Mood Music - No Children by The Mountain Goats (Repost, but whatever)
The New York Yankees fell to the Boston Red Sox 3-2 in the tenth inning, dropping the series and falling out of first place. After both Freddy Garcia, Josh Beckett, and both bullpens worked in and out of trouble most of the game, the Yankees took a 2-1 lead into the ninth inning.
After a Marco Scutaro double led off against Mariano Rivera, the Red Sox ABC'd him home with a sac bunt and a sac fly. In the tenth, the Sox walked off against Phil Hughes with a David Ortiz double, a Carl Crawford intentional walk, and a Josh Reddick RBI single.
Glimmers of Hope
- Freddy Garcia's smoke machine let him throw five innings of one run ball, a much better showing than his last start against the Red Sox.
- The Yankees offense should have scored more than two runs against Josh Beckett and the cavalcade of Boston relievers. The Yankees totaled eight hits and four walks, but often fell victim to loud outs with runners in scoring position. And when the big hits did come (home runs from Eduardo Nunez and Brett Gardner), the bases were empty.
- Brett Gardner could run backwards and still steal on Jason Varitek.
- Escapery and solid pitching from Cory Wade and David Robertson. Rafael Soriano fired a 1-2-3 inning against the middle of the Boston order. Even Boone Logan pitched decently, victimized only by David Ortiz's personal strike zone and a swinging bunt.
- Phil Hughes gave it up in the tenth inning, but his fastball was there, he threw decent looking curveballs, and even a good change up in a fastball count. He threw David Ortiz a mistake and paid for it, but, even coming into a tough spot, he didn't look like the Master Chef of April.
Angry Dome
- ESPN is completely unwatchable. Occasional insight from Orel Hershiser gets completely drowned out by blather from Bobby Valentine, and for god knows what reason, Curt Schilling. They did manage to find time between sessions of adoring Dustin Pedroia's mannerisms to twist Schilling's arm into talking about how awesome of a pitcher he was. But, they had four hours to get all of their bases covered.
- Mariano Rivera didn't have the location on his cutter. This seems to be happening more than I care to investigate.
- Eric Chavez really took over for Jorge Posada. 0-4 with 3 Ks.
- This was a very, very winnable game.
Play of the Game: The walkoff
Comment of the Game: What needs to happen to Curt Schilling