BOSTON — It’s usually an adventure when Boone Logan takes the mound, but last night, the only left-hander in the Yankees’ bullpen won a thrilling battle against Adrian Gonzalez — and helped beat the rival Red Sox.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth inning, Logan had the lefty-swinging Gonzalez in an 0-2 hole. He had thrown a fastball for a called strike one and tossed a slider that Gonzalez chased for strike two.
“I said if I just throw this next pitch, a slider in the dirt, he will swing over it,” Logan said, “and he did.”
Logan, who had relieved Bartolo Colon for Gonzalez’s at-bat, got the favorite to win the AL MVP to flail at a slider for strike three, helping to preserve the Yankees’ one-run lead and eventual 3-2 win. It was part of a superb effort by the unreliable Logan whose effort was matched by the equally unreliable Rafael Soriano.
After whiffing Gonzalez to end the fifth, Logan (3-2) began the sixth by getting Kevin Youkilis to ground out and striking out lefty-swinging David Ortiz with another slider. After Logan served up a double to Carl Crawford, Cory Wade came in to retire Jarrod Saltalamacchia and end the inning.
Catcher Russell Martin called Logan “super important, especially against the Red Sox.”
Entering the game, lefties were batting .246 against Logan; even worse, they had posted a .449 slugging percentage against him — with three homers and seven extra-base hits in 69 at-bats. Last year, lefties hit only .190 off Logan with no homers and just one extra-base hit in 79 at-bats.
Soriano’s effort was even more impressive. The recently-activated $35 million reliever, pitching for just the third time since May 13 thanks to a two-and-a-half-month stint on the disabled list with elbow inflammation, zipped through the Red Sox in the seventh inning, retiring them 1-2-3. Soriano got Josh Reddick to foul out to third, retired Marco Scutaro on a liner to left and struck out Jacoby Ellsbury.
“He’s back,” Martin said. “He’s got his 95-mph fastball. His slider’s super sharp. I think that’s the key.”
Last night was the first time Soriano, who has retired all nine men he has faced since coming off the disabled list, pitched in any inning but the eighth or ninth this year. He said he had no problem with taking the seventh.
“I’ll do any inning they give to me,” he said. “I’m here to pitch.”