Pap finished the night getting Mark Teixeira to pop out and the Sox clung to a 5-4 lead for the win.
Even though the game was more dramatic that it could have or should have been, a Sox win over the Yanks is always sweet. And…Colon put on a great pitching performance and the Yanks were not able to capitalize on it.
RED SOX 5 YANKEES 4 BOXSCORE
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