Sox Hold on to Win 10-8

Mood Music - Hey Joe by Jimi Hendrix

When Andy Pettitte takes the hill, you're playing a team comprised of mainly AAA players, and Alex Rodriguez and Mark Teixeira both go deep twice in addition to home runs by Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher, you have to like your chances of coming out on top.

Not tonight.

The Yankees, and their season high six long balls, were outdone by the offensive juggernauts of the Red Sox: Jed Lowrie, Bill Hall, and Darnell McDonald (I'm probably being overly flippant here, Bill Hall has hit well all season and Jed Lowrie is a good player when healthy, but I think the point stands).  After a very promising first start back in the majors, Andy Pettitte had absolutely nothing tonight, and his line looks very, very ugly:

3.1 IP, 7R, 6 ER, 10 H, 1K.  Ugh, the Yankees are going to need him to be a lot better than that if they have plans for November baseball.

After Andy (and Jonathan Albaladejo) dug the Yankees a 10-1 hole, they began their valiant attempt at a comeback, started by Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez hitting back to back solo home runs off of Josh Beckett.  Using the long ball, the Yankees were able to slowly chip away at the Red Sox big lead, eventually getting the tying run to the plate in the bottom of the 9th.

Unfortunately for the good guys, Jonathan Papelbon struck out Robinson Cano (who looked lost at the plate all game) on a splitter (he has non-fastball pitches now?).  Tomorrow, Ivan Nova will go against Jon Lester as the Yankees try to recover.

Final notes:  The Rays defeated the Fightin' Showagons entirely Buck Showalter free Seattle Mariners, and so we are no longer in first.  Curtis Granderson rakes.

Comment Of The Game: FreeBradshaw for using "favring" as a verb.

Play Of The Game: Lowrie's home run.