The New York Yankees rally to tie and then beat the Boston Red Sox in 12 innings

The New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox by the score of 4-3 in 12 innings on Tuesday night. The game was played at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. David Phelps started for the Yankees and pitched pretty well. The Yankees bullpen pitched well and Raul Ibanez led the Yankees offense. Jon Lester started for the Red Sox and was in trouble all night but limited the damage. The Red Sox bullpen was pretty good and their offense was led by Dustin Pedroia and James Loney. 
Phelps pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up three hits and two runs with two walks and four strikeouts. Boone Logan faced two hitters and struck out one, Joba Chamberlain pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out one and Dave Robertson pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts. Rafael Soriano pitched two innings giving up two hits and a run with a walk and two strikeouts and Derek Lowe pitched two innings giving up two hits and a walk with a strikeout. Lowe picked up his ninth win of the season. Lester pitched five innings giving up eight hits and an unearned run with a walk and a strikeout. Rich Hill pitched an inning giving up two hits and two strikeouts, Junichi Tazawa pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout and Craig Breslow pitched an inning giving up a hit. Andrew Bailey pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up three hits and two runs with two walks, Mark Melancon pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings with a strikeout and Vincente Padilla pitched an inning giving up a hit. Andrew Miller took his second loss of the season pitching 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and a run with two walks and a strikeout.

Derek Jeter had two hits, Nick Swisher had two hits and drew two walks and Alex Rodriguez had two hits and drew a walk. Robinson Cano had two hits, Russell Martin had a hit and Francisco Cervelli drew a walk. Curtis Granderson had two hits and drew a walk, Eduardo Nunez had two hits and an RBI and Ibanez had two hits and three RBI in pinch hitting duty. Ichiro Suzuki had a hit, Swisher, Jeter and Nunez each hit a double. Ibanez hit a homerun, the Yankees were 4-11 with runners in scoring position and left 14 men on base. Granderson had a stolen base and Gardner was picked off.

Jacoby Ellsbury had a hit, Pedroia had two hits, an RBI and drew a walk and Daniel Nava drew a walk. Cody Ross had an RBI, Loney had two hits and an RBI and Jarrod Saltalamacchia had a hit and drew a walk. Pedro Ciriaco had two hits and drew a walk, Pedroia hit a double and Loney hit a homerun. The Red Sox were 0-5 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. Ciriaco had a stolen base and committed an error. Breslow had a pickoff.

In the first inning the Red Sox took a 2-0 lead. Pedroia hit an RBI double and Ross had a sacrifice fly. The Yankees cut the lead to 2-1 in the second on a Nunez RBI single. The score stayed that way until the ninth inning. Loney hit a solo homerun to make it 3-1. Ibanez hit a two run homerun in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game at three. The Yankees won the game 4-3 in the 12^th inning when Ibanez hit an RBI walk-off single.

The Yankees have won the first two games of this three game series. The Yankees record improved to 94-67 and the Red Sox record dropped to 69-92. The Yankees and Red Sox will play the final game of the regular season on Wednesday night. If the Yankees win they will clinch the number one seed in the American League and not play until Sunday against the wild card team in their home ballpark. If they lose and the Orioles win then they have to play a one game playoff to determine the division winner.