Grand Slam In The 7th Blasts Red Sox Past The Yankees

Sometimes, baseball can be a cruel game.

On a Friday night on Boston -- Friday the 13th, that is -- the New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox opened up their final series of the season at Fenway Park, and it was a game that lived up to everything that  Yankees and Red Sox series is suppose to be.

Boston took a 4-0 lead in the 1st inning off Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda, but as you might already know, no lead is safe when it comes to these two teams.

Kuroda settled into end up pitching six-plus innings without giving up another run outside of the 1st, permitting four runs on eight hits, while mixing in a pair a strike outs on 101 pitches.

As the game rolled on a homerun by Brendan Ryan, sac-fly by Lyle Overbay, and a two-run double by Robinson Cano in the top of the 7th brought the Yankees all the way back to tie the game.

But in the end, the Yankees' bullpen couldn't keep them in the game, giving up four-runs in the 7th inning to pave the way for the Red Sox to take the first game of the series, 8-4.

What it means: For starters, the bullpen failed to do it's job once again. With a win by the Tampa Bay Rays tonight, the Yankees will fall back to two-games behind Tamp for the second Wild Card spot. As well as the Yanks have been playing lately, they just can't catch a break when it comes to playing the Red So, who appear to be possibly the best team in the American League.

Salty grand salami: Boston loaded the bases to start the home half of the 7th inning, and with Preston Claiborne in the mound -- normally good, but not so much of late -- and the four-run lead the Red Sox had early in the game came right back to them when Jarrod Saltalamacchia blasted a grand slam beyond the bullpens in right field to put the Sox up 8-4.

No so good start: With the bullpen as fatigued as it is, Yankees manager Joe Girardi needed Kuroda to put the team on his back, while keeping the bullpen out of the game. Unfortunately for Girardi, Kuroda took the mound in the first inning and started off the game in no way the Yankees or Kuroda was hoping for.

Kuroda took the mound in the bottom of the first and didn't get out of the inning until after the Red Sox had already tagged him for four-runs on four-hits and a walk over 33 pitches -- signalling the bullpen might get a lot of work done.

Dustin Pedroia singled to start the inning, then David Ortiz double to left field a couple batters later. Mike Carp followed with a groundout to score Pedroia, and then single by Daniel Nava scored Ortiz. Kuroda walked Saltalamacchia and then served up a double to Stephen Drew to put the Sox up 4-0.

Settling in: Somehow, Kuroda managed to turn things around after the first inning, pitching a complete 180 on the mound, keeping the Red Sox off the board in the next five innings. He went on to give up just three hits after the 1st inning, while also retiring the Red Sox in order in the 4th and 6th innings.

Bunt double: With one-out in the first inning, the Red Sox put on a shift for Robinson Cano at the plate. Cano dropped down a bunt, and as it rolled towards nobody at third base, Cano put together some heads up basing running and trotted into second with a bunt double.

Ryan's Hope: Ryan, playing in just this third game with the Yankees, hit a solo homerun off John Lackey in the top of the 3rd inning to put the Yanks on the board, 4-1. It was his 1st homerun of the Bombers, and only his 4th this season between the Seattle Mariners and Yanks -- a new career high.

How'd he catch that? The Yankees set up with runners on the corners and only one away in the 6th inning against Lackey after Cano doubled and Alfonso Soriano singled. Overbay came up and shot a ball into the right-center field gap that Shane Victorino, somehow, chased down to make the catch for the second out, all while Cano tagged and scored from third to cut Boston's lead to 4-2.

Adding the zero's: Cano was fantastic in this game. He was quite the stud on defense, making a couple nice plays, including a running, over-the-shoulder catch in shallow right field to end the 6th inning. At the plate, he was as good as advertised, collecting four hits, three of which were doubles, one of which was the bunt double, including the two-run double to tie the game in the 7th.

Up next: These two teams continue this important series tomorrow for a Saturday matinee on FOX, as a pair of lefties, CC Sabathia (13-12, 4.82 ERA) and Jon Lester (13-8, 3.86 ERA) square off in the second game of the three-game set. First pitch is scheduled for 1:05pm EST.

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Seven Plus Inning By CC Not Enough, Yanks Fall To The Orioles 4-2

On a night where most of the area was presumably sitting at FedEx Field, watching the Philadelphia Eagles' new and improved offense run circles around the Washington Redskins, the Baltimore Orioles were hosting the Yankees in the opener of a four-game series that could affect the postseason races.

