A keg behind second base and beer boilers hanging over belts were the only items missing last night at Yankee Stadium, where the Yankees and Red Sox pitched so poorly the baseball cathedral needs to be fumigated before Pope Benedict arrives Sunday.
Starters Clay Buchholz and Chien-Ming Wang repeated last Friday night’s match up in Boston, when Wang hurled a complete-game, two-hitter and Buchholz allowed a run in six innings. Last night they were awful. Buchholz gave up seven runs and eight hits inside of four innings. Wang, who spit out a two-run lead and a four-run bulge, gave up eight runs and nine hits in four-plus frames.
Only because the Red Sox bullpen was worse than the Yankees’ did the hosts outlast their blood rivals, 15-9, in front of 54,667 fans who were tricked into watching slow-pitch softball. It was the Yankees’ third straight victory and evened the season series at 2-2 with the Red Sox.
La Troy Hawkins, who switched from No. 21 to 22 before the game, provided two innings of scoreless relief and was the winner.
Before the slugfest Joe Girardi was asked considering the brutal April schedule, injuries to Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada and not having Joba Chamberlain since Sunday was being one-game over .500 acceptable.
“I would like to be better than that,” Girardi said. “We haven’t swung the bats and I am not satisfied with 8-7.”
Not only did the Yankees (9-7) swing the wood, they punished the ball, posting a season-high in runs. After hitting in freezers in Kansas City and Boston, the Yankees benefited from two games indoors at Tropicana Field and have scored 26 runs during the three-game winning streak.
Relegated to DH duties because of a sore right shoulder, Jorge Posada drove in three runs, including two with a double in the ninth when the Yankees padded a two-run lead by scoring four runs. Jason Giambi added a two-run double.
Alex Rodriguez gave an early hint the game was going to turn into a slugfest when he followed Bobby Abreu’s two-run homer off Buchholz in the first inning with a solo blast into the Red Sox bullpen. It was Rodriguez’ 522nd career homer, moving him into 15th place on the all-time list ahead of Willie McCovey and Ted Williams. Next up is Jimmie Foxx at 534 and Mickey Mantle at 536.
With Chamberlain in Lincoln, Neb., tending to his ailing father, Harlan, Girardi used Billy Traber and Brian Bruney to protect a two-run lead in the eighth rather than trust the game to Kyle Farnsworth, who somehow hurled a perfect eighth Tuesday against the Rays.
Traber did his job by getting the frigid David Ortiz (1-for-5) on a foul pop. Bruney surfaced and after giving up a single to Manny Ramirez, fanned Kevin Youkillis and popped up J.D. Drew.
Four runs in the eighth kept Girardi from using Mariano Rivera for the third straight game. Bruney worked the ninth and posted his first save.
Four runs in the bottom of the fourth staked Wang to a 7-3 lead and put him within three outs of qualifying for a victory on a night when he didn’t have much working. However, five batters later Wang hadn’t recorded an out, the Red Sox scored three runs and there were runners on first and second for Ross Ohlendorf. Dustin Pedroia led off with a double and scored on a rare hit by Ortiz. Ramirez followed with a single. Youkillis dumped a single into center that loaded the bases for Drew, who singled two runs home.
Girardi hooked Wang for Ohlendorf to face the switch-hitting Jason Varitek, who took a third strike that TV replays showed to be off the plate inside. Ohlendorf went to a full count on Sean Casey before Casey laced an RBI single to left-center that tied the score, 7-7, and put runners at the corners. Ohlendorf rebounded to catch Julio Lugo looking for the second out but walked Jacoby Ellsbury and gave up a two-run single to Pedroia that put the visitors ahead, 9-7.
Having given back a 3-1 lead, the Yankees went ahead in the fourth on Chad Moeller’s broken-bat, two-out bloop double down the left field line, and Derek Jeter upped the advantage to 6-3 with an opposite-field, two-run single that was the end for Buchholz.
Hideki Matsui opened with a single to center and Jason Giambi blooped a single into right-center with one out. Robinson Cano’s fly to center sent Matsui to third, and he scored when Moeller dumped a double into left. A walk to Melky Cabrera loaded the bases for Jeter. At 3-2 Jeter used his classic inside-out swing to drive a single to right.
Julian Tavarez replaced Buchholz with runners at the corners and Bobby Abreu at the plate. At 1-2 Tavarez threw a wild pitch that scored Matsui for a four-run bulge and put Jeter at second.
The Yankees didn’t bat with a runner in scoring position through the first three innings but had three runs thanks to homers by Abreu and Rodriguez in the opening frame.
With one out Jeter singled off first baseman Casey’s glove and scored ahead of Abreu’s towering homer to right. Three pitches later Rodriguez sent a 1-1 offering into the Red Sox bullpen far beyond the left-field wall for his fourth homer and a 3-1 lead.
Granted, it was only the first inning but the Yankees opted to pitch to Ramirez with first base open, a runner on second and two outs. Like they did Saturday in a much more key situation, the Yankees made a bad choice when Ramirez smoked a 1-0 pitch for an RBI double.
Lugo made it 3-2 with a ground out that scored Drew in the second and Casey’s single plated Varitek from second in the fourth and tied the score, 3-3.