Phelps Gets His Irish Up and Yankees Win

David Phelps didn't get too much notice when he attended the University of Notre Dame. After all, baseball took a backseat to football and both men and women's basketball. But since the start of the 2012 baseball season, plenty of people are paying attention to the former Fighting Irishmen.

Phelps bounced back from a pair of poor starts to limit the Boston Red Sox to one run in 5.2 innings pitched and the Yankees hung on for a 5-4 win at Fenway Park. The win kept the Yankees tied for first place in the AL East with Baltimore, which beat Tampa Bay for the second straight night.

The win didn't come without some rough moments, the most worrisome of which was when Derek Jeter had to leave the game after he lunged in attempt to beat out a play at first base and came up hobbled. After  the game, Jeter repeated that he "was fine" an

d "it's no big deal", and that he would not talk about the injury. The captain also insisted he'll be in the lineup for the series finale on Thursday.

The Yankees went back to their home run ways to take the lead in the 4th. With the game scoreless, Curtis Granderson parked his 36th home run over the wall in right for a 1-0 lead  against Aaron Cook and later in the inning Robinson Cano hit a two-run into the seats atop the Green Monster. The home run was the 30th of the year, a career high for the Yankees second basemen.

Granderson hit a second home run, this time with a man aboard, in the 7th inning to provide the margin of victory.  While Granderson's home run totals measure up to his terrific 2011, the center fielder is well below last year's RBI totals and his two strikeouts last night gave him a career high of 170 (one more than last season). The Yankees will put up with the K's if Granderson can continue to drive in runs as he did last night and on this past Sunday when he had five RBI in a victory against the O's.

Phelps held the Red Sox scoreless until the 4th inning when James Loney singled in Dustin Pedroia, but Phelps avoided further trouble by getting Cody Ross to bounce into an inning ending DP.

Another double play in the 6th proved to be crucial after Phelps allowed a two-out single to Pedroia. It ended the night for the 25-year old, who won his first game since August 13 and evened his record up at 4-4. The Red Sox didn't make it easy for the Yankees pen; they scored a pair of runs off Cody Eppley, Boone Logan, and Joba Chamberlain in the 7th, and Rafael Soriano gave up a solo home run to Jarrod Saltalmacchia in the 9th. Sotiano was nearly in more trouble when Daniel Nava's fly ball to left came within inches of scraping the Green Monster before it landed in Chris Dickerson's glove for the first out of the inning and Soriano went on to record his 37th save.

Notes

In a wild sequence in the 8th inning, home plate umpire  Alfonso Marquez tossed Cody Ross, Bobby Valentine and third base coach Jerry Royster from the ball game.  Ross struck out looking and argued the call, which led to the triple ejection sequence. Valentine got his money's worth in the argument that ensued and anyone who can read lips got an eyeful.