A-Rod Goes Deep in the Night
As bad as the Yankees and Red Sox pitching was on Thursday night, that’s how good it was on Friday. 24 hours after a sloppy, walk filled, 13-6 Yankees victory, the two teams remained in a scoreless deadlock into the 15th inning when Boston rookie Junich Tazawa was indoctrinated into American baseball. Two batters after Derek Jeter singled, Tazawa gave up his first major league gopher ball to Alex Rodriguez, a long home run into the Yankees bullpen for a 2-0 New York victory. The win was the Yankees 4th straight and pushed their lead over Boston to 4 1/2 games in the AL East.
Starters Josh Beckett and A.J. Burnett lived up to the pre-game hype, matching zero for zero. Burnett had been horrible in two starts against Boston earlier this season (11 ER in 7.2 IP), and was quickly in trouble in the first inning. A Jacoby Ellsbury single was followed by a walk to Dustin Pedroia and the Red Sox were in business. But Burnett got Victor Martinez to bounce into a double play, and after walking Kevin Youkilis, retired David Ortiz on an inning ending ground out. Ellsbury’s single would be the last hit Burnett would allow.
The Yankees first real threat came in the 4th when Robinson Cano led off with a double and Nick Swisher followed with a walk. But Melky Cabrera bounced into a rally killing double play. Beckett escaped a bases loaded, 2-out jam an inning later when he got Jeter to bounce out to Youkilis at 3rd. The Red Sox put two aboard with no one out in the 6th on a walk and catcher’s interference, but Burnett retired Pedroia and Martinez on fly outs and struck out Youkilis.
Beckett’s last stand came in the 7th when he allowed a lead off single to Hideki Matsui, but struck out Jorge Posada and Cano, with Matsui gunned down easily at 2nd on a failed hit and run. Burnett came out to start the 8th, but after retiring the first two hitters, walked Ellsbury and exited to a standing ovation.
And then more and more goose eggs were put up as the bullpens went to work. Tazawa, just recalled earlier in the day, was the final pitcher in the Red Sox pen. He escaped a 2-on, 1-out jam in the 14th, but his major league debut ended with a Burnett pie to the face of A-Rod.
Game Notes
The Red Sox designated John Smoltz for assignment prior to the game, possibly signaling the end of his major league career.
Jason Bay missed last night’s game and will likely miss the remainder of the series with a bad hamstring.
The Yankees recalled Ramiro Pena prior to the game and send Anthony Claggett back to Scranton.
A-Rod’s walk-off was his third of the season, though one of them was on Luis Castillo’s error.
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