THE YANKEES BATTER THE FADING SOX

 

The Boston Red Sox finally arrived in the city of New York to play the Yankees in the 2012 season.  In a scheduling quirk, the Major League Baseball schedule did not send Boston to New York until July 27th.  The Yankees and Red Sox had squared off six times previously, but tonight's game marked the first time the rivals have competed in Yankee Stadium.

 

The game started with a bang.  Dustin Pedroia homered to left off Phil Hughes. Red Sox up 1-0 in the first.

 

The Yankees scored three runs of their own in the bottom of the first.  Curtis Granderson doubled with one out, Robinson Cano singled, and a 4-6 fielder's choice off the bat of Mark Teixeira scored Granderson.  Off the bat, Teixeira's ground ball looked like a sure double play, but the Red Sox were a tick slow turning the play and Tex really busted it out of the box to beat the relay throw.  The Yankees had tied the game at 1-1.  

Missing the double play proved critical for the Red Sox as Raul Ibanez followed Tex with a line shot home run to right field giving the Yankees a 3-1 lead in the first.

 

Phil Hughes pitched OK, but allowed additional solo home runs to Carl Crawford in the third and Jarrod Saltalamacchia in the fourth inning.  At that point Hughes had allowed as many home runs as he had recorded strikeouts, three of each.  The three home runs allowed brought Hughes' total to 25 home runs allowed in 121.1 innings of work.  However, Hughes really righted the ship and retired 11 of the next 12 batters following the fourth inning homer.  

The Yankees added two runs in the fourth inning on an Ichiro Suzuki single followed by a Russell Martin home run to left.  When Hughes left the game after the seventh, the Yankees held a 6-3 lead and David Robertson came and recorded a scoreless inning of work, allowing only a two out single to left by Pedroia.  

 

The Red Sox went to Mark Melancon in the bottom of the eighth.  He made a real mess of things... allowing a double to Andruw Jones, hitting Eric Chavez with a pitch, yielding a walk to Derek Jeter and finally, and most dramatically, allowing a grand slam home run by Curtis Granderson.  Granderson's blast was his 28th of the year and the 5th grand slam of his career.  The Yankees took a 10-3 lead at that point.

 

Cody Eppley allowed two hits in the ninth but no runs in closing out the night for the Yankees.  In many respects the game was a typical Red Sox-Yankees match up except for one thing.  The game ended in 2 hours and 41 minutes, the quickest finish since Randy Johnson beat the Sox in an ultra quick 1-0 affair.  

 

The final in tonight's game, Yankees 10 - Red Sox 3.  Game two of the series takes place tomorrow afternoon at 4:05 at the Stadium.

 

 

--Frank Gentry, BYB Writer

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