Yankees split a doubleheader with the Sox as the Sox win the nightcap in 14 innings

The New York Yankees split two games with the Boston Red Sox on Sunday afternoon and night. They won the first game in the afternoon by the score of 6-2 and lost the night game by the score of 7-4 in 14 innings. A.J. Burnett started the day game and pitched very well, Ivan Nova pitched on in the night game but not his best. The Yankees offense in both games was pretty good. The bullpen wasn’t bad either in either of the games. Scott Proctor gave up the runs in the night cap to lose the game but everyone else pitched well.
Burnett pitched 7 2/3 innings in the day game giving up five hits and two runs. He walked two and struck out six. Burnett is 11-11 on the season. Dave Robertson pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up one hit and he struck out three. Nova pitched 6 1/3 innings giving up eight hits and four runs in the night game. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out three. Boone Logan faced two batters and retired them both, one with a strikeout, Rafael Soriano pitched an inning giving up a hit and Mariano Rivera pitched an inning giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one. Raul Valdes gave up a hit and retired one batter, Cory Wade pitched two innings without giving up a hit and he struck out two and Aaron Laffey pitched two inning giving up two hits and he struck out one. Proctor took the loss giving up 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and three runs with a walk and a strikeout.

In the first game Brett Gardner had a hit, Derek Jeter had three hits and an RBI and Alex Rodriguez had a hit, RBI and a walk. Jorge Posada had two hits, two RBI and a walk, Andruw Jones had a walk and Russell Martin had two walks. Brandon Laird had a hit and a walk and Ramiro Pena had a walk. Jeter had a double and Posada had a homerun. The Yankees were 3-10 with runners in scoring position and they left seven men on base. Gardner and Jeter had a stolen base and Martin was caught stealing.

In the first game the Yankees scored two runs in the first inning. Gardner scored on an error by Jarrod Saltalamacchia. A wild pitch by Tim Wakefield scored the second run. In the third Posada hit a two run homerun to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead. Ellsbury hit a solo homerun for the Red Sox to make it 4-1 in the fourth inning. In the fifth Rodriguez hit an RBI single to increase the Yankees lead to 5-1. In the sixth Ellsbury hit another solo homerun to make it a 5-2 game. Jeter hit an RBI double in the sixth to make it 6-2 and complete the scoring in the game.

In the night game Teixeira hit a two run double and he scored on an error in the same play to make it 3-0. That was in the first inning and in the fifth J.D. Drew had an RBI single to make it 3-1. In the sixth Adrian Gonzalez hit a ground out and a run scored making it a 3-2 game. In the seventh the Red Sox took the lead with two runs. Marco Scutaro hit an RBI double and Jason Varitek hit an RBI single to make it 4-3 Red Sox. In the bottom of the seventh Dickerson hit a sac fly to tie the game at four. The game would remain tied until the 14th inning when Ellsbury hit a three run homerun to give the Red Sox a 7-4 lead that they would hold onto.

The Red Sox desperately needed the win as they were only ½ a game ahead of the Rays for the wild card. The two teams would have been tied if the Yankees won. The Red Sox now have a game lead with three to play. The Red Sox will head to Baltimore for three games and the Yankees will play at Tampa for three games. The Yankees have clinched everything so they will probably treat these last three games like spring training games. Hector Noesi will pitch on Monday, Bartolo Colon on Tuesday and TBA on Wednesday. I am sure the regulars will get some at bats but probably not play full games or rotate them where they won’t play all three games. I am not exactly sure how long Noesi could go but he did start the other day in a doubleheader so maybe he can give them four or five innings. James Shields will start for the Rays. It should be an interesting final three days of the regular season. The Yankees know they will play on Friday and Saturday at home and most likely at 8:30PM but the time isn’t set yet and the opponent is yet to be determined. The Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers are the two possible opponents. The Rangers have a one game lead. The Rangers will play at Anaheim and the Tigers will play at home against the Indians.