CC Sabathia wasn't great, but he was good enough to save the bullpen and go deep into the game, and Alex Rodriguez blasted his 5th homerun of the season, but it wasn't enough for the Yankees to overcome a dominating performance by Chris Tillman, as the Bombers fell to the O's, 4-2, Monday night at Camden Yards.

"It's frustrating, but it's baseball," Sabathia said. "You've got to go out and try to keep the game close. He's been pitching well all year, and it's up to me to try to keep the game close and give these guys a chance to win."

The Yankees jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the 1st inning when A-Rod, who batted second in the lineup for the first time since August 26th, 2006, launched a solo homerun to right field of Tillman. It was 3-2 pitch that A-Rod got enough of to send out of the park.

Sabathia took the mound with the lead in the bottom of the 1st, but he didn't hold it for long, giving up a leadoff double to Nick Markakis, who would move to third on a shallow groundout to third base, then scored on a sac-fly by Adam Jones.

Tillman and Sabathia dueled it out through five innings as the teams played tied until the 5th when Baltimore scored a pair of runs off CC, with Matt Wieters driving in the first run on a sac-fly to center field, then Markakis came through again with an RBI single to center field to make it a 3-1 game.

"It's that time of the year, and situations call for it," Sabathia said. "You're trying to get the runner over to third; get runs however you can. So they did a good job of that."

Working with the lead, Tillman dominated. Up until Lyle Overbay added another run for the Yankees in the 8th with a solo homerun to right field, making it a 4-2 game, he had retired 14 straight hitters, allowing just two runs on four, while striking out nine to compliment zero walks in seven plus innings.

"His changeup was outstanding tonight," Girardi said of Tillman. "He also has a good curveball, but I thought his changeup was the equalizer tonight; moving his fastball up and down as much as in and out."

Manny Machado tacked on another run for Baltimore in the 7th inning on a double -- what else -- to right field, scoring Wieters to extend the lead to 4-1. CC pitched into the 8th before being relieved by Adam Warren. He gave up four runs on seven hits, while striking out six in 7.1 innings.

The Yankees tried to put together a rally in the 9th against O's closer Jim Johnson. But with two outs and a runner on first, Curtis Granderson flew out to the warming track in right-center field the end the game, giving the Yanks their fourth loss in the last five games.

"We're still in it," Romine said. "It's baseball. Anything can happen. We're coming out here to win every game, and you can't count us out. We keep battling and battling and battling."

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Sloppy Play Dooms Yanks in 6-1 Loss To The Red Sox

Coming off Friday night's big 10-3 win in the series opener against the Boston Red Sox, the New York Yankees sent out their ace, Hiroki Kuroda, to the mound in hopes he could continue dominance on the mound against Boston.

Unfortunately for Kuroda and the Yankees, it would not be their day, as a poor offensive showing from the top of the lineup, coupled with sloppy play in the field, Kuroda came home with his 8th defeat of the season in the Yankees 6-1 loss Saturday afternoon at Fenway Park.

"We can't dig ourselves in a hole for no reason," said Yankees first baseman Lyle Overbay. "This is playoff atmosphere. This is how we've got to play. We've got to be sound, and those are things that we can't have."

Things were running smoothly for Kuroda through the first three inning, as he and Red Sox starter John Lackey were matching each other pitch for pitch through three innings, with both pitchers giving up just a couple runs apiece.

But when the Red Sox finally jumped on the scoreboard, it was because of a play to would prove to haunt the Yankees.

Boston had runners on the corners with one away when Stephen Drew hit a groundball to Overbay, who would send the throw high to second, pulling Eduardo Nunez away from the bag, and Nunez's throw would arrive late to first, scoring David Ortiz from third on the play with every reaching safely.

The play that could have ended to inning, turned into a run, and more, for the Red Sox.

"I just didn't finish the throw. It's frustrating, because I feel like if I get a good grip on the ball, I can throw the ball," Overbay said. "I just didn't finish the throw. It ended up costing us."

A couple pitches later, Mike Carp, who was on second base, and Drew took off for a double steal, with Alex Rodriguez being late to cover the third base bag, again, all the runners were safe, setting up a second and third situation with still only one out.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia would strike out swinging, then Will Middlebrooks sent a groundball up the middle that was stopped by Robinson Cano, but with no play to make, everybody was safe and the second run of the inning would score.

Then immediately that, Jacoby Ellsbury came up with runners on the corners and he lined a single into right field, scoring Drew from third base, to put the Red Sox up 3-0.

"That fourth inning, I wish I could take that back," Kuroda said. "I feel bad about it. ... With the runners on, I wanted to minimize the damage. But I couldn't do that."

