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April 29, 2007
After a one-day reprieve, the Yankees' run of substandard pitching resumed today.
David Ortiz, Alex Cora and Manny Ramirez all homered as the Red Sox blasted their way to a 7-4 victory at Yankee Stadium. The Yanks -- who hoped they had stemmed the bleeding with a 3-1 win over Boston on Saturday afternoon -- have lost eight of their last nine and surrendered 62 runs over that span.
The first-place Red Sox (16-8) lead the last-place Yankees (9-14) by 6 1/2 games.
The Yankees were counting on Chien-Ming Wang, their No. 1 pitcher, to outduel Julian Tavarez, the Sox' No. 5 starter, today. But by the time both pitchers were gone at the end of the sixth, the Red Sox had a 4-3 lead. They then resumed their shelling of the Yankee bullpen, getting a run off Scott Proctor in the seventh and two more off Sean Henn in the eighth.
Cora -- playing in place of Dustin Pedroia, who was given the day off -- was the big offensive gun with a homer and a triple, two runs scored and three RBI. Ramirez' two-run homer to right off Henn in the top of the eighth, following a single by David Ortiz, broke open a close game and gave the Sox a four-run lead.
Cora drove in Boston's second run with an infield grounder in the third inning. He erased a 3-2 deficit with a two-run homer in the fifth. Then, in the seventh, he gave the Sox an insurance run when he tripled off the right-field fence with one out and scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Julio Lugo.
Cora is now hitting .375 for the season.
Tavarez gave the Sox five credible innings. He was lifted only after Jeter, the Yankee leadoff hitter in the sixth, reached on an error by Lugo.
Hideki Okajima came on and struck out the gasping-for-air Bobby Abreu -- 0-for-19 and 1-for-29 after that strikeout -- gave up a single to Alex Rodriguez, struck out Jason Giambi and got Hideki Matsui on a grounder to the mound.
Okajima pitched a 1-2-3 seventh with two strikeouts.
Derek Jeter extended his hitting streak to 17 games with a one-out homer off Mike Timlin in the bottom of the eighth. Abreu broke his slump with a single after Jeter's homer and the Yankee Stadium crowd raised the noise level to airport-runway levels as Rodriguez came to the plate. But Timlin got A-Rod to ground into a 5-4-3 double play, ending the inning.
Jonathan Papelbon pitched the ninth. He surrendered a leadoff double to Giambi before striking out Matsui, retiring Jorge Posada on a grounder to second and Robinson Cano on a grounder to first, ending the game. He now has eight saves.
The Sox jumped on Wang early. One pitch after Kevin Youkilis had driven Matsui to the left-field fence with a long drive to left field, Ortiz deposted a Wang offering into the third deck in right field at Yankee Stadium, giving the Red Sox a 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
Then, in the third inning, Coco Crisp led off with a triple up the gap in right-center field and scored on a grounder to short by Cora, giving the Red Sox a 2-0 lead.
The Yankees scored three in the bottom of the third to move ahead, 3-2. But in the fifth, Wang hit Crisp in the left shin, leading off, and Cora then homered over the fence in right-center field, putting Boston back in front, 4-3.
After retiring the first six batters he faced, Tavarez unraveled in the third. He got ahead of Posada 0-and-2, then threw four straight balls and walked him. Then he walked Cano on four pitches. Then, even though Doug Mientiekwicz was trying to bunt, Tavarez threw three straight balls to him . . . and the 1-and-0 pitch eluded catcher Jason Varitek, giving the Yankees runners on second and third.
Tavarez came back with two strikes, but Mientkiewicz dropped the 3-and-2 pitch just over the fence of the short porch in right, a three-run homer that put the Yankees ahead, 3-2.
The Yankees seemed poise to add to their lead in the fourth, when they opened the inning with back-to-back singles from Rodriguez and Giambi. But Tavarez regrouped and got out of the inning by inducing Matsui to ground into a double play and striking out Posada.
The Sox had run themselves out of a chance to increase their 2-0 advantage in the top of the third. Lugo and Youkilis had followed Cora's grounder with back-to-back singles, putting runners on first and third as Lugo challenged -- successfully -- the arm of Johnny Damon; Youkilis' single was fielded by Damon in shallow center field. The Yankees escaped further damage, however, because of some unsuccessful aggressiveness by Lugo. Ortiz hit a little chopper in front of the plate and was thrown out by Posada. Lugo broke for home when Posada released the ball, and was easily thrown out at the plate by Mientkiewicz, with Wang making the tag.
Posted by Art Martone 
at 4:25 PM | Permalink
