Game 112 - Red Sox 10, Yankees 4
Following last night's loss with Jon Lester on the mound, you might forgive Red Sox fans if they had a slightly less than confident feeling going into Saturday afternoon's C.C. Sabathia-John Lackey affair at Fenway. After all, despite the fact that the Red Sox were 3-0 versus Sabathia in 2011, the big Yankee lefthander has basically dominated the rest of the American League with a 16-2 record coming into the game. And Lackey? Well, let's just say that Red Sox fans are less than enamoured with his performance this season.
"Oh ye of little faith."
The Red Sox jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd inning on a sacrifice fly by Jacoby Ellsbury and an RBI double by Dustin Pedroia, only to see the Yankees tie the score in the top of the 4th. Nick Swisher grounded into a double play that scored one and Eric Chavez singled to left for the second run.
Enter Jacoby Ellsbury. Following RBI singles in the bottom of the 5th inning by Carl Crawford and Marco Scutaro, Ellsbury slammed the 19th home run of his ridiculously amazing season with two aboard off Sabathia to make the score 7-2. Ellsbury would finish the day with 6 RBI's.
Lackey pitched through the 6th inning allowing 3 runs (all earned) on 6 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5. In what has become a bit of a script, Aceves pitched a scoreless 7th, followed by Bard in the 8th who gave up an ultimately meaningless home run to Mark Teixeira, his 32nd of the season. Dan Wheeler pitched a scoreless 9th.
NOTES:
John Lackey entered the game with a 10.80 ERA against the Yankees this season.
Carl Crawford would appear to be just fine, thank you. He had four hits in four AB's and has six hits in his last six AB's.
Sooner or later, Jacoby Ellsbury has to become a VERY serious MVP candidate, if he hasn't already.
Mark Teixeira has 4 HR's in 14 appearances against Daniel Bard.
The Sox are 47-9 when they score 5 or more runs and 59-0 when leading after 8 (thanks, Jared Carrabis).
Tim McCarver offered to pay for a tray of beers spilled by a Fenway vendor near the Red Sox dugout.