Yankees Lose to Red Sox 9-5

The Yankees lose to the high powered Boston offense, as Phil Hughes may be losing his job.

Phil Hughes was quickly earning his spot in the Yankees’ rotation before his last two outings. Hughes only lasted 5.2 innings and gave up six runs for the second straight outing.  The combination of Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia starting to pitch well again with Hughes’ past two outings has put Hughes’ starting job in jeopardy to say the least.

The first run of the game came in the third inning. Derek Jeter hit his 3,060^th hit, tying him with Craig Biggio for 20^th on the all-time list, driving in Leo Nunez. The ball was lined into centerfield and bounced out a of a diving Jacoby Ellsbury’s glove.

Phil Hughes didn’t let up a run until the third inning when Red Sox captain, Dustin Pedroia batted in Marco Scutaro.  Following that at bat, with one out, Hughes intentionally walked David Ortiz for the shot at a double play.  With runners on first and third, third baseman Jed Lowrie hit a liner into right field scoring Ellsbury. That run gave the Red Sox a 2-1 lead after three innings.

The Red Sox were able to add another two runs in the fifth.  With a runner on, Ortiz stepped up to the plate and took a fastball deep to centerfield expanding the Boston lead to 4-1.

Beckett has been dominant against the Yankees all season, with a 1.00 ERA.  He showed much of the same early.  It wasn’t until the top of the sixth when he started to show some signs of wear.  He led off the inning by hitting Mark Teixeira, then advancing him to second on a wild pitch.  Robinson Cano was up. He hit a double to left-center, scoring Teixeira, shrinking the lead to 4-2.

Still in the sixth, after Nick Swisher drew a no out walk, Eric Chavez hit a line drive to right field.  The ball bounced off the wall, crossing up the young right fielder, Josh Reddick. That allowed both runners to score and Chavez to get to third with a two RBI double, tying the game at fours. The Yankees weren’t done there. Nunez added another run, scoring Chavez from third on a sac fly giving the Yankees the 5-4 lead in the sixth.

After getting one out in the bottom of the sixth, Hughes walked Reddick after getting ahead in the count 0-2.  Jason Varitek came up to the plate next, hitting a ground ball down the third baseline into left field scoring Reddick from first to tie the game at fives. Hughes reached 100 pitches when Girardi took him out for Boon Logan with two outs left in the sixth.  Logan didn’t fair any better. He let up a two-run homerun to Ellsbury to give the Red Sox a 7-5 lead after six innings.

Luis Ayala relieved Boon Logan in the seventh inning and remained in the game for the eighth.  After Reddick reached on a ground-rule double, Varitek came up to bat.  He came through again with a big hit, sending a pitch into the Boston bullpen for their third two-run homer of the night. That gave the Red Sox a 9-5 lead, that would ultimately be the final score.

Beckett earned his 12^th win going seven innings, letting up five runs (four earned) on six hits, with eight strikeouts.  Daniel Bard and Jonathan Paplebon pitched the eighth and ninth innings respectively. Both held the Yankees to no runs, Paplebon earning his 30^th save of the season.

That win puts the Red Sox up 1.5 games in the AL-East with the rubber match of this series coming up Thursday, September 1^st.  That game starts at 7:10pm, pre-game at 6:30pm, with the struggling AJ Burnett going up against Boston’s left-handed ace, Jon Lester.  You can catch all your Yankees-Red Sox action on 104.5 “The Team” ESPN Radio.