Yanks Lose To The Sox In 11 Innings

BOSTON -- CC Sabathia was hoping for a happy 33rd birthday. Instead, the Red Sox gave him a give a gift that he'll never forget, tagging him for seven runs on nine hits, including two monster homeruns by Mike Napoli and Johnny Gomes, in five innings, raising his ERA to 4.37.

"I wish I had an excuse or something," Sabathia said.

Luckily for him, the Yankees were able to rally back and tie the game in the later innings to get CC off the hook, handing him the no-decision as the Yanks would go on to lose in 11 innings.

"We battled back and gave ourselves an opportunity to win that game," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "It's a shame we had to lose in extra innings."

The Yankees got off the a promising start, while the Red Sox played some very sloppy ball early on, committing a pair of errors in the first inning that set the Yanks to take a 2-0 lead.

Robinson Cano tacked on another run in the second inning when he singled to center field off Red Sox starter Ryan Dempster, who needed over 50 pitches to get through the first two innings.

With a 3-0, Sabathia seemed to be rolling through the first two innings, retiring the Boston hitters on just one hit through innings. But in the third, CC pretty much lost all of his momentum, giving up four runs on four hits, with a go-ahead three-run homerun by Napoli being the big blast of the inning.

After Shane Victorino singled home Boston's six run of the game in the 4th, Gomes put the Red Sox up by four when he sent a long solo shot well over the monster. It was the 23rd homerun allowed by CC this season, setting a career-high with still over two months to play.

Sabathia was finally removed from the game after walking Jacoby Ellsbury to open the bottom of the 6th inning. This easily goes into the category of worst starts as a Yankee, giving up seven runs on nine hits, while walking two and striking out five.

"It's embarrassing," Sabathia said of his performance. "I'll just try to get through it, figure something out and try to stop hurting this team and [start] helping."

CC was having major troubles with locating his fastball throughout the night and just couldn't put hitters away when he backed them into two-strike counts.

"He's been so good for so long," manager Joe Girardi said. "To see him struggle a little bit is kind of strange. It's not something that we're used to seeing."

The Yankees regained momentum in the 6th when they put up a pair of runs to cut Boston's in half. Brett Gardner collected an RBI single, one of his three hits on the night, then Cano singled home another run to make it a 7-5 game.

Then the Yanks tied the game in the 7th on a sac-bunt by Chris Stewart, scoring Vernon Wells, then Luis Cruz grounded out to the shortstop, plating Eduardo Nunez.

The bullpen lead by Boone Logan, who used some clutch pitching to strike out the side in the 7th, and David Robertson, who induced a huge inning-ending double play with the base loaded in the 8th, kept the Boston bats quiet to put the game in extras.

In extras, Shawn Kelley was dominant as usual, striking out five batters in two innings of work, but in the 11th, with Adam Warren on the mound, Napoli crushed a solo homerun deep the center field, his second of the game, to send the Fenway fans home happy.

"Once I got to 2-0, I was looking to drive something," said Napoli. "I swung through it but got to 2-2. Every time I'm up, I'm looking to drive the ball somewhere. I got a ball up and made good contact."

The Yankees fall to seven game back of Boston in the AL East, who start a four game series with the Rays on Monday. Now the Yanks head to Texas for a four-game set with the Rangers. Phil Hughes will take the mound against Yu Darvish in the series opener on Monday.

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