Red, White, and Boo

After the Yankees lackluster performance in Thursday's 7-0 loss to the Red Sox, the Yankees held a team meeting. Joe Girardi, Johnny Damon, and Derek Jeter laid it on the line. Get better soon or a lot of us could be elsewhere. The Yankees played with a lot more fire on Friday, but the results were no different. The Red Sox rallied from an early 3-0 deficit to beat the Yankees 6-4.

The game turned on a bizarre play in the 3rd inning. The Red Sox had pushed a run across and had two on with one out. Kevin Youkilis hit a deep drive to left field off of Darrell Rasner. Damon raced back to the wall, leaped, and had the ball in his glove. That was until he hit the wall and the ball popped out. But instead of going over the wall for a home run or falling immediately back into the field of the play, the ball laid precariously on top of the wall for a few moments. When it finally did roll back into play, it took the assistance of a fan to point out the ball to Damon, who was momentarily dazed and confused. Youkilis made it to 3rd base with a game tying triple and Damon had to leave the game with a sprained acromioclavicular joint in his left shoulder.

The Yankees had taken a quick lead against Josh Beckett in the 1st inning. Damon led off the game with a double and one batter later Bobby Abreu drew a walk. Alex Rodriguez then lashed a line drive to left field to score both runners as Abreu just beat the throw home. The relay enabled A-Rod to move to third and he scored easily on Jason Giambi's fly out to center field for a 3-0 lead. But the Yankees wouldn't do much against Beckett the rest of the day.

The Yankees did have a chance in the 4th, loading the bases with 2 outs, but Jose Molina grounded out to Mike Lowell to end the inning. Then Lowell took advantage in the top of the 5th against Rasner. Red hot Dustin Pedroia led off with a single and one out later Manny Ramirez followed suit. Then it was Lowell, the one-time Yankees prospect, belting a 3-run home run a few rows back in the left field seats for a 6-3 lead.

Boston set up man Hideki Okajima has not been lights out like he was last year and the Yankees built a rally against him in the 7th inning. Melky Cabrera singled and Molina followed with a base on balls. After Brett Gardner bounced into a force out, Derek Jeter walked to load the bases. But Okajima retired Abreu on a pop out and Manny DelCarmen came in to get A-Rod on an inning-ending ground out as the skies opened up with a torrential downpour.

The game resumed after an 88-minute rain delay and the Yankees would have one more shot after a botched call by the umpires. With a man on and 2 outs in the 9th, Jeter lined Jon Papelbon's pitch to center field. Coco Crisp made a diving back hand grab for the final out, only it wasn't. The catch was ruled a trap (TV replays would show otherwise) and Jeter had himself an RBI double. That gave Abreu a shot as the tying run and he nearly made it happen. But his deep drive to center field fell into Crisp's glove about five feet shy of the 408-ft sign in center field.


News and Notes

Mike Port, VP of Umpiring, said discussions would take place to figure out the proper rulings on Youkilis' ball.

“The guess is that if it had stayed there, it would have been a home run because it had broken the front plane, but we’ll discuss it with supervisors in the next few days,” he said. “The great thing about this game is that after 100 or more years, you still see things that may not have happened before.”

The Yankees and Red Sox wore alternate caps with the team's logos intertwined with red, white, and blue. It's thought to be the first time the Yankees have ever worn an alternate piece of clothing.

Jason Varitek wore a red, white, and blue chest protector that will be auctioned off for charity.