It's no secret that Josh Beckett has had New York's number all season. As I stated in the preview, Beckett had compiled 27 innings in four starts, allowing 16 hits, three earned runs, seven walks and 30 strikeouts. Tonight, the Yankees finally figured him out in the top half of the sixth and it seemed as if the stars had aligned for a win.
I know, Yankees and Red Sox games always go back and forth. But let's be honest, who expected the Yankees to win tonight? Hughes has been inconsistent and Beckett has been nothing short of brilliant this year.
Unfortunately, Phil Hughes and Boone Logan allowed the flood gates to open and the Red Sox came back to win 9-5. Boston is now 11-3 against New York this season and maintains a one game lead in the loss column.
Complete breakdown after the jump.
Early on, things looked pretty positive. Hughes came out of the gate throwing 94-95 miles per hour, making Jacoby Ellsbury and David Ortiz look like fools in the first inning and even pitching well in the second inning.
Derek Jeter's RBI single, after a double by Eduardo Nunez in the top of the third, drove in Nunez to give the Yankees an initial 1-0 lead.
Hughes allowed hard hit balls off the bats of Marco Scutaro and and Jacoby Ellsbury to set the table for Boston in the bottom of the third. Dustin Pedroia's sharp groundout to third allowed Scutaro to score and tie the game at one. Jed Lowrie would single home Ellsbury before the inning ended to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead.
In the fifth, Adrian Gonzalez would reach base with a two-out single to right. And just like clockwork, Hughes served up a fastball over the plate that Ortiz didn't miss. The ball was crushed to dead centerfield that put the Sox up 4-1.
Surprisingly, the Yankees figured out Beckett in the sixth. Mark Teixeira was the beneficiary of a hit-by-pitch and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Robinson Cano roped an RBI double into left centerfield to slice the lead in half. Nick Swisher would work a walk to set up Eric Chavez's line drive triple down the left field line to score Cano and Swisher and tie the game at four. Nunez's sacrifice fly gave the Yankees a 5-4 lead.
Too bad it didn't last long.
Hughes issued a walk to Josh Reddick and a funky RBI double down the left field line to Jason Varitek before being removed from the game in favor of Boone "Loogy" Logan. Ellsbury only had five at-bats against Logan in his career before tonight, and had three hits in those five at-bats. I know, "small sample size." Heck, Logan's last 8.1 innings have given us 14 strikeouts, two walks and seven hits. Regardless, I did not expect a home run to be served up to give the Red Sox a 7-5 lead. At this point, things looked pretty bad.
And then they got worse. Luis Ayala allowed Reddick's ground rule double to start off the eighth inning, which was followed by a Varitek home run that electrified Fenway Park and put the Yankees away for good.
Daniel Bard and Josh Papelbon combined for two innings of shutout relief, striking out three.
Hughes' final line for the night: 5.2 innings, eight hits, two walks, four strikeouts and six earned runs. Not so great.
Jeter was the only Yankee with more than one hit tonight.
Finale is tomorrow at 7:10 EST, when A.J. Burnett will face off against Jon Lester. Oh boy...
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