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May 23, 2007
For the last five seasons, Red Sox-Yankee games have been marked by drama, late-inning lead changes and surprise finishes.
Not this series, however.
For the third time in as many nights, the team that scored first went on to win easily. The Yankees jumped to a 3-0 lead last night, tacked on additional runs in the second, third and fourth innings and cruised to a 8-3 thrashing of the Red Sox.
In the three games, there wasn’t a single lead change and the games were lopsided enough that neither team registered a save.
Andy Pettitte (seven innings, one run allowed) out-dueled Curt Schilling (six runs and 12 hits in six innings) as the Yanks took the series two games to one and succeeded in shaving a game off the Sox’ lead in the American League East. They now trail the Sox by 9 ½ games.
The series’ loss was the first for the Sox since they were swept in a two-game set by Toronto on April 23-24. It was the first road series defeat and first three-game series lost since the first weekend of the season when they dropped two-of-three in Texas.
Schilling, now winless in his last three starts, dug an early hole and never recovered. The 12 hits he allowed were the most in a start since yielding 13 in a start against Toronto on April 22, 2004.
Schilling has won just once in his last five outings and the three strikeouts he registered last night tied his season low, first set April 25 at Baltimore.
It took the Yankees just two batters to start building a lead. With Johnny Damon (double) in scoring position, Derek Jeter (three hits) slapped a single the opposite way, just beyond the dive of second baseman Dustin Pedroia.
Hideki Matsui then followed by lining a bullet down the right field line, just inside foul pole, scoring Jeter.
In the second, an error by shortstop Julio Lugo and three infield hits contributed to the fourth New York run, which was unearned. It was the first unearned run off Schilling since June of 2004, a stretch covering 69 starts.
A run-scoring single from Jorge Posada delivered Alex Rodriguez in the third and a solo homer off the upper-deck façade from Doug Mienkiewicz in the fourth kept adding to the Yanks’ cushion.
Pettitte came into last night as the Yanks’ most dependable starter, despite his 2-3 won-loss record. He was far sharper than the last time he started against the Sox, April 27, when he was charged with five runs in just 4 2/3 innings.
In the sixth, the Sox finally broke though when Manny Ramirez doubled to center and one out later, Mike Lowell followed with a double to the right-center gap, scoring Ramirez.
That’s as far as they got, however, as Jason Varitek flied to right with Lowell stranded in scoring position.
The Sox were punchless against Pettitte, blanked for the first five innings even though they had at least one baserunner in every inning and managed to put the leadoff man on base twice.
A one-out double by Kevin Youkilis in the second gave them a scoring opportunity, but Pettitte got Lowell to fly to right and retired Varitek on a foul pop-up to third.
Singles by Pedroia and Coco Crisp set the table in the third, but with the shift on, David Ortiz lined directly at Robinson Cano, stationed in shallow right, for the final out of the inning.
In the fifth, Wily Mo Pena beat out a slow roller to third and when Bobby Abreu, the subject of Yankee fans’ wrath, dropped a liner from Pedroia, the Sox had runners at first and second and no out.
But just as quickly, the Sox’ threat fizzled when Julio Lugo hit a broken-back liner to the mound which Pettitte gloved, then fired to second to double-up Pena.
The two teams exchanged meaningless runs late in the game.
Jeter’s leadoff triple and a single through the box by Matsui accounted for a seventh-inning run against Brendan Donnelly while Coco Crisp launched his first homer of the season – an upper-deck shot to right – against reliever Kyle Farnsworth.
The Sox added a second run in the eighth when Ortiz walked, was awarded second on a balk and trotted home on Youkilis’ single to right. The Yanks added their final run off Joel Pineiro in the eighth on a RBI single by Damon.
--SEAN McADAM
Posted by Corey Bourassa 
at 10:01 PM | Permalink
