Yankees 4, Red Sox 8: Yankees sloppy in loss

The Red Sox ensured themselves the series win this afternoon by beating the Yankees, and the margin of victory was greater than the four-run difference suggests. Boston chipped away at the Yanks throughout the game, scoring at least one run in four different innings. Starter Adam Warren can't take the blame for this one, as he went out and did his job to the tune of five hits, two walks, and one earned run over 5 1/3 innings. On a day where the Yanks were thin on arms and needed innings eaten, Warren couldn't go any further partially due to a pitch count elevated by some mistakes made in the field.

Sox starter Joe Kelly rendered Yankee hitters helpless, giving up one hit and striking out eight over seven innings. In the second inning, he found himself in a jam after an A-Rod single and walks from Garrett Jones and John Ryan Murphy loaded the bases with one out. Didi Gregorius brought a run in with a sacrifice fly, but the Yanks were unable to do anything more with the opportunity. Kelly retired the final 17 Yankees that he faced in a row, and after he was pulled that streak would go up to 19 before finally being broken in the bottom of the eighth. Kelly looked strong, but the Yanks helped him along by swinging liberally and failing to work deep into counts. Four of the Yankees five hits came after Kelly exited, and it was Gregorio Petit who got a mini-rally going with a single against Alexi Ogando. Gardner followed that with a single of his own, and Chris Young then launched a no-doubter into the seats in left field. That was the extent of their offense for the day.

The Yankees made a plethora of errors and mistakes in the field. It started in the top of the second, when A-Rod, who played first base for the first time today, was handcuffed a bit on a throw from Gregorius and the ball fell out of his glove. Then, on the next at-bat, Brett Gardner took an odd route on a fly ball he might have lost in the sun and it fell in for an RBI double. Later in the game, Matt Tracy, who was just called up today, made his major league debut. It appeared he was going to have himself a quick, 1-2-3 inning, until a throw to first from Chase Headley pulled A-Rod off the bag. It was initially ruled an out, but Boston successfully challenged the play and the inning would continue and fall apart from there, with the Sox adding on three more runs.

It was a game the Yanks will like to soon forget. Tomorrow night they'll have a chance to salvage the series as they end their home stand, and it will certainly help to have regulars like Mark Teixeira, Jacoby Ellsbury, and Brian McCann back in the lineup. Masahiro Tanaka returns to the hill for an 8:05 start against Clay Buchholz. The game will be on ESPN.

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