When Josh Beckett allowed seven runs in his last start I thought, Drag: he got the egg out of his system. Beckett pitched eight innings against the Yankees on Sunday night, usually a sign that things are going right for the Red Sox. But he also allowed eight runs. The Yanks scored in the first five innings and smacked five home runs off Boston’s ace (Jeter, Matsui, Cano, Rodriguez, Matsui), the most Beckett has ever allowed in a game.
Derek Jeter swung at the first pitch he saw in the top of the first and deposited it into the bleachers in right-centerfield. It was the 2,700th hit of Jeter’s career (and, as Tom Boorstein noted, things are going well for the Yankee captain these days). Jeter should break Lou Gehrig’s mark for the most hits in Yankee history before the end of the season. If he remains healthy, he should reach 3,000 in 2011.
CC Sabathia wasn’t dominating but he delivered what is commonly known around these parts as a “gritty, gutty” performance. He gave up eight hits but only three earned runs (Robinson Cano made two errors), pitching until two men were out in the seventh inning. He also whiffed eight without walking a batter (Beckett didn’t issue a base on balls either). Phil Hughes relieved Sabathia, got out of the seventh, and worked around a lead-off single by Victor Martinez to toss a scoreless eighth.
Mariano Rivera, making his first appearance of the series, came on in the ninth and walked pinch-hitter JD Drew on four pitches. Catcher Jose Molina went to the mound. Drew took second on the first pitch–a called strike–to Jason Varitek. The next pitch was a cutter inside for a ball and Molina went to speak with his pitcher again. Rivera located a strike and then got a generous call on a back-door cutter for the strike out. Varitek waved his hand in disgust at Sam Holbrook, the home plate umpire and returned to the dugout (Holbrook had a wide strike zone). Casey Kotchman was next, also pinch-hitting, and after fouling off four pitches, he grounded out to Mark Teixeira. Rivera carved-up Jacoby Ellsbury on three pitches and the Yanks had the series, as well as a 7.5 game game lead over Boston.
Final Score: Yanks 8, Red Sox 4.
Let’s all applaud again, let’s all applaud again.
Hey, that was fast, Alex.
Bombs away off Beckett, that was my favorite aspect of the game. Dropping pop-ups, least fave. Mo finishing, slurp, yum, ahhhh.
i might have to go to the store to grab some victory ice cream. haven't been on a beer kick for a coupla weeks...
[1] Thanks for the link to the Win Probability calculator. I will warn you, you may have just created a monster!!
Beckett has allowed 20 homers this year. Ten of them have come in his last three starts.
[3] Yeah, it's fun.
[1] Jinx-risk fast, I'd say.
I like this team this year, more than I've liked a Yankees team for a while. Still don't care for the manager, but that's all right.
Yeah that strike zone was x-tra large tonight. I'll take it.
[4] may that trend continue! i already forgot it, but ESPN just had another unflattering stat for him this season. he should NOT win the Cy...
Fuck this jinx stuff.
It's now official.
The Division is OURS!
I think Sabathia was a little better than you gave him. The Keystone Kops routine hurt him tonight
[9] That "D" is going to haunt us in the playoffs...
Mets lost in the 9th to an unassisted triple play...wow...am expecting them to lose the final game of the season at Citi Field by forfeit, locust swarm perhaps..what a season!
[11] yeah, and Bruntlett - who turned it - caused it, as both runners reached on his miscues. truly...Amazin' !!! : )
[4] I wonder if they're making a big deal up there about Tek's pitch selection?
Looking at the Mets lineup, it's amazing they are in any of their games. It's hard to recognize a single name. This has to be (for them) almost historic bad luck. I do feel badly for them. They are truly cursed this year.
"These are humbling deals," Beckett said. "That was a whupping I got today. That's the only words I've got to sum it up."
not great grammar, but true dat!
I'm liking this team right now.
Did I wake you 2 up?
[11] That couldn't possibly happen to any other team. If someone came here and posted "one of the thirty major league teams lost today on a walk off, unassisted triple play," I cant imagine anyone would guess wrong
[17] i'm always up!
pete abe finally has his post-game post up...
Hey, Team! Just got in from a night in the city (I'm dead tired) and am thrilled to see we beat hell out of Beckett. That's sweet. Very sweet. I love that they left him out to dry for eight full innings like that. Wish I'd gotten to see it.
Just saw Derek's leadoff HR. Man, very nice, quick, compact swing. Looked like Jeter ca. 1999.
Hideki is mashing! For him to be playing this well this far into the season suggests Girardi is really using him properly. Anyone notice that?
Cano's shot was nice, only it makes me uncomfortable that he went out and hooked an outside pitch. Good result, but I don't care for that kind of swing, especially from Robbie.
Meanwhile, Sabathia somehow leads the league in wins.
Oh, also, Robbie made two more errors? This isn't good. I was surprised to see he'd made just his fourth or fifth error a couple weeks ago, now suddenly he has nine.
Let's hope he picks up on this front, we don't need that kind of sloppiness in October.
espn has the replay of the game on now...
[21] robbie is a mess. his head is just not in the game right now.
i hate that Ugly is a good baseball player on both sides of the ball. : /
http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/notebook?page=bbtn
Alywys heard Showalter was very clever but this idea is idiotic..
[23] It is idiotic, though I guess it's supposed to be "fun." But very, very dumb. For example:
Every team plays every other team six times per season -- three at home and three away. There's your 162-game schedule.
If every team plays each each other the same number of times, then why even have divisions? Makes no sense.
[23] [24] Yeah, dumb.
Still, putting us and the Sox in the "Babe Ruth" Division does have a certain delicious quality to it.
I hate playing division teams 18 times a season. I'm not sure what the right amount is, but imo, that isn't it.
[26] I like it, a lot. It's not the 22 times they used to play each other in the days before divisions (and expansion), but it's so much better than the balanced schedule. And it produces a legitimate division champion.
I would eliminate interleague play and distribute those games among non-division league games. But otherwise, I am a huge fan of the imbalanced schedule.
[25] Oh yes. And I have no problem with realignment. In fact, I think some teams should be moved (ideally an NL team to the AL to balance out the leagues after Selig's Milwaukee coup, but that will never happen). I just don't see any point in having divisions if teams play a balanced schedule.
Now, another route could be to put everyone into one superleague and just pick the top X teams for the playoffs, seeded accordingly.
Strike zone was huge, and Holbrook took his sweet ass time calling 3rd strikes, not even bothering on the one where Tex K'd on the pitch in the dirt.
Aside from that, and the dropped pops, great game.
I don't mind some realignment of divisions, but getting rid of the National and American Leagues is no good. I'd like to see it brought back to just two divisions per league and get rid of the division series. That would be one way of lessening how many times divisional foes play each other.
[27] Maybe I hold a minority opinion, but 18 regular season Yankee/RS games become really tedious.
[24] I dunno, it was fairly recent that they unbalanced the schedules
[27] I wouldn't mind eliminating interleague play either. I don't like the way it messes with the schedule.
[29] Holbrook did check the ball for dirt. He then confirmed that Teix was out.
[31] It's not the games I find tedious as much as the hype surrounding it. I would suspect the games mean more to the fans than the players. Same with the games against the Mets.