Sloppy Slugfest by Jared Carrabis
Yanks Get The Best Of Sox In the Bronx

The lights shined brightly upon two teams, two teams that just so happen to be the biggest rivals in the game for decades. The two teams squared off at the legendary Yankee Stadium for one of their final series to be played in the stadium that first opened its gates back on April 18, 1923. Their first of nine games to be played against each other in Yankee Stadium’s final season was nothing short of an old fashion Red Sox/Yankees slugfest. With Clay Buchholz not yet finding his form in 2008 and the Red Sox catching Chien-Ming Wang on an off day, this was a firework show of offensive ability from start to finish.


The Boston bats would get things rolling right away in the top of the first when Dustin Pedroia was standing at second base (thanks to a walk and a groundout by David Ortiz) and up came one of the greatest RBI machines that the game has yet to see, Manny Ramirez. Manny drove a 1-0 fastball out to deep left that looked like it had a chance off the bat. The ball carried and one-hopped the wall easily scoring Pedroia as Ramirez cruised into second with a double to put Boston out in front early, one-zip.


The heart of the Yankee order would respond in a big way when the Yankee captain, Derek Jeter, would get things going with a one out single. Bobby Abreu would then wait patiently after three pickoff attempts to see a decent pitch and when he did it was a no doubter. Surely Buchholz should have been paying more attention to the great hitter at the plate rather than the threat of a steal this early in the game. New York would take back the lead 2-1 and then came the reigning American League MVP to the plate. It’s amazing how easy this guy makes hitting big league pitching look, but he does it day in and day out (unless the calendar reads “October”). A-Rod crushed a 1-1 pitch to deep left field and it would land in the glove of a member of the Red Sox. Unfortunately, that member of the Red Sox was Julian Tavarez and he was standing in the Red Sox bullpen.


The Yankees tattooed Buchholz for back-to-back home runs (but still not revenge enough for the four in a row from last season. Poor Chase Wright is still recovering from the whiplash from those big flies) to take the lead. The Sox would gain a run back with a bases loaded groundout off the bat of Julio Lugo in the top of the second. The captain helped out in a big way in the top of the fourth when he ripped a line drive off the extended glove of Jason Giambi deflecting the ball into right field. Abreu fielded the ball very lazily being sure that Tek would not advance on the play and Tek took notice as he hustled out of the box and never looked up until he slid into second safely with a double. The captain’s efforts would be rewarded on the next play when Sean Casey would single to center to allow the captain to touch home.


Buchholz would go on to silence the Yankee bats by retiring the next eight out of nine batters he would face following the back-to-back jacks. Buchholz would later run into trouble in the fourth inning when the Yankees would grab four runs on four hits to take a 7-3 lead now with Julian Tavarez on the mound. A game that had seemed to have reached it’s offensive peak would be far from over for both sides. The Red Sox and the Yankees would combine to score a total of ten runs in the fifth inning as Boston put a crooked number on the board in the top half by scoring six runs when they started the inning with five straight hits. A total of seven hits and a walk would result in six Red Sox touching home in the inning.


Once again, the Yankees would not go quietly. This once entertaining slugfest would go on to get ugly as the Bronx Bombers lit up the Boston bullpen for four runs in the bottom of the fifth and the bottom of the eighth. Tavarez would pitch an inning and a third giving up four runs (three earned) on three hits with two walks. The middle man out of the pen, David Aardsma would look to be the savior of this game giving the Sox a chance to come back when he threw two shutout innings giving up just two hits. Boston’s offense suffered at the top of the order with Jacoby Ellsbury (0 for 5) not being able to set the table for the big bats. Coco Crisp got the night off due to soreness in his hamstrings and lately he has been tearing the cover off the ball.


The Red Sox offense would also suffer the loss of Kevin Youkilis when in the sixth inning he fouled a ball off of his foot. He would stay in the game only to have been replaced by Jed Lowrie in the later innings, the X-rays would later come out negative. Mike Timlin would throw the last inning (and I said throw, not pitch) of this one and once again he did not look like the Mike Timlin of old. He just hasn’t been the same since he has returned from the 15-day DL and it showed once again as he surrendered four earned runs on three hits and two walks raising his ERA now to 27.00.


This will certainly be a game that the Sox will look to forget as they drop this one by a score of 15-9. On a good note, the usual suspects are still whacking everything that comes near them. Manny Ramirez went 3 for 4 with an RBI and JD Drew would take a 3 for 5 night with 2 RBI. The Red Sox will look to split the series when they send their ace to the mound against the aging quickly right-hander, Mike Mussina. In Beckett’s last outing (which was against the Yankees) he took it into the seventh innings by going six and two thirds giving up three runs and striking out five.


Final Score: Red Sox 9, Yankees 15

Published on April 16, 2008

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