So Yeah, This Weekend At Fenway Could Get Pretty Ugly For The Red Sox

It only took one inning of tonight's game to get us back into full Red Sox-Yankees marathon mode. Josh Beckett allowed five runs in the top of the first but Hiroki Kuroda did the same in the bottom of the first. The tone was set as it would be a slow-pitch softball game (that took 3 hours, 59 minutes) in the guise of an AL East meeting at Fenway Park.

Boston (42-41, 21-22 home) rallied once but they couldn't do it twice as Beckett and their bullpen let them down in a 10-8 series opening loss to New York (50-32, 25-16 away). The Red Sox lost their fourth straight game overall as they fell to 0-3 against the Yankees this season (all at Fenway).

This excruciating loss was a microcosm of the Red Sox' terrible first half: they got unexpected contributions from nobodies like Mauro Gomez (2 for 5, RBI) and Nick Punto (double, threw A-Rod out at home) but when it came time for a star to step up he didn't do it.

Adrian Gonzalez (3 hits, double, 2 runs, RBI) extended his hitting streak to 16 games but in the biggest at bat of the game, he couldn't produce. With runners on first and second with two outs in the eighth, Yankees closer Rafael Soriano came in to face Gonzalez. The former Rays closer got Gonzalez to ground out then he had a 1-2-3 ninth for his 20th save of the season. That's Gonzalez in a nutshell: he puts up numbers that look good at first glance but when you see him up close every day, he is not that impressive. Well at least not this season.

The Red Sox wasted 14 hits by leaving nine guys on base. This wasn't the offense's fault though as Beckett, Andrew Miller and Vicente Padilla all failed to contain the Yankees. The Texas Toughguy had nothing to start and New York scored five runs on a bases-loaded walk to Robinson Cano (run, hit, RBI), Mark Teixeira's (2 runs, 2 hits, 4 RBIs) two-run single and sacrifice flies by Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez (2 hits, 2 RBIs).

Boston tied it on Ryan Kalish's sacrifice fly, Gonzalez's RBI double and Jarrod Saltalamacchia's three-run homer (his 17th of the season, a career-high).

A run scored on Rodriguez's (3 hits, 2 runs, 2 stolen bases) ground out in the second but David Ortiz (3 hits, walk, run) made it 6-6 with an RBI single in the home half of the second.

With a day-night doubleheader looming tomorrow, both teams had no choice but to stick with their ineffective starters. They actually settled down and didn't allow any runs in the third or fourth which was shocking. Gomez's RBI single in the fifth gave the Red Sox their only lead at 6-5.

Ironically, as news of Ray Allen going to Miami broke in the seventh inning, Miller and Padilla decided to shit the bed. Miller walked Curtis Granderson (3 runs, 2 hits) and allowed an infield single to A-Rod. That was nothing compared to Teixeira greeting Padilla with a two-run triple which put the Yanks ahead for good. Raul Ibanez (2 hits, run) added an RBI double and Chavez's RBI single increased the margin to 10-7 New York.

Cody Ross blasted a solo homer (13th of the season) off Boone Logan (4-0) in the seventh but the Yankees bullpen was still able to outperform the Red Sox'. David Robertson struck out two in the eighth for his ninth hold of the season while Soriano struck out two of the three he faced in the ninth.

Matt Albers pitched a scoreless sixth but the most promising development in the loss for Boston's bullpen was Mark Melancon, who has been lights out since he returned from Pawtucket (hope Daniel Bard is watching). He only allowed one hit and struck out two in a scoreless eighth and ninth.

Franklin Morales (1-1) faces Phil Hughes (9-6) tomorrow afternoon (12:35 p.m., NESN) then Felix Doubront (8-4) opposes Freddy Garcia (2-2) in the nightcap (7:15 p.m., Fox). On paper, I feel (and hope) that the first game will be fast and low scoring with the exact opposite happening in the second game. We shall see. All I ask is that they go by a little more quickly and oh I don't know, maybe the Red Sox can win a game if that's not too much to ask.

UPDATE 7/7: The Red Sox recalled Clayton Mortensen for today's doubleheader.

Prior to Game 2, Ryan Sweeney was activated off the DL and he'll start in center field. Ryan Kalish is expected to be sent down to Pawtucket.

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Yankees Win Eighth Straight, Take Over AL East Lead

Well it's officially on, the Boston Red Sox are now looking up at the New York Yankees.

The Bombers (69-42) came to Fenway Park for a three-game series and opened it up with a tidy 3-2 win tonight over the Red Sox (68-43).

With it, New York cut the season series to 8-2 in favor of Boston and more importantly, the eighth straight win for the Yanks vaulted them to the top of the AL East for the first time in nearly a month.

The pitching matchup was Bartolo Colon vs. Jon Lester, one that clearly favors the Red Sox but that's not how it turned out unfortunately.

Boston did a nice job of getting the injected/juiced up Colon out in the fifth inning but that led to five Yankees reliever combining for 4.1 scoreless frames. Colon went 4.2 innings, allowing two earned runs on six hits with a walk and two strikeouts.

Boone Logan (3-2) came on to get Adrian Gonzalez (0 for 4) to strikeout with the bases loaded to end the fifth inning. Not surprisingly, that turned out to be a pivotal moment as New York handcuffed the Red Sox offense from there while they got all the runs they needed in the sixth.

Jacoby Ellsbury had driven in Marco Scutaro with a wall ball double in the third while David Ortiz crushed his 21st homer of the season in the fourth for Boston's two runs.

Curtis Granderson started New York's rally with an RBI single that plated Eduardo Nunez. With the bases loaded and no outs, Lester got Robinson Cano to ground into a double play (with the tying run coming across). Nick Swisher (2 hits) came through with the go-ahead RBI, a ground-rule double down the left field line.

Lester (11-5) was on for a while until his pitch count started to get really high in the sixth and he couldn't find the plate while the Yankees patient lineup waited him out. He went six innings, allowing three earned runs on five hits with four walks and seven strikeouts.

Logan earned the win by going an inning. Something named Cory Wade got the last out of the sixth which set it up perfectly for Rafael Soriano (seventh), David Robertson (eighth) and Mariano Rivera (ninth). That's a formidable late-innings trio for New York.

After Ortiz grounded out, Carl Crawford (2 hits) got an infield hit against Rivera but the greatest closer in MLB history calmly struck out Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Josh Reddick (2 hits)-both looking at nasty cutters-to end it and gain his 29th save of the season. Rivera has 15 straight years of 25+ saves.

CC Sabathia faces John Lackey tomorrow afternoon in what can only be described as a lock for the Yankees. Barring something crazy (Bigfoot, UFOs landing on the field, Sabathia skipping the game to pig out at Legal Sea Foods all day), this does not look good on paper for the Red Sox. However, the reverse lock might be in effect here too. We'll probably know quickly as Lackey is likely to give up about eight runs in the first two innings.

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