Red Sox Become 1st Team To 90 Wins After 8-4 Triumph Over Yankees

We are still a couple weeks away from the postseason but I'm already struggling to find new ways to state that the Red Sox are having an incredible regular season and I hope you're enjoying it half as much as them. Each game brings new heroes and highlights plus bushy beards to tug on. Tonight Boston (90-59 overall, AL-best 45-28 at home) beat the Yankees (79-69 overall, 35-38 away) 8-4 in their series opener at Fenway Park.

The Red Sox are 11-6 against the Yankees with two games left in the regular season. It looked like it was going to be a blowout in the first inning as Boston piled up four runs on Hiroki Kuroda (11-11). A run scored on Mike Carp's ground out, Daniel Nava (2 hits, run) drove in a run with an RBI single and Stephen Drew doubled off the wall which scored two teammates.

Boston starter John Lackey allowed a solo homer to light-hitting Brendan Ryan (2 hits, 2 runs) in the third inning then Lyle Overbay's sacrifice fly in the sixth cut it to 3-2. Robinson Cano (4 for 4 with 3 doubles, run) tied it for the Yankees in the seventh with a two-run double.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia stepped up big time with the deciding play: a grand slam to right center field in the seventh inning. That proved to be the difference, his third career grand slam and 13th homer of the season.

Junichi Tazawa offered a glimpse of what he had been earlier in 2013: a 1-2-3 eighth inning on 10 pitches (9 strikes!). It wasn't a save situation, ugh, but closer supreme Koji Uehara still appeared and recorded his own 1-2-3 ninth inning on 9 pitches (8 strikes) which included a strikeout. I've never seen a Red sox closer or pitcher for that matter on this type of roll, it's amazing.

Dustin Pedroia (2 for 5 with run) continued to bat leadoff with Jacoby Ellsbury out indefinitely. In a matchup that feels like it's happened a bunch of times this season, tomorrow afternoon (1:05, NESN) Jon Lester (13-8) takes on C.C. Sabathia (13-12). Every game is life or death for New York because they are only two games behind Tampa Bay for the second AL Wild Card spot. The Red Sox might not be in it but the chase for the wild card is intense: Cleveland is half a game up on the Yankees, Baltimore is half a game behind New York and the Royals are 3.5 behind the Rays. Got it?

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