The Red Sox hoped to turn things around last night with their ace Jon Lester on the mound, however the Sox offense would have to battle against Tanaka, who has been nothing short of magical for the Yankees this year. Both pitchers would live up to their reputations and it would come down to the 9th inning where Mike Napoli would become the hero for the Sox.
The game stayed scoreless until the 3rd inning when Jon Lester’s battery mate David Ross would put the Sox in the lead. David Ross hit a solo HR off of Tanaka to left field to have the Sox clinging to a 1-0 lead. Unfortunately the Sox would error themselves into giving that lead up in the bottom of the inning. The usually stellar Drew on defense would end up allowing Roberts on 1st by way of an error, Lester hit Solarte, Gardner bunted them over and then Jeter hit a sac grounder to score Roberts from 3rd. Lester hadn’t given up a hit in his outing yet, but the score was tied 1-1.
The game stayed tied 1-1 for a long time while both Lester and Tanaka both dealt for their respective teams. Lester pitched 8 innings and looked all the ace is his advertised as. His pitching line for the night was 118 pitches, 8 IP, 1 R. 0 ER, 2 BB and 6 Ks. Tanaka on the other side took the mound for the top of the 9th and that is what would turn the outing for him from a no decision to a loss. Tanaka had two outs in the inning and then Mike Napoli stepped to the plate. Napoli did more than just get on base, he hit a homerun to the close porch in right field to have the Sox in the lead 2-1. Koji Uehara came out in the bottom of the 9th and had himself a nice 1-2-3 inning to give the Sox a dramatic win that they definitely needed.
Red Sox 2 Yankees 1 BOXSCORE
WP: Lester (9-7) LP: Tanaka (11-3) SV: Uehara (17)
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