Red Sox Take Game 1 vs. Yanks; Tie Atop AL East

Sports Illustrated

Red Sox 6 Yankees 4
Winning Pitcher: Jon Lester (8-2)
Losing Pitcher: Freddy Garcia (4-5)
Save: Jonathan Papelbon (12)


Recap
The Red Sox came into Tuesday night's game one game back in the AL East, and were able to pull out a victory in the first game of the series to create a tie atop the division. Boston started early against Yankees starter Freddy Garcia, with a lead off home run from Jacoby Ellsbury as the Bleacher Creatures shouted their "Boston Sucks" chants. After a walk to Dustin Pedroia, Adrian Gonzalez blasted one off the center field wall to knock Pedey in, and legged out his second triple of the year. Kevin Youkilis then came up and hit a fly ball to the left field warning track for a sac fly, and Jon Lester was given a three run advantage before he even stepped on the field. Lester was far from dominant, though. He walked Curtis Granderson, then nailed Teixeira in the kneecap with an errant cutter, and Tex went right to the ground and left the game. Granderson ended up coming around to score on a Cano single, but the Yankees left the bases loaded after, and Lester got out of the inning despite throwing 33 pitches in first inning. The Red Sox came back out in the second and continued to shell Garcia, who was hanging out at around 86-87 MPH, and he was pulled after allowing another run on an RBI double from Pedroia. The offenses then took a back seat as Lester and the Yankees bullpen took over the next few innings. Despite the loss, the MVP of the game for New York was reliever Hector Noesi, who came on in the fourth. He pitched a scoreless 4th, but ran into a little trouble in the fifth. After leading the inning off with a walk to Gonzalez, he served up a shot to David Ortiz, who pissed off some Yankees by flipping his bat and admiring his work. However, after allowing that homer, Noesci shut down the Red Sox offense, setting down the remaining 14 batters they had in the game. Meanwhile, Lester continued to be a bit shaky in the bottom of the fifth, allowing a two run double to Nick Swisher to cut the Red Sox lead to 6-3. Surprisingly, he came back out in the 6th and set New York down 1-2-3 for the first time in the game. He was done after the inning, and finished with 6 IP, allowing 3 runs on 8 hits, a walk, 2 hit batters, and 5 Ks. After the score remained the same headed into the 9th, when Papelbon, who is currently appealing a suspension for bumping an ump on Saturday, came on for the save. It wasn't his prettiest outing, and he allowed a run, but he held on and struck out A-Rod, who represented the tying run, to close out the game and give Boston the victory.


Home Runs
Boston: Jacoby Ellsbury (7), David Ortiz (14)
New York: None  



News and Notes

• Some injury news. Teixeira, who as I mentioned was taken out of the game in the first after being hit in the kneecap by Lester, had X-Rays taken after the game, and they came up negative. Joe Girardi said he would likely need a couple of days off, so he may be out for the rest of the game. Marco Scutaro came back for his first game since May 7th. He went 1-4. Finally, in the 7th inning, Bobby Jenks had to be removed from the game with back tightness. From all accounts I have heard, he will have a precautionary MRI tomorrow, but should be fine and avoid another DL stint.

The Red Sox and Yankees will continue their series tomorrow night at 7:05 PM ET. Boston sends Tim Wakefield (2-1 4.40) to the mound against AJ Burnett (6-3 3.86).