The Red Sox headed into the Bronx for a 4 game series with their rivals the Yankees. The Sox had Jake Peavy on the mound while the Yankees were sending Ivan Nova. The Sox got out to a big lead, but ended up giving it away in the later innings. However, the Sox were able to get to the great Mariano Rivera and grab a victory in extra innings.
The Red Sox were able to hop onto the scoreboard first in the 3rd inning when Ells hit an RBI ground rule double and then Victorino hit a sac RBI grounder. The Yankees tied the game up in the bottom of the inning when Peavy gave up a 2 run RBI double to Cano. Sox 2-2. In the 4th the Sox grabbed the lead back when Will Middlebrooks hit a solo homerun. Sox 3-2. Nova was done after 4 innings and then the Sox bats got after the relief pitchers as well. Shane Victorino hit a leadoff HR in the 5th, then Napoli hit an RBI single and Lavarnway finished off the scoring in the 5th with an RBI groundout. Sox 6-2. The Sox added on one more run in the 7th when Ryan Lavarnway hit an RBI single to score Nava. Sox 7-2.
This game seemed well in hand, but the bottom of the 7th would end up being a lot of trouble for the Sox pitching. Peavy took the mound in the 7th, but walked a batter and gave up a hit. He was done for the night and Matt Thornton was in the game. Thornton gave up an RBI single to Gardner and an RBI sac grounder to Cano. Sox 7-4. Thornton was done without recording an out and Tazawa was in the game. Tazawa did not fare much better at all. Tazawa gave up an RBI single to Soriano, an RBI double to Granderson and then an RBI single to Overbay. Tazawa got the outs to end the inning, but the Yankees walked away with the lead. Sox 7-8. Craig Breslow pitched a scoreless 8th inning and if the Sox had any hope they would have to get at least a run off of Mariano Rivera. Mo got 2 outs, but then Mike Napoli hit a single. Quinten Berry came in to run for Mike Napoli, which only meant one thing, he was going to make a steal for 2nd base and soon. Berry took off and ended up making it to third on a throwing error from Romine. Stephen Drew came to the plate with the team down 2 outs and he once again came through with an RBI single to score Berry. Sox 8-8. Breslow pitched a scoreless 9th and we were on to extras. Joba Chamberlain took the mound for the 10th inning and he gave up a single to Ellsbury, Ells stole second and then Shane Victorino got him home when he hit an RBI single. There was a little drama about Shane's at bat since it looked like he went around on what would have been strike three, but Joe West said he checked his swing. Joba Chamberlain ended up getting ejected on his way off the mound due to his comment to West about the at bat. Drama or no drama, the Sox took the lead 9-8 and then Koji Uehara took the mound for the save. Koji threw more pitches than usual, but he still had himself a nice 1-2-3 inning for his 18th save of the season.
Red Sox 9 Yankees 8 BOXSCORE
WP: Breslow (5-2) LP: Chamberlain (2-1) SV: Uehara (18)
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