Soriano Still Hot, Pettitte Pitched Well, Yankees Win 10-3

At first pitch, Alex Rodriguez was the top story surrounding the New York Yankees. By the time the final out was recorded, Alfonso Soriano and Andy Pettitte had stole all the headlines.

With major contributions from those two, as wells as several other Yankees, the Bombers were able to take down their rivals with ease in Friday night's series opener at Fenway Park, 10-3.

"When you get guys hot like some of the guys are right now, you feel good about yourself," said Pettitte. "Obviously winning ballgames makes you feel good about yourself. It's a good thing right now."

Soriano came into the series hitting the ball better than anybody else in Major League Baseball, and he left Friday night's game hitting even hotter.

After Brett Gardner and Robinson Cano reached base to being the ballgame, setting up runners on the corners with one away, Soriano ripped a hard groundball towards the shortstop that was knocked down, leading everybody to be safe, as well as scoring the first run of the ballgame.

The newly acquire Mark Reynolds made his Yankees debut Friday night, and he quickly turned himself into a fellow Bronx Bomber, going deep of Felix Doubront in his first at-bat, a two-strike changeup that he sent flying over the Green Monster for a two-run homerun.

Soriano came up for his second at-bat of the game in the 4th, once again with a pair of runners on after Eduardo Nunez and Cano reached base to open to inning, then Soriano opened the game by launching a three-run blast over the Monster in deep left-center field to put the Yankees up 6-0.

"I'm trying to enjoy my time now here with the Yankees," said Soriano. "I think it's motivation; coming back to the Yankees to try to help the team to win. That's what is most important."

An inning later, Cano made it a 7-0 game on an RBI to right field, following up a two-out triple by Nunez after Jacoby Ellsbury dropped a ball at the wall in center field that would have made for a great catch. Cano's single extended his hitting streak to 12-games.

All this scoring would come to the benefit of Pettitte, who was the second story in the game behind Soriano and the offensive outburst. Pettitte started the game by retiring nine of the first 10 batters he faced. He was locked in for most of the night, looking better than he's looked in weeks.

The Red Sox didn't get in the board against Pettitte until the 4th when Johnny Gomes lined a single to center field, bringing home Dustin Pedroia. Pettitte was working well until the 7th inning when the wheels started to fall off, giving up a pair of RBI single to David Ortiz and Jarrod Saltalamacchia, cutting the lead to 7-3.

After the RBI single by Saltalamacchia, Yankees manager Joe Girardi decided it was time to make that move to the bullpen, where he brought in the always reliable Shawn Kelley, who would punch out Mike Carp to strand runners on first and second to end the inning.

For the first time in nine starts, Pettitte didn't give up a run in the first inning, as he pitched very well throughout the night. Obviously things would have looked much better if he would have finished off the 7th inning, but he still went 6 2/3, giving up three runs on six hits, while walking just one and striking out five.

"It was one of those nights where everything was working and you'd hope you'd be able to get through the game like I did," Pettitte said. "My curve was working, my two-seamer, I was locating that to both sides of the plate. My four-seamer also. [Chris Stewart ] called a great game and we scored a lot of runs."

Following Kelley's big strikeout to end the 7th, David Robertson came in and pitched a scoreless 8th inning, permitting a pair of hits, but nothing more.

Before handing the ball to Joba Chamberlain in the 9th, the Yanks tacked on three more runs in the top half of the 9th, including an RBI single by Reynolds, who would finish 2-for-5 with three RBIs in his Yankees debut.

Speaking of Joba, Girardi handed him the ball to being the 9th, but as you could imagine, things didn't run too smoothly. After Gomes flew out to center, Stephen Drew singled and Mike Napoli doubled off Joba to put runners on second and third. Saltalamacchia flew out to center for the second out, but Joba walked Brock Holt to load the bases with two-outs.

Girardi had seen enough at that point, bringing in the lefty David Huff, needing only to get a single out, facing Ellsbury. Huff gots Ellsbury to send a slow groundball over to Cano at second to end the game, giving the Yanks a 10-3 victory, their 6th win in their last eight games.

"I don't think anyone has written them off, by any means," Red Sox manager John Farrell said. "We've got nine more games remaining against them, they've got a completely different look to their lineup than we saw a month ago, and they've got a lot of life right now."

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