Yankees 1, Red Sox 5: Michael Pineda ejected for using pine tar

Michael Pineda's night at Fenway didn't get off to a very good start and it would only get worse. After the Yankees stranded Carlos Beltran at first in the opening frame, the Red Sox quickly took the lead, tagging Pineda for two runs in the bottom half of the inning. Grady Sizemore led off the night for the Red Sox by ripping a standup triple into the right field corner, and he scored as the next batter, Dustin Pedroia, swatted a single up the middle. David Ortiz hit a huge pop fly that was caught on the warning track, and Mike Napoli hit a bloop single that moved Pedroia from first to third.  Pedroia scored when A.J. Pierzynski eventually hit a two-out RBI single to make it 2-0 after one.

Yankees Michael Pineda ejected for using pine tar

Michael Pineda tempted fate one too many times.

In the second inning, after another lackluster Yankee showing at the plate, Michael Pineda recorded two quick outs before Red Sox managerJohn Farrell came out to complain about Pineda using pine tar. Umpire Gerry Davis checked the ball, and then Pineda's neck (where the aforementioned pine tar was pretty blatantly placed), Davis ejected the Yankee pitcher for using a foreign substance. No matter how hypocritical it may be of Farrell doing this (Clay Buchholz, I'm looking at you), for God's sake Pineda, at least try to be subtle with all the pine tar. Pineda basically dared them to say something about it, and unfortunately, they did (although I bet every Red Sox pitcher is going to get a long hard look from opposing managers from here on out).

This forced Joe Girardi's hand, and he had to go to his bullpen much earlier than he wanted to. David Phelps was brought in, and he promptly struck out Grady Sizemore to end the inning.

Still, the Yankees couldn't find any success against Lackey, who struck out five through the first three innings. When Phelps returned to the mound, he found himself in trouble thanks to a throwing error from Derek Jeter and a ground rule double that bounced into the right field stands. Pedroia scored on the double, and David Ortiz, who had singled earlier in the inning, scored shortly thereafter on a Phelps wild pitch, making it 4-0 Red Sox at the end of three.

From there, the Yankees struggles only continued. While they tried to get something going in the top of the fifth, as  Gardner led the inning off with a single and moved to third on a one-out rule double hit by Kelly Johnson, Jacoby Ellsbury and Jeter failed to bring them home.

In the sixth, with the heart of the order up, Beltran led the inning off with a double, taking a low curve ball from Lackey and pounding it into right-center field. McCann then tapped out to the mound, but at least he advanced Beltran to third. Soriano, who had struck out his first two times up, then hit a towering fly ball that got within a few feet of going out, but it found its way into Sizemore's glove on the warning track. Still, Beltran tagged up, and the Yankees were finally on the board. While Teixeira followed that up with a strikeout, Lackey's potential shutout was finally dead.

Preston Claiborne entered the game in the bottom of the sixth and pitched relatively well, throwing scoreless sixth and seventh innings before giving up a run in the eighth and being replaced by Adam Warren. Warren finished up the inning without allowing any further damage. But all the necessary damage was already done. Koji Uehara came in and pitched a scoreless ninth, striking out Teixeira, Gardner, and Roberts after giving up a leadoff single to Soriano to finish off the Yankees. Overall tonight, John Lackey pitched well, throwing eight innings of one run ball, and the offense was never really able to find their rhythm, managing only eight hits and scoring only one run.

The dominant story of the evening, and one that will probably be in the news cycle for the next few days, is Michael Pineda's ejection for using pine tar.  There will probably be a suspension coming, so it seems that the Yankee pitching staff (already adjusting to the loss of Ivan Nova) will have to make even more adjustments in the short term.

Just hide it like everyone else, Pineda.