Yankees 5, Red Sox 6: This one hurts

If you missed tonight's yesterday's game, or went to bed, then you missed an absolute roller coaster of a game. Not only did they set a record for longest game ever played at Yankee Stadium III, but they also set a record for the highest number of innings the Yankees have ever played in the first four games of the season. Unfortunately, they weren't able to get the win in the end.

Yesterday, Nathan Eovaldi made his Yankee debut, and like the majority of the rotation this week, he basically had just one bad inning and some bad luck. He gave up a couple of singles in the first inning, which resulted in one run scoring. Boston tacked on two more runs in the sixth after Daniel Nava ripped one that ricocheted off of Mark Teixeira's glove, went past a diving Gregorio Petit and into the outfield allowing Pablo Sandoval and Mike Napoli to score.

It was a quiet game for the Yankees up until the bottom of the sixth when they finally got on the board thanks to an RBI single off the bat of Alex Rodriguez, and a sac fly from Brian McCann. When the bottom of the ninth came around, it looked like the Yankees would go quietly, but with two outs, Chase Headley tied the game with a blast to left field.

Both teams emptied out their bullpens after that. The Yankees had already gone through Chris Martin, Justin Wilson and Dellin Betances before the ninth even started. Andrew Miller and David Carpenter held down the 10th and 11th, then Chasen Shreve came in for the 12th. He went on to pitch 3.1 innings, struck out four batters and threw 56 pitches. He did a hell of a job, and in all likelihood, Shreve will be sent down later today since he'll need time to recover.

By the time the 15th inning rolled around, the Yankees had no choice but to go to Esmil Rogers, the only man left in the bullpen, even though he had just pitched 2.1 innings on Thursday. He gave up a home run to David Ortiz in the 16th, to give the Red Sox a one-run lead. Game over? No way. When Friday turned into Saturday, Teixeira turned 35 years old, and as a birthday present to himself he hit a home run to tie the game back up at 4-4. He hit it off of Steven Wright, the Red Sox's knuckleballer who was possibly going to start Saturday's game.

After the 16th, Rogers settled down until the 18th, when he started things off by hitting Dustin Pedroia, then Sandoval hit an RBI up the middle to give Boston the lead. Game over? No way. Brian McCann hit a leadoff double, then Carlos Beltran doubled to left to drive in the run and tie the game back up at 5-5. Stephen Drew and Didi Gregorius both grounded out to end the inning.

With no one left, and Joe Girardi not wanting to turn to a position player, Rogers went back out for the 19th, even though his arm was in danger of falling off of his body. At this point you can't blame him at all for what happened. The Red Sox went on to take the lead back after Xander Bogaerts singled, stole second, advanced to third on a passed ball, and scored on a sac fly. When the inning was over, Rogers' pitch count was up to 81 pitches.

After rallying to tie the game so many times, the Yankees finally ran out of gas. In the bottom of the 19th, Jacoby Ellsbury led off with a base hit to right. After Brett Gardner flied out, Garrett Jones grounded into a double play to finally put an end to the game.

Also, sometime in the bottom of the 11th inning, some of the stadium lights went out and delayed the game for about fifteen minutes. They ended up subtracting that time from the official game time, otherwise this would have been the longest game (time-wise) in Yankee history.

They'll be back in a few hours for the second game of this series which will start at 1:05 pm EST. Adam Warren will take the mound, and he might be the only Yankee who will be well-rested.

Box score.