The Yankees battle back and then lose to the Red Sox

The New York Yankees were defeated by the Boston Red Sox by the score of 8-6 on Saturday night. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. There was a two hour rain delay to start the game and CC Sabathia the Yankees starter seemed to suffer from it. He wasn’t very good especially in the first inning. Curtis Granderson had a bad misplay in the ninth inning which ended up costing the Yankees the game. Jon Lester started for the Red Sox and was ok. Adrian Gonzalez led the Red Sox offensive attack. 
Sabathia pitched six innings giving up eight hits and six runs with two walks and six strikeouts. David Phelps pitched two innings giving up a hit and striking out three and Rafael Soriano pitched an inning giving up two hits and two runs with a walk and a strikeout. He really shouldn’t of given up any runs but Grandersons miscue wasn’t an error. Phelps has been impressive retiring 22 of the last 23 batters he has faced with 12 strikeouts. Lester pitched six innings giving up four hits and four runs with two walks and six strikeouts. Matt Albers pitched an inning striking out one, Vincente Padilla pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and two runs with two strikeouts and Andrew Miller earned his third win of the season pitching to one batter and retiring him. Alfredo Aceves earned his 22^nd save of the season pitching a perfect inning with a strikeout.

Derek Jeter had an RBI, Mark Teixeira had two hits and two RBI and Andruw Jones drew a walk. Jayson Nix had a hit and two RBI, Russell Martin drew two walks and Ichiro Suzuki had a hit. Chris Stewart had a hit and an RBI and Raul Ibanez had a hit. Stewart, Nix and Teixeira each hit a homerun. The Yankees were 0-2 with runners in scoring position and they left one man on base.

Jacoby Ellsbury drew a walk, Pedro Ciriaco had three hits and an RBI and Dustin Pedroia had a hit, an RBI an drew a walk. Gonzalez had three hits and four RBI, Cody Ross had a hit and Will Middlebrooks had two hits, two RBI and drew a walk. Daniel Nava had a hit, Gonzalez and Middlebrooks each hit a double and Ciriaco hit a triple. Gonzalez also hit a homerun. The Red Sox were 3-5 with runners in scoring position and they left six men on base. Ciriaco had a stolen base.

In the first inning the Red Sox took a 3-0 lead. Gonzalez had an RBI double and Middlebrooks had a two run double. The Yankees scored a run in the third on a Stewart solo homerun. It was 3-1 Red sox and then they scored three runs in the fifth inning. Gonzalez hit a three run homerun to make it 6-1 Red Sox. The Yankees scored three runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Nix hit a two run homerun and Jeter hit an RBI groundout to make it 6-4. Teixeira hit a two run homerun to tie the game at six in the eighth inning. The Red Sox scored twice in the ninth to take the 8-6 lead and they held on to win the game. Ciriaco hit an RBI triple and Pedroia hit a sacrifice fly. The triple was a misplay by Granderson which should have been an easy out and the Yankees should have been tied going into the bottom of the ninth.

The two teams split the first two games and will play the rubber game on Sunday night. The Yankees have won six of the eight games this season between the two teams. The Yankees still hold an 11 game lead over the Red Sox for first place in the AL East. The Yankees have a nine game lead over the second place Baltimore Orioles.