There's Dumb and then There is Michael Pineda

It's about time that Red Sox-Yankees had some new drama since admittedly the last few years have been pretty blah for the alleged best rivalry in MLB. Tonight shall forever be known as the night that Michael Pineda overdosed on pine tar. He had gotten away with having it all over his hand two weeks ago when New York (12-9 overall, 6-6 away) beat Boston (10-12 overall, 5-7 home) 4-1 at Yankee Stadium but it was a different story in the friendly confines of Fenway Park.

Red Sox manager John Farrell pointed out the pine tar all over Pineda's neck (I'm serious) and the Yankees hurler was ejected with two outs in the bottom of the second. Boston had already scored twice in the first inning and they went on to post a 5-1 victory that will perhaps propel them out of the depths of mediocrity that they've been stuck in since the opening series in Baltimore.

Let's not have Pineda's utter stupidity completely overshadow what was John Lackey's best performance as a Red Sox (8 innings, 1 earned run, 7 hits, 11 strikeouts, 0 walks), in the regular season at least I know he had some great ones last postseason. It's the second time in his career that he's had 11 Ks & 0 BBs vs. New York (the other was when he was an Angel) and he became only the fourth Red Sox pitcher to do that (joining Pedro Martinez, Jim Lonborg and Cy Young).

Pineda figures to be suspended by MLB, how long is another question but he also screwed his team over since his manager Joe Girardi had to burn through four additional relievers. Boston went up 2-0 in the first on RBI singles by Dustin Pedroia (2 hits, 2 runs) and A.J. Pierzynski (walk). The Red Sox pushed two more runs across in the third against David Phelps on a ground rule double by Mike Napoli (3 for 4) and a wild pitch.

Alfonso Soriano's sacrifice fly in the sixth produced New York's only run. Brock Holt (2 walks) continued his fine play with an RBI single in the eighth that drove in Xander Bogaerts (single, run). You hate to see him used in non-save situations but Farrell always plays Koji Uehara when he's warmed up so he went out there in the ninth and struck out the side to end it.

To kill time before Bruins-Red Wings Game 4 tomorrow night (8, NESN), we will probably see about 1.5 innings of the series finale between the Red Sox and Yankees (7:10, NESN Plus). CC Sabathia (2-2) faces Felix Doubront (1-2) and they both suck so both teams could put up big numbers as they try to clinch the three-game series.

Tweet


Follow @RichSlate