Kuroda was knocked out of the game in the bottom of the 6th inning after dishing out a one-out single off the Monster to Saltalamacchia, driving home Daniel Nava from third. Following a strikeout by Middlebrooks, Ellsbury drove an RBI double to right field, making it a 5-1 game, ending Kuroda's day.

Kuroda left with two outs in the 6th, having given up five runs, only three earned, tying a season-high with five runs allowed, and Kuroda also gave up a season-high 11 hits on the day. He clearly wasn't at his best, and the long 4th inning did a lot of damage to him.

"I still think he still made good pitches and he could have got out of the inning," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "I think that inning took a toll on him as the game went on, and he ended up having to throw extra pitches. In a game like that, that's a big deal. It changes the complexion of the game."

Adam Warren took over for Kuroda in the 6th, and gave up solo homerun to David Ortiz in the bottom of the 7th, and ran into a mess of trouble in the 8th, loading the base with two-outs, before Girardi replaced him with Boone Logan, who retired the only batter he faced.

On the offensive side of the ball, the Yankees showed nothing of the 10-run offense that was put on display the night before. The only run to score was Lyle Overbay, who would touch home on a groundout to the second baseman by Ichiro.

The Yankees top three hitters in the lineup -- Brett Gardner, Ichiro, Cano and Vernon Wells -- combined to go 1-for-12 with 11 groundball outs, doing absolutely nothing to help the Yankees put runs on the board.

Alfonso Soriano and Over were the only Yankees hitters that were able to do anything with the bat, as Soriano would finish the game 2-for-4, raising his batting average to .329, and he's 15 his last 21 at-bats, and Overbay finished to game 3-for-4, with a two-out double in the 9th.

CC Sabathia takes the mound in the rubber game if this three-game series tomorrow night on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball. He'll be opposed by Red Sox right-hander Ryan Dempster.

"They are big losses, in a sense, but you can't make too much of one game," Girardi said. "You have to go out and win a series tomorrow. That's the bottom line. You have to win the series and we have an opportunity to do that."

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Hughes Flops Again, Yanks Lose 9-3

NEW YORK -- The Detroit Tigers are one of the best teams in the American League and the New York Yankees are not, and that statement held true Saturday as the Tigers' offense burst out for nine runs off Phil Hughes and company, keeping the Yanks from winning consecutive game for the first time in almost a month.

Hughes didn't get off to a good start, giving up a triple to Austin Jackson to open the game. He would come in to score as the next batter, Torii Hunter, brought him in on a sac-fly to center.

A couple innings later, Miguel Cabrera continued to do what he does best, launching his 35th homerun of the season off Hughes in the 3rd inning, his second homerun in three at-bats -- his two-run homerun off Mariano Rivera tied the game in the 9th last night.

After a quiet 4th inning, the Tigers struck for most of their damage in the 5th. Jackson took Hughes deep for a solo blast, then Hunter singled to knock Hughes out of the game, allowing four runs on seven hits, while striking out six in only 4 1/3 innings. It was the sixth straight outing in which Hughes failed to pitch at least five innings.

The usually solid Preston Claiborne took over for Hughes but things didn't go over much smoother for him. Claiborne was welcomed to the game by giving up a single to Cabrera, then followed up with striking out Prince Fielder. Victor Martinez then lashed out with an RBI double to left field, then Don Kelley made it a 6-0 game with a two-run single to center.

The Yankees scored their only runs in the game on a long two-run homerun off the bat of Lyle Overbay in the 5th inning, putting the Yankees on the board against Anibal Sanchez, who had retired the first nine Yankees hitters to open the game.

Sanchez gave the Tigers a great effort and a good outing, giving up just the two runs on four hits, walking only one and striking out eight on 107 pitches in seven innings of work.

Claiborne induced a groundout to open the 6th, but then permitted a single to Jose Iglesias and walked Jackson. Yankees manager Joe Girardi had seen enough, making the move to bring in Joba Chamberlain to clean things up. That didn't work out too well as Joba gave up a three-run homerun to Hunter, extending the lead to 9-2.

Following Overbay's homerun in the 5th, only two more Yankees even reached base, with Overbay drawing a walk in the 7th and Ichiro songling in the 8th, putting him just seven hits shy of 4,000 career hits in the Majors and in Japan.

Adam Warren came into the game for the first time since blowing the lead in the 12th inning of the Yankees loss to the White Sox on Wednesday. He gave up just three hits in two shutout innings for the Yanks.

Though it didn't matter much, Overbay put another run on the board with a two-out RBI single, he drove in all three of the Yanks runs on the day, as the Yanks went on the lose 9-3.

