The Yankees offense gets shutdown as the Red Sox even the series

The New York Yankees were defeated by the Boston Red Sox by the score of 4-1 on Saturday evening. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. David Phelps started for the Yankees and pitched well in what should be his final start before ace CC Sabathia returns next week. The Yankees offense didn’t do much against Jon Lester. Nick Swisher has been red hot and he led the Yankees offense. Lester started for the Red Sox and was great and Pedro Ciriaco led the Sox offense. He is hitting over 500 against the Yankees this season.  Phelps pitched 6 2/3 innings giving up three runs and seven hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out seven in the longest outing of his young career. Phelps lost his fourth game of the season. Boone Logan pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and a walk with a strikeout, Cody Eppley pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and a run with a walk and a strikeout. Clay Rapada pitched 2/3 of an inning retiring both batters and Derek Lowe faced one batter and retired him. Lester won his seventh game and pitched seven innings giving up five hits and a run with two walks and four strikeouts. Andrew Bailey pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit and striking out one, Craig Breslow pitched 2/3 of an inning retiring both batters and Alfredo Aceves pitched one inning giving up a hit and striking out one for his 25^th save.
Derek Jeter drew a walk, Swisher had three hits and Eric Chavez had a hit. Curtis Granderson had two hits, an RBI and drew a walk, Ichiro Suzuki had a hit and Granderson hit a double and hit a homerun. The Yankees were 0-9 with runners in scoring position and they left six men on base. Suzuki had a stolen base and Andruw Jones committed an error.
Carl Crawford had a hit, Dustin Pedroia had a hit and Adrian Gonzalez had two hits, two RBI and drew a walk. Scott Podsednik had a hit, Ciriaco had four hits and Nick Punto had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk. Punto, Pedroia and Ciriaco each hit a double. Gonzalez hit a homerun and the Red Sox were 1-10 with runners in scoring position and they left eight men on base. Crawford, Ciriaco and Punto each had a stolen base.
The Red Sox jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Gonzalez hit a two run homerun. In the fourth Granderson hit a solo homerun to make it a 2-1 game. In the fifth Punto hit an RBI double and it was 3-1 Red Sox. The Red Sox would score the final run of the game in the ninth inning as Eppley threw a wild pitch allowing Podsednik to score. The Yankees just couldn’t get anything going against Lester all day and then the bullpen.
The Yankees record fell to 71-49 and the Red Sox record improved to 59-62. The Yankees still lead the AL East by 5 ½ games depending on the outcome of the late games tonight. The Red Sox trail the Yankees by 12 ½ games. The two teams will play the rubber game of the three game series on Sunday night. The Yankees won 6-4 on Friday and then the Red Sox evened the series on Saturday evening.