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Despite Carlos Beltran playing first base and a pitcher potentially having to come in and play second, the Yankees somehow won this game. Ivan Nova was solid but unspectacular and the offense wasn't great with the exception of a few at bats. It was a game that the Yankees could very easily have lost. But they didn't. They beat the Red Sox 3-2 and I'll take that.
The Yankees could have and should have scored in the bottom of the first. Beltran hit a one-out single and moved to third when Jacoby Ellsbury doubled. Alfonso Soriano hit a fly ball that was caught by Jackie Bradley Jr. in center. Both runners tagged up. Ellsbury was thrown out at third and was tagged out before Beltran was able to cross the plate. A sac fly somehow turned into an inning-ending double play.
That came back to haunt the Yankees when the Red Sox got a run in the second. After the first two hitters went down, Ryan Roberts kept the inning alive with a single. Roberts moved to third when a Bradley grounder deflected off Nova's foot and went for an infield single. Jonathan Herrera then singled to score Roberts. Grady Sizemore hit a fourth consecutive single, but Brett Gardner made a nice throw to get Bradley at the plate to keep the score at 1-0.
The Yankees would eventually get on the board in the bottom of the third. Brett Gardner hit a one-out single and came around to score when Beltran homered. That gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead.
In the bottom of the fourth, the Yankees added another run on a crazy play. Brian McCann and Yangervis Solarte drew back-to-back walks to start the inning. Kelly Johnson then grounded into a force out at second, moving McCann over to third. Francisco Cervelli then appeared to ground into an inning-ending double play, injuring himself in the process. That brought Joe Girardi out of the dugout for two reasons: to check on Cervelli and to review the play at first. It was a close play but the call was overturned, allowing McCann, who had ran home on the play, to score. That increased the Yankee lead to 3-1. Red Sox manager John Farrell then came out of the dugout. He proceeded to be tossed after appearing to say some not nice things about the instant replay system (or they were exchanging recipes for scones, I can't read lips).
Cervelli had to come out of the game and with Derek Jeter and Brian Roberts unavailable, the Yankees had to get adventurous with the defensive alignments. Ichiro Suzuki (who had pinch run for Cervelli) was put in right field and Beltran was moved to first base. The Yankees got through the first inning of that defensive alignment with no damage done.
In the top of the sixth, the Red Sox got a run back by means that had nothing to do with the infield. Mike Napoli crushed a Nova pitch deep over the left-center field wall, cutting the score to 3-2.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Yankees had another scary moment as it looked like Solarte may have also hurt himself on a play at first base. He walked back gingerly to the dugout, but would come back out for the top of the seventh.
After surviving the bottom of the seventh with no one getting hurt running to first, Nova came back out for the eighth. After getting Xander Bogaerts to fly out, Nova was taken out. It was a nice come back for Nova after his previous start. He went 7.1 innings, allowing just two runs on eight hits while striking out four.
Matt Thornton came in to face David Ortiz. Ortiz crushed a ball to right but Ichiro made an incredible catch at the wall for the second out. After that extremely loud out, David Phelps was brought in. Phelps proceeded to load the bases by allowing a double to Napoli, walking Daniel Nava and hitting A.J. Pierzynski with a pitch. Phelps managed to get out of it by striking out Mike Carp to keep the Yankees in front.
After the Yankees couldn't add any runs in the bottom of the eighth, Shawn Kelley came in to pitch the ninth. The ninth turned out to be way less eventful than the eighth and Kelley pitched a 1-2-3 inning to finish off a tense 3-2 win.
The Yankees will get the day off tomorrow. (A needed one after tonight.) The Cubs will then come to New York for a series starting Tuesday night at 7:05 eastern.