Red Sox Take Series With Yankees Thanks To A Rain-Shortened Game Delayed 3 Times

You knew it was going to be a strange night when the start of the Red Sox-Yankees game on Sunday Night Baseball was delayed for 45 minutes even though it never actually rained in the Bronx. Before there were two more rain delays, Boston (35-23 overall, 18-11 away) scored three runs and New York (31-25 overall, 16-13 home) got none. It was mercifully called after 5.5 innings so the Red Sox received the easiest win they'll find all season, 3-0.

After skipping a start (with a mysterious shoulder injury), Clay Buchholz (8-0) returned and went all five innings. He allowed just two hits with four strikeouts and one walk. Andrew Miller warmed up and was about to come in to start the bottom of the sixth (after the first delay) but then it started pouring again complete with thunder and lightning. That perfectly sums up Miller's MLB career to this point. Speaking of complete, Buchholz "earned" a complete game with this victory. That'll definitely make his agent happy.

Boston scored single runs off Hiroki Kuroda (6-4) in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings. Kuroda went 5.1 innings, allowing three earned runs on eight hits with five strikeouts.

The Red Sox opened the scoring with Mike Napoli's (2 hits) ground out in the fourth that plated Dustin Pedroia. Jose Iglesias cranked his first homer of the season (and second of his MLB career) with a solo shot to left (401 feet) in the fifth. No seriously, that really happened. David Ortiz (2 hits) followed with a solo homer to right in the sixth, his 10th of the season.

After losing 4-1 on Friday, Boston blew out New York 11-1 last night then waited out this one for a series win. They get a welcome day off tomorrow before embarking on a six-game homestand (Tuesday-Sunday) at Fenway Park against two teams from the AL West: the Rangers (35-21) and Angels (25-32). Former Ranger Ryan Dempster (2-6) takes on Justin Grimm (5-3) on Tuesday (7:10, NESN), native Texan John Lackey (3-5) opposes Alexi Ogando (4-2) on Wednesday (7:10, NESN) and Jon Lester (6-2) meets Derek Holland (5-2) in the best matchup of the series-on Thursday (7:10, NESN).

The Red Sox got swept (3 games) in Texas May 3-5 when they scored four total runs. They can't possibly do much worse than that against what I feel is the best team in the American League.

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