Yankees Outslug Sox, 10-8

Not only were the New York Yankees looking to notch a win against their archrivals in the Boston Red Sox on Friday night, they were looking to end Sox starter Josh Beckett’s hot streak against the Yankees.

Beckett came into the game having won his last five decisions against the Yankees, with a 2.66 ERA in his last six starts against the Bronx Bombers. He was nowhere near as effective in the early going of this one but, lucky for the Sox, neither was Yankee starter Hiroki Kuroda.

The Yankees got things started right away; loading the bases with no outs in the top of the first against Beckett (4-7 4.43 ERA), and Robinson Cano opened the scoring by drawing a bases loaded walk. Mark Teixeira immediately followed with a two run single, and a Nick Swisher sacrifice fly (the second of the inning for the Yanks. So much for only scoring via the long ball.) opened up the Yankee lead to 4-0 after one third of an inning.

The first inning onslaught continued for the Yankees via a sacrifice fly from Eric Chavez, which scored Teixeira, extending the lead to 5-0 before the Red Sox even had an at-bat.

Boston answered promptly against Kuroda (8-7, 3.50 ERA). A sac fly by Ryan Kalish opened the Red Sox scoring in the bottom of the first. Adrian Gonzalez added an RBI double, and Jarrod Saltalamacchia tied the game with a three run home run to right field. Kuroda’s five run lead lasted a third of an inning.

New York wrested the lead back in the top of the second on an Alex Rodriguez RBI groundout, scoring Curtis Granderson who had tripled in the previous at-bat, but Boston equalized the game at 6 in the bottom of the inning through a David Ortiz RBI double.

Both pitchers settled down, putting up zeros into the bottom of the fifth, when a Mauro Gomez single knocked in Gonzalez to give the Sox a 7-6 lead. The RBI was the first of Gomez’ career. Each side went quietly into the seventh inning, getting into each other’s bullpens, where the Yankees erupted back in front.

 Teixeira made his presence felt again, this time with a two run triple into the famed “Triangle” in right center field, his third and fourth RBIs of the game, which gave the Yankees an 8-7 lead. Raul Ibanez tacked on another run, driving in Teixeira with an RBI double and Chavez scored Ibanez with a single to put the Yankees up a field goal, 10-7.

Cody Ross led off the bottom of the seventh with a home run that cleared the seating behind the Green Monster in left to cut the Yankee lead back to two. The Sox got two more men on base in the inning, but the combination of Cody Eppley and David Robertson got out of the jam to preserve the Yankee lead, a lead they would keep thanks to a four out save by closer Rafael Soriano.

The Yankees and Red Sox play in a double header tomorrow, with game one starting at 12:35 PM and game two beginning at 7:15 PM.