I had to make a cameo appearance at an engagement party so I missed most of the Red Sox-Yankees game yesterday afternoon, except for the first couple innings on the radio and a couple frantic checks of my Droid.
So while I didn't see much of it (I did watch the highlights last night), I felt it my duty to report on the result since it was rather insane.
The Red Sox (69-43) beat CC Sabathia (16-6) for the fourth time this season in a 10-4 romp at Fenway Park over the Yankees (69-43).
It's hard to gauge which is more unlikely, that Boston has owned Sabathia (the AL Cy Young favorite) so much or that John Lackey (10-8) beat him yesterday. The win meant that the teams have the same exact record and therefore tonight's game (weather permitting) will determine who leaves town in first place in the AL East.
The other huge storyline was the continued ascendancy to superstardom of Jacoby Ellsbury. He had a career-high six RBIs (first Red Sox leadoff man to do that since Ellis Burks (!) in 1987) in the win.
Some other wacky stats from this weird game: Carl Crawford was 4 for 4 with three runs, an RBI and a stolen base (he's reached base in six straight at bats) while Francisco Cervelli led the Yankees with three hits.
In six innings, Sabathia was tagged for seven earned runs on nine hits with a walk and six strikeouts. He'll likely face the Red Sox a few more times in the regular season (2 more series) before the playoffs but it has to give Boston plenty of confidence knowing they can beat New York's ace.
Lackey or Big Hoss as El Pres has dubbed him went six innings, allowing three earned runs on six hits with two walks and five strikeouts. It was the fifth straight decision that he's won.
The Red Sox went up 2-0 in the third on Ellsbury's sacrifice fly that scored Crawford and Dustin Pedroia's RBI double off the Monster that plated Jarrod Saltalamacchia (2 runs, 2 walks).
New York tied it up with a pair of runs in the fourth. A run scored on Nick Swisher's double play grounder and Eric Chavez (still alive and sporting a ridiculous moustache) hit an RBI single.
Boston scored five more times in the fourth. Crawford and Marco Scutaro had RBI singles which set it up for Ellsbury's big fly, a three-run bomb (his 19th of the season) to the first row of seats in right field.
The Yankees cut it to 7-4 as Derek Jeter had an RBI single in the fifth and Mark Teixeira hit a solo homer off Daniel Bard in the eighth.
Ellsbury added an RBI single in the eighth and Pedroia capped it off with a sacrifice fly.
If the rain lets up, Josh Beckett will face Freddy Garcia tonight in the series finale on Sunday Night Baseball. Beckett has absolutely owned the Yanks this season while Garcia has gotten roughed up in both his starts against the Red Sox this season. Boston looks to win the series and improve to 10-2 in 2011 against their biggest rivals.
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