Yankees 7, Red Sox 8: Deflating

The game started rather well for the Yankees. Before the Red Sox recorded an out, the Yankees had a lead. But then CC Sabathia's performance was disappointing yet again and the Yankees fell in a hole again. But then a crazy thing happened: the offense fought back. But in the end, the offense failed to do anything in the late innings and the bullpen couldn't keep putting up scoreless innings, and the Red Sox came away with a 8-7 win in 11 innings.

The Yankees got on the board quickly in the first, thanks to some help from the Red Sox defense. Brett Gardner led off the game with a single. Ichiro Suzuki came up next and he grounded one back to the mound to Ryan Dempster. Dempster tried going to second to start a double play, but his throw was off the mark and went into center field. That allowed Gardner to go to third. With Robinson Cano up, Ichiro attempted to steal second. Jarrod Saltalamacchia's throw from behind the plate was also off. That allowed Gardner to score and Ichiro to move over to third. Cano ended up drawing a walk, putting runners on the corners with still no outs. The first out finally came when Lyle Overbay struck out looking. Vernon Wells then came to the plate next and he singled to left field. That scored Ichiro and made it 2-0. The inning ended when Travis Hafner struck out and Eduardo Nunez grounded out. The Red Sox made two errors, the Yankees got two hits and found themselves with a 2-0 lead.

The Yankees then added another run in the second. Chris Stewart led off the inning by drawing a walk. He moved up to third on two consecutive ground outs. Ichiro was hit by a pitch, keeping the inning alive for Cano. Bob singled up the middle, which scored Stewart and made it 3-0.

The Red Sox nearly scored in the second inning but CC got out of it. However, they went on to score some in the third in a big way. Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a double and was bunted over to third by Shane Victorino. Dustin Pedroia singled to score Ellsbury and cut the lead to 3-1. David Ortiz then singled, moving Pedroia over to third. This brought Mike Napoli to the plate. Napoli hit a towering home run over the Monster, giving the Red Sox the lead. More from him later.

And after another scoreless inning by the Yankees' offense, the Red Sox struck again in the fourth. Stephen Drew led off the inning by being hit with a pitch. Jose Iglesias reached on a bunt single, followed by a single by Ellsbury, which loaded the bases. Shane Victorino then singled home two runs and made it 6-3. CC was having another bad outing, but did fight back to retire the next three hitters and get out of that jam. It was a pretty terrible inning, but it could've been much worse.

As Boston was scoring runs, the Yankees' offense quieted down. They put runners on in the fourth and fifth but couldn't do anything with them. Those quiet innings weren't helping, as the Red Sox continued to score. Jonny Gomes led off the fifth inning by launching a Sabathia pitch over the the wall, making it 7-3.

But then in the sixth inning, the Yankees got a rally going. Nunez led off the inning with a single. He stole second during Stewart's at bat, and then the catcher ended up drawing a walk. After Luis Cruz flied out, Gardner singled, scoring Nunez. That cut the lead to 7-4. Ichiro then singled as well, loading the bases for Cano. He kept it going by singling to left field, adding another run and making it 7-5. But of course, Overbay then promptly grounded into a inning-ending double play. More from him later, too.

Sabathia came back out for the bottom of the sixth but after issuing a lead off walk, he was taken out. CC went five innings, allowing seven runs on nine hits and two walks. Sabathia had another disappointing start in what's been a somewhat disappointing season from him.

Preston Claiborne came in for CC and got out of the inning, keeping the deficit at two runs.

The Yankees then got another rally going in the seventh. Wells drew a walk to lead off the inning. After Brent Lillibridge, pinch hitting for Hafner (Yes, that happened. I saw it with my own two eyes.), fouled out, Nunez singled, putting runners on first and second. Reliever Junichi Tazawa came in for the Red Sox and on the first pitch he threw Stewart laid down a bunt. Jose Iglesias threw the ball away, allowing Wells to score. That cut the Red Sox lead to one run. Luis Cruz came up next, and he grounded out. However, the ground out was enough to score Nunez from third, and the game was tied. Brett Gardner came up to bat next. He battled Tazawa in a 15-pitch at bat, before finally drawing a walk to bring up Ichiro. But after all that, Ichiro grounded out to end the inning. However, the Yankees had done enough to tie the game.

Claiborne came back out for the seventh inning, but after walking Gomes, he was pulled in favor of Boone Logan. Logan came in and struck out the side.

After the Yankees went down in order in the top of the eighth, David Robertson came in to pitch the bottom half. He retired Ellsbury, but then Victorino got a single off him. After Victorino stole second, Pedroia grounded one to Cruz. The third baseman couldn't get a grip on the ball and failed to get a throw off. That put runners at second and third with one out. Ortiz came up next and drew a walk. That loaded the bases for Napoli. Robertson did his Houdini thing and got Napoli to ground into an inning-ending double play.

Lillibridge led off the ninth with a single but was stranded. After that, Shawn Kelley came in to pitch the bottom of the ninth. He contined the scoreless streak from the bullpen and threw a 1-2-3 inning to send the game to extras.

The Yankees threatened in the top of the tenth, with both Gardner and Cano singling. But, Overbay grounded into another inning-ending double play to end that chance.

Kelley came back out and struck out the side in the bottom of the tenth, giving the offense another chance.

In the top of the 11th with two outs, Nunez hit a single to keep the inning alive. During Stewart's at bat, Nunez tried to steal second. Replays show that he was safe and beat the tag, but the umpire called him out. Considering this offense, it's hard to see him scoring if the correct call was made. However, it would've been nice to at least see, considering what happened a few minutes later.

Adam Warren came in to the pitch the 11th. He retired Pedroia and Ortiz relatively easily, bringing Napoli to the plate. Warren got him down to the last strike, but Napoli homered to straight away center to end the game. The Red Sox came away with a 8-7 win and the Yankees come away with one of the most disappointing losses of the season.

Next up for the Yankees is another road series. The Yankees go to Texas to take on the Rangers in a series starting tomorrow. First pitch is at 7:05 eastern. Ivan Nova gets the start for the Yankees and Yu Darvish goes for Texas.

Box score. Graph thingy.