Four Real? Pineda a Man of Substance as Red Sox win Pine-Gate Game 4/23/14 (VIDEO)

Michael Pineda's neck in the second inning of
 Wednesday night's Red Sox - Yankees game.
Boston, Ma- John Lackey pitched 8 great innings, recording eleven strikeouts and scattering 7 hits to give the Red Sox a much needed win over the AL East leading Yankees. Unfortunately, his story was overshadowed by Yankees pitcher Michael Pineda's neck, which was covered with pine tar in the second inning. When the Sox last faced Pineda in New York, he covered his hand in pine tar and pitched a gem for the win. Boston noted the incident, but did not report it to the umpires. John Farrell was given no choice but to talk tonight, as the whole world was waiting to look at Pineda up close to see if he would be dumb enough to try it again; unfortunately for baseball, he was. MLB warned Pineda after the last incident, and because he didn't follow their advice, he will most likely be suspended for at least 2 starts for his actions. When it was all over, Boston took the game to bring them within 2 1/2 games of the Yankees. Here are the four at bats that changed the game:

1) Bottom of the first inning, and Boston scores only their third and forth runs of the season in the first. Grady Sizemore starts the game with a triple to the right field wall, and Dustin Pedroia follows up with a single up the middle to score Sizemore. AJ Pierzynski is jammed by a 2-1 fastball but puts enough on it to push in through Jeter's legs and into shallow center field to plate Pedey and the Sox lead 2-0.

2) Bottom of the second inning and with two outs, Red Sox manager calls time out and asks to speak to the umpire. He asks for the crew to check Pineda, which they do. Ump Gerry Davis finds pine tar on Pineda's neck, and ejects him from the game, leaving New York to go into their bullpen early in the game.

3) Bottom of the third, and Boston doubles their lead. Dustin Pedroia reaches on a Derek Jeter error, and then David Ortiz singles to right. Mike Napoli follows by placing a 1-2 fastball into the right field seats on a bounce to score Pedey, and then the Red Sox score later in the inning on a wild pitch. The Red Sox could have blown the game open this inning, but strikeouts by Mike Carp and Jackie Bradley ended the threat. 4-0 Red Sox.

4) Top of the fifth inning, and the Yankees threaten. Brett Gardner singles and Kelly Johnson crushes a ball to right field that luckily bounces into the stands for a ground rule double to keep the speedy Gardner at third. John Lackey bears down and gets Jacoby Ellsbury to fan on a wicked slider and then gets Jeter to turn over a fastball for a weak groundball out to retire the side.

In the ninth, Koji Uehara shut down the Yankees on fourteen pitches to preserve the win. Tomorrow, Felix Doubront faces CC Sabathia at 7:10 at Fenway Park.

Like me? Tweet me! @Red33Sox