Redemption by Jared Carrabis
Sox scratch and claw their way back to .500


I don't want to sound like Mr. Big Shot and say that I knew that this would happen but--alright, I knew that this would happen.

Before Tuesday night's finale in the Bronx, I tweeted Christine Yandow of the Lester Project and said, "I'm hoping for a Papelbon redemption game tonight."

Well, let's just say that the road to redemption did not come easy. The Red Sox may have won this battle, but there were casualties in the war that is a 162-game baseball season.

Josh Beckett, who was pushed back due to tweaking his back, while taking batting practice, toed the rubber for the first time since allowing nine earned runs against the Yankees on May 7. Shamefully hauling the steepest ERA among Boston starters, Beckett saw his earned run average drop from 7.46 to 7.29; baby steps.

Two singles, a walk and an E6 in the bottom of the second led to two Yankee runs crossing home plate. In the bottom of the fourth, Juan Miranda (who?) hit his second career major league home run in his eighteenth major league game, while playing in his third major league season.

In the very next frame, the red-hot Robinson Cano touched up Beckett for a pair, after driving his ninth double of the season to center. For the second time in as many nights, the Yankees had themselves a 5-0 advantage.

Promptly following the two-run double by Cano, Beckett was yanked from the game with an undisclosed injury. As a result of Beckett being lifted and the Yankees having no visual evidence that the right-hander was in fact injured, manager Joe Girardi announced that the Bombers were playing the game under protest.

Staring adversity in the face for the second straight night, the Red Sox began to chip away at CC Sabathia and the Yankees. The chisel to chip away came in the top of the sixth in the form of Kevin Youkilis. With the count even at one, Youkilis hammered a sinker that didn't sink for a solo blast, his second homer of the series.

In for Beckett, Manny Delcarmen hurled an inning and-a-third scoreless, and pitched his way out of a bases loaded jam to keep the Red Sox within striking distance.

With the score still 5-1 in the eighth, Girardi opted to go with the man whose picture is tacked on Youk's dart board, Joba Chamberlain. The inning got underway after an Alex Rodriguez throwing error put Marco Scutaro aboard. Keeping the line moving, Dustin Pedroia knocked a base hit into right to put two men on for J.D. Drew.

With a 3-1 count, Drew shot a line drive into the left field corner for an opposite field double. Scutaro and Pedroia would come around to score, as the Red Sox trailed by just two. Unfortunately, Drew would leave the game with an injury that was later described as, "tightness in [his] right hamstring." The injury does not appear to be serious, as he expects to play on Wednesday.

Youkilis then came to the plate to face his best buddy and dropped a blooper into shallow right to drive in Scutaro and Pedroia.

Later in the inning, David Ortiz worked the count full against Chamberlain before crushing a slider out to deep right-center. The deep drive hit off the top of the wall, scoring Youkilis with ease, but Ortiz was thrown up by a mile at second base, due to his admiring what he (as well as everyone else) thought was a two-run homer.

It's worth noting that Terry Francona elected to go with Ortiz over Mike Lowell against a lefty starter, and it paid off big time. Another multi-hit performance for Ortiz, his seventh in the 13 games he's been in the lineup during the month, improved his average to .367 in May with 15 RBI.

All knotted up at five, the Yankees sent the great Mariano Rivera to the mound in the top of the ninth. A one-out single after a seven-pitch battle by Darnell McDonald got things going for the Red Sox against Mo.

Scutaro then popped up to shallow right, a can of corn for Monday night's hero, Marcus Thames. Taking his eye off the ball, Scutaro's blooper fell in and Thames went from hero to goat faster than a Daniel Bard fastball. A ground out by Pedroia moved both runners into scoring position for Jeremy Hermida, who entered the game for Drew.

For some reason, Girardi elected to pull his outfielders in very shallow. With a 2-2 count, Hermida hammered a Rivera cutter out to deep left field and over the head of Randy Winn. Both McDonald and Scutaro came around to score, as the Red Sox added some more film to the beating up on Rivera highlight reel.

In the bottom of the ninth, Jonathan Papelbon got his do-over. Right out of the gate, four fastballs and what should have been an out, after Scutaro committed his second error of the game. With A-Rod aboard, Cano sliced a double down the left field line to bring the Yankees within a run.

Papelbon would later find himself in a situation with the tying run just 90 feet away and the winning run standing in scoring position at second base with Winn at the plate. With two outs, Papelbon battled Winn for eight stomach-turning pitches, before finally putting the nail in the coffin on a 94 MPH fastball.

The Boston closer can thank his lucky stars that neither Jorge Posada nor Nick Swisher were available to pinch hit for the .196-hitting Winn, because once again, Papelbon dealt nothing but 4-seam fastballs in the 91-94 MPH range in the most crucial at bat of the game. Still unacceptable. However, a win is a win and a save is a save.

Final score: Red Sox 7, Yankees 6
WP: Daniel Bard (1-1)
LP: Mariano Rivera (0-1)
SV: Jonathan Papelbon (10)

Game notes: Kevin Youkilis' solo home run was the 100th homer in his big league career. The Red Sox are now dead-even at 20-20 here in 2010. It's their worst 40-game start since 1997. The loss suffered by Mariano Rivera was the seventh loss at the hands of the Red Sox in his career. His career ERA against Boston still sits at 2.85, as both runs were unearned.

Tweet of the Night:

The TOTN comes from enemy territory. A wishful tweet by the Star Ledger Yankee baseball Twitter account. I like this tweet because the answer is, "no."

@Ledger_Yankees: Cano clears the bases with a timely double to the gap. 5-0 Yankees. Can they protect this lead?

Wednesday's pitching match-up:

The Red Sox now return home for a brief two-game series against the Minnesota Twins. Clay Buchholz gets the honors of opposing Joe Mauer and company at Fenway Park, where strangely, the right-handers ERA is 4.84, compared to a 1.86 ERA on the road. Interestingly enough, Buchholz sports an 8.1 K-per-9 at home, while posting a 3.7 K-per-9 on the road. Scott Baker, who is 0-1 with a 4.30 ERA against Boston in his career, gets the start for the Twins.

-Jared Carrabis

To order Jared's debut book, One Fan's Story: If This Hat Could Talk, click HERE!





Published on May 19, 2010

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