Tonight: I'll be in Daytona Beach, Florida, checking out the Single-A Tampa Yankees as they take on the Daytona Cubs (Chicago Cubs Single-A team). Check be here as I'll have posts and update on anything I see from the Baby Bombers.

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Nunez Comes Up Big In His Return To The Lineup

After a walk-off win last night, fueled in part by the strong starting performance from Ivan Nova, the Yankees were back at it on Saturday, looking for their 6th straight win. Thanks to a big day from Eduardo Nunez, the Yankees were able take down the Birds for the second straight day.

With Andy Pettitte pitching, trying to turn things around after going 0-3 in his last four starts, the Orioles jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the 1st inning on two-run homerun from Chris Davis, his major league leading 33rd of the season.

"The pitch, that was where I wanted to," Pettitte said. "I think he thought he hit a fly ball to center. I kind of watched his reaction. But the ball just kept going."

Baltimore extended their lead in the 2nd inning when Alexi Casilla lined a double down the left field line off of Pettitte, scoring Nolan Reimold from 2nd base, giving the O's a 3-0 lead.

But the Yankees, facing Chris Tillman, answered back in the bottom of the 2nd. After Travis Hafner walked to begin the inning, Zoilo Almonte and Lyle Overbay hit back to back single to load the bases with nobody out.

New Yankee Luis Cruz followed with a single into shallow left field bringing home Hafner to put the Yankees on the board. In his first at-bat since May 5th, Nunez hit a fly ball to deep left-center field, giving Almonte enough room to tag up and score.

The O's were at it again the in 4th, when J.J. Hardy double to lead off the inning. After eventually reaching 3rd, he scored on an RBI single by Taylor Teagarden, to put Baltimore back up by two.

Pettitte had not recorded a 1-2-3 inning until the 5th, when he retired the O's on nine pitches in that inning. In the bottom half of the 5th, the Yankees were able to plate two more runs to tie up the ballgame.

Nunez and Stewart lead off with back to back single, then Brett Gardner laid down a bunt to move them over. Ichiro then came up and slapped a ball back up the middle, but a nice diving grab by Casilla kept the ball in the infield and kept another run from scoring.

But it didn't matter because Robinson Cano followed up with a single of his own off of Tillman, that tied the game, and gave Pettitte some more room to work with out on the mound.

Then in the bottom of the 6th inning, Nunez came up big once again. After Overbay collected his 3rd hit of the game to open the inning, he was moved to 2nd on a bunt by Cruz. Nunez singled back up the middle off of Tillman, with Overbay sliding in safely at home to put the Yankees ahead by a score of 5-4.

"Younger players are always a little bit different sometimes," Girardi said. "You figured he wouldn't be as rusty. Nunie is kind of a free spirit, so I don't think Nunie thought much about having a lot of at-bats."

"I know he didn't have a lot of reps, but we had a situation where someone went down and we called him up," Girardi said. "[Nunez] has the ability to swing the bat well and play defense, and that's what he did today."

From there on out, Pettitte and the bullpen were able to keep the Orioles off the board, with Shawn Kelley picking up a big punch out of Manny Machado to end the 7th. David Robertson set the side down in order in the 8th. And Mariano Rivera, doing what he does best, sent the O's packing in the 9th, picking up his 29th save of the season.

Pettitte also picked up his first win since June 5th in Seattle, No. 251 in his career. Doing so while allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits, he didn't walk a batter and struck out four on 100 pitches.

"I've been giving up a lot of runs early, and it's been a grind for me. I've been trying to grind as hard as I could to give this team a chance to win," Pettitte said. "You feel like this team is going to score some runs, so you hate putting us in a hole like I have been. So just real fortunate we were able to get back into it, get some big hits today and come away with a W."

Hiroki Kuroda will return the game action tomorrow as he takes the mound for the Yankees, facing off against Jason Hammel at 1:05 EST from the Bronx. And for those watching at home, that game can be seen on TBS.

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Trade Deadline Needs: First Base

Listen, I like Lyle Overbay and everything that he's been doing as a placeholder for the Yankees, but I don't they should stick with him for the rest of the season. The Yankees are almost never buyers for big name players at the deadline, but this year more than ever, they need to be.

Overbay was great through the first month, but he's not an everyday player and as the season continues, it's showing and a move is needed. Someone I think we can all agree on is Justin Morneau, for many reasons.

In my opinion, I think that Morneau would be a perfect in Yankee Stadium. I know that he hasn't been showing the same power he once had, but consider this: he, just like Joe Mauer, has not had the same power since the Twins moved outdoors to their nice big ballpark.

