Rocket's Red Snare

Roger Clemens uncharacteristically walked 5 batters, but threw 5 1-3 innings of no-hit ball as the Yankees held on for a 4-3 over the Boston Red Sox last night. Sox starter Josh Beckett was tagged for a career high 13 hits, but managed to escape trouble himself as the Yankees left 16 men on base.

The Yankees lead 3-1 in the 7th, when Alex Rodriguez went yard against Beckett for his 44th home run of the year. The extra run proved to be the difference, because Kyle Farnsworth returned to his 8th inning role and failed as usual. Kevin Youkillis belted a 1-out, 2-run HR to cut the lead to just a single run. Farnsworth struck out J.D. Drew for the 2nd out, but after he walked Jason Varitek, Joe Torre went to Mariano Rivera for a 4-out save. Mo dominated for the 2nd straight night, retiring all 4 batters he faced, and had 3 assists. With David Ortiz looming in the on-deck circle, Rivera recorded the final out by showing his athleticism. Dustin Pedroia hit a dribbler to the 3rd Base side of the mound, but Rivera was on it like a cat and fired a hard cutter, what else?, which handcuffed Andy Phillips. But Phillips did a great job to hold on to the ball and the Yankees had themselves a win.

The victory pulled the Yankees to within 6 games of Boston in the AL East and more importantly, put them into a virtual tie with Seattle for the wild-card lead. The Mariners lost earlier in the day to the Angels, who completed a 3 game sweep of their divisional rivals.

The game was scoreless in the 2nd, when the Yankees put 2 aboard with 2 outs. Jorge Posada singled, for the 1st of his 3 hits, and Robinson Cano drew a walk. Melky Cabrera battled Beckett until he hit a sharp grounder through the middle for an RBI single and a 1-0 lead. Cano raced to 3rd on the play and Cabrera moved up to 2nd when Beckett delivered a wild pitch to Johnny Damon. Damon, who had the game winning 2-run HR on Tuesday, came through against his former teammates again, singling through the left side for a 3-0 lead.

Clemens battled all night, and although he walked those 5 batters and hit another (Pedroia), he didn't allow a hit until Ortiz hit a mammoth upper deck home run with one out in the 6th. Ortiz has now hit a minimum of 25 HRs for 5 straight years. Clemens issued a 2-out walk to Youkillis and Drew singled through the ride side, but the Rocket came back to retire Varitek on a ground out to Cano.

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The victory clinched the 3rd straight series win for the Yankees over the Red Sox.

The victory was #354 lifetime for Roger Clemens. He recorded 2 strikeouts, giving 4,666, 2nd only to Nolan Ryan.

A-Rod's home run was his 508th, tying him with Frank Thomas for 20th all time.



photos courtesy of AP