The Youth Movement by Jared Carrabis
The streaking Sox win their tenth straight with the help of some youngsters


Entering Sunday night's game between the Red Sox and Yankees, the two teams were knotted up at 51 wins a piece in their last 102 regular season meetings.

With Daisuke Matsuzaka on the shelf with fatigue in his pitching arm, Justin Masterson filled in for the ailing Japanese-born pitcher. Now, when you think of a "fill-in" for a pitcher in a stacked rotation, chances are you're picturing a young pitcher trying to get his feet wet or an aging veteran taking his innings wherever he can get them. The Red Sox depth in their pitching department has allowed them to assure that there isn't one hole that can't be filled with above average talent.

Making his second appearance as a starter for Boston in '09, Masterson was everything the Red Sox could have asked for and more on Sunday night. Even without Alex Rodriguez to start the season, the Yankees' offense isn't one to be taken lightly. Masterson pitched into the sixth inning, going five and a third, giving up just one earned run on six hits. The side-arm slinging righty struck out four batters and only walked one. With an 80-pitch limit placed on Masterson in his first start, the right-hander tossed 99 pitches while facing 24 Yankee hitters.

Entering Sunday night, Yankee starter Andy Pettitte had sixteen career wins against the Red Sox, with six of those wins coming at Fenway Park. Trailing by one run in the bottom of the third, the top fo the Red Sox order manufactured a run against one of the winningest pitchers in the Yankees' illustrious history.

With one out and Jacoby Ellsbury standing at first, Dustin Pedroia reached on a throwing error by Angel Berroa that Gold Glove-winning first baseman, Mark Teixeira, couldn't dig out of the dirt. With some heads-up base running, the speedy Ellsbury advanced to third on the errant toss. David Ortiz then came to the plate and drove a fly ball to the opposite field that plated Ellsbury on the sacrifice fly.

With the score still knotted up at one in the bottom of the fifth, the Red Sox put together one of the most exciting innings of the entire season. Pettite began to lose some of his control by walking Jason Varitek to lead off the inning. After striking out Nick Green, Pettitte walked Jacoby Ellsbury to put two men on. With two outs, David Ortiz took Pettitte to the opposite field on a line drive for his sixth double of the season, scoring Varitek from second and advancing Ellsbury to third.

With first base open, the Yankees elected to intentionally walk Kevin Youkilis to load the bases for JD Drew. With a 1-0 count on Drew, the unexpected happened. With the bases loaded, Pettitte made the decision to pitch from the wind-up position. As Pettitte began his wind-up, as soon as the left-hander turned his back on Ellsbury, the speedy Red Sox outfielder darted for home as Fenway Park erupted as the realization of what everyone was seeing struck the Fenway Faithful like a ton of bricks.

As Pettitte delivered towards home plate, Ellsbury was diving into Jorge Posada's lap as Jacoby Ellsbury became the first Red Sox player to steal home on a straight steal since Billy Hatcher did it fifteen years ago in 1994. Jose Offerman accomplished the feat in 1999 as a part of a double steal. While Ellsbury collected his tenth steal of the season, the Red Sox upped their lead to 3-1 over the Yankees. Drew capped off his at bat with a ground-rule double, his sixth of the season as well, to drive in David Ortiz to make it 4-1, Boston.

The Red Sox flexed their youthful muscle on Sunday night with Justin Masterson's masterful outing, Ellsbury's thrilling theft of home plate and some lights out pitching, as usual, by the young Red Sox bullpen. Coming on in relief of Hunter Jones, who relieved Masterson with 0.2 innings of scoreless relief pitching, was Michael Bowden. Bowden was called up from Pawtucket after the Sox' bullpen had been taxed throughout the first two games of this series. Being that Bowden is a starting pitcher, he hurled two perfect innings from the wind-up position. Bowden retired all six batters that he faced, striking out two.

With a save situation in place in the ninth inning and Papelbon being deemed unavailable after working the first two games of the series, Takashi Saito took the mound to seal the deal with a three-run cushion. Saito retired the first two batters he faced before giving up a single to Melky Cabrera, but snuffed the Yankees' hopes of a comeback by getting pinch-hitter Johnny Damon to pop out, ending the game and the series. Saito picked up his second save of the season, earning Justin Masterson his second win of 2009. Oh, and I guess it's worth mentioning that the Red Sox have now won ten games in a row. The loss for Pettitte was his first against the Red Sox at Fenway Park in seven years.

Some final notes, the Red Sox have swept a nine-game home stand amidst their ten-game win streak. Going 1-for-4 on Sunday, Mike Lowell has now hit safely in the past ten consecutive games, I'll say it again, all in which were victories for Boston. Kevin Youkilis remains the hottest hitter in the American League, going 1-for-3 with a walk, while boasting a .439 batting average. Michael Bowden will be sent back down to make room for Julio Lugo on the roster, who is expected to join the team in Cleveland in Monday.

The Sox now hit the road for a nine-game road trip in which they'll see three games against the Tribe, four games at the Trop and a two-game set at the new Yankee Stadium. Monday's pitching match up is slated for Tim Wakefield against the reigning Cy Young award winner, Cliff Lee. Wakefield has been money in has last two starts, turning in back-to-back complete games. In 25 games against the Indians, Wakefield holds a 10-8 career record with a 4.50 ERA. Cliff Lee has had his troubles against the Sox in his career, going 2-4 with a 5.13 ERA in eight starts.

Clap it up for the Sox and Yanks; this one only took three hours and nine minutes,
-Jared Carrabis

Final Score: Yankees 1, Red Sox 4

Published on April 27, 2009

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