It's not easy to have a 30 homerun season playing at Target Field. Morneau has power, and he showed us some of that on Thursday with a pair a long balls, and I think if you move him into playing with the short porch in right, he'll have a grand time.

From a financial standpoint, I think trading for Morneau is a good fit. Teixeira, hopefully, will be back completely healthy next season. Morneau's contract expires after 2013, and the Yankees would only need to pay for about half of his $15 million for this season.

If you're still not convinced, here's my final selling point: Morneau is having a better season than Overbay. He's batting 50 points higher than Overbay, his on-base percentage is about 50 points higher, he's got 15 more RBI's on three less homeruns, remember the ballpark difference, and Morneau's WAR (0.9) is higher than Overbay's (0.1), for those who pay attention to WAR.

Are there other options at first base? Yes, yes there other options. But I think that Morneau is the best fit for the Yankees. And if you disagree, who you probably do, let me know and I'll be willing to debate.

Please, take to Twitter (@GavinEwbank2013) and let me know this: Yeh or Neh for Justin Morneau. 

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Overbay means more than we could imagine.

When the Yankees singed Lyle Overbay just days before departing Florida from to embark on their journey into the regular season, who would have thought that on June 4th Overbay would mean so much to the Yankees?

Not many people thought that Overbay would even be on the team when June rolled around. He was suppose to be the fill-in for the regularly starting 1st baseman, Mark Teixeira, while he recovered from a wrist tendon injury.

Overbay makes his 1st catch as the Yankees right-fielder.

Teixeira expected to be back in the Bronx no later than May 1st. When he returned everyone would have guessed that Overbay wouldn't be around much longer.

But Overbay shined brighter in the Bronx than anyone would have expected. His play at the plate filled in for Teixeira more than would have thought.

He created a dilemma that a lot of teams would love to have. With his performance level so high that even the great Teixeira couldn't have looked like a better option when factoring in his historically slow starts.

One of the biggest questions surrounding the return of Mark Teixeira didn't even involve Teixeira. Many questioned how you could take away at-bats from a guys that had been hitting so well all season.

You couldn't DH him regularly because you already had Travis Hafner and he, too, was playing well. Obviously you'd never play Overbay over Teixeira because of, well, a lot of reasons. Defensive abilities, more power threat, bigger contract just to name a few.

Overbay doesn't play any other position, leaving the Yankees without any other options. So they decided to play Overbay in a position that he's never before played in his 13-year big league career. They put him in the outfield.

Joe Girardi and the Yankees wanted Lyle Overbay in their lineup so bad that they played him in a position that he hasn't played since his early minor league days.

I'm not saying at all that I disagree with this move. I love that idea to get Overbay into the lineup anyway you can. If you have to play him out of position, that's fine. The outfield isn't the hardest place to play. Especially in Yankee Stadium, where the outfield isn't very spacious.

The Yankees optioned Brennan Boesch, an outfielder, and played Overbay in the outfield instead because his ability at the plate overcomes any other challenge he may face in right field.

And for Overbay, he doesn't mind the move at all. "If it gets me in the lineup, absolutely." He's a team player and that's one of the reasons I like Overbay and I've been rooting for him since day one.

Some players hate the idea of moving positions and would rather just switch teams. But Overbay loves winning and he loves playing for the Yankees. So a silly little position switch isn't going to change things.

Lyle Overbay is a player that at this point in the season many teams would want to have. And any team that didn't give him a chance before, is just plain senseless.

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Overbay in the outfield, Pettitte starting.

Tonight's lineup:

Gardner CF
Cano 2B
Teixeira 1B
Hafner DH
Overbay RF
Ichiro LF
Adams 3B
Brignac SS
Romine C

Pettitte P

Andy Pettitte (4-3, 3.83) makes his return from the DL against an Indians team that has been playing very well this season and can score a lot of runs. Opposing Pettitte on the mound will be Cleveland's ace, Justin Masterson (8-3, 3.07).

*Lyle Overbay will be playing in the outfield for the first time in his major league career. Overbay played a few games in the outfield while in the minors, but never in the majors. "I don't expect him to win a god glove out there." Said manager Joe Girardi.

*Brennan Boesch was sent down to AAA-Scranton prior to the game in order to make room for Pettitte on the Yankees 25-man roster.

*Chris Stewart was taken to the hospital again today after leaving Saturday night's game and being scratched from Sunday night's lineup with dehydration-like symptoms. Girardi said that all the tests came back clean.

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