Saturday, August 2, 2014


Kevin Long told the NY Daily News after Friday night's 4-3 loss that he doesn't think this Yankees offense is capable of putting up five or six runs in a game. The Yankees' offense responded by putting up six runs on Saturday night, as the Bombers took the second game of this three game series with a 6-4 win over the Red Sox.

Boston took a 3-0 lead in the 2nd inning against Yankees starter Shane Greene, who struggled in the 2nd after striking out two in a three up, three down 1st inning.

Yoenis Cespedes, who fell behind 0-2 in his first at-bat with the Red Sox, singled to open the inning, then Mike Napoli followed up with a two-run shot that cleared The Monster, putting the Sox up 2-0. Greene then walked Daniel Nava before retiring the next two batters, in which Nava moved to second base on a groundout by Jackie Bradley Jr. Rookie catcher Chris Vazquez followed Bradley Jr. with a two-out single into center that made it a 3-0 ballgame.

Those were the only three runs that Greene gave up, as he was able to settle in after throwing a ton of pitches through the first couple of innings. He retired seven of eight after the 2nd inning, including striking out the side in the 4th. He gave up back-to-back one-out singles to Dustin Pedroia and David Ortiz before setting down Cespedes as the final batter he would face in the game. He left with two outs in the 5th, having given up three runs on six hits, while walking two and striking out five on 95 pitches -- just 52 of them strikes.

The Yankees battled back to take a one-run by putting up four runs in the 3rd inning, thanks to some help from Red Sox starter Allen Webster, who walked three straight -- Martin Prado, Francisco Cervelli, Brett Gardner -- batters to load the bases to open the inning. With the bases juiced, Derek Jeter blooped a single into shallow right field to score a pair of runs, then Jacoby Ellsbury grounded out to second base a batter later, scoring Gardner from third base to tie the game at 2-2, also moving Jeter to third. After a Mark Teixeira ground out, Carlos Beltran collected his third RBI in this series with a single into left, bringing in Jeter to put the Yanks up 4-3.

Webster followed up the Beltran single by walking the next two batters, and that's when John Farrell finally had enough, going to his bullpen after just 2 2/3 inning. Webster was charged with four runs on just two hits. as he walked a total of six batters, throwing just 39 (!) of 71 pitches for strikes.

Two innings later, in the 5th, Teixeira tacked on another Yankees run with a solo homerun over the The Monster, extending New York's lead to 5-3 with his 19th dinger of the season -- 11th in his career against the Red Sox in Boston. Stephen Drew added one more run against his former team in the 7th with an RBI to deep center, bringing in Beltran, who doubled to open the inning. Beltran, by the way, has 15 hits in his last nine games after today; he's starting to get hot.

Shawn Kelley got the final out of the 5th inning, then pitched a scoreless 6th, striking out three in 1 1/3 innings. Adam Warren opened on the mound in the 7th. He retired the first batter, Vazquez, then walked Brock Hold and gave up a single to Pedroia, forcing Joe Girardi to bring in Dellin Betances, who gave up a sac-fly to Ortiz, scoring Holt from third base -- the run was charged to Warren.

Betances finished off the 7th inning, then worked a three up, three down 8th inning, apparently hitting 100 mph on the radar gun a couple of times.

Then in the 9th inning, David Roberts set down the first two batters he faced before giving up a two-out single to Holt, who eventually moved to second base on fielder's indifference. With Pedroia, the tying run, at the plate, he got the small second baseman to ground out to Chase Headley, who made a nice back-hand play to his right, followed up by a very nice pick play at first base to Teixeira to end the game, sealing Robertson's 28th save of the season.

The Yankees and Red Sox will finish up this weekend series on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball at 8:05 p.m. ET -- but we can't go one series between these two without a day game on Sunday. Clay Buchholtz and David Phelps will be the starting pitchers.



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