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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Goodnight To The Worst Red Sox Team Of My Lifetime

Well the time that we've all been dreaming of since about mid-May is finally upon us: the 2012 Red Sox' tour of pain is over. We won't see them again until April in a meaningful game and not a moment too soon at that.

Fittingly, for Daisuke Matsuzaka's (1-7) last outing as a Red Sox (69-93, 35-46) and Bobby Valentine's final night as an MLB manager, both were thoroughly embarrassed as New York (95-67, 51-30 home) trampled Boston 14-2 at Yankee Stadium. It clinched the third AL East title in four years for the Yankees and 18th overall after the Rays beat the Orioles 4-1.

Now is when the real fun starts, we can only hope that the Red Sox owners and GM Ben Cherington come up with a better choice than Valentine. Then again, who could possibly be a worse pick? It is horrifying that last winter, after months of deliberation, that clown was their hire.

Dice-K didn't stick around long, he probably had a flight back to Japan to catch. In 2.1 innings, he allowed five earned runs on six hits with two strikeouts, a walk and two homers.

Hiroki Kuroda (16-11) went seven innings (2 earned runs, 7 hits, 4 strikeouts, 2 walks) for the Yankees, who will host the winner of Orioles-Rangers starting on Sunday in the ALDS.

It was a monster night for Robinson Cano (4 for 4, 3 runs, 6 RBIs, 2 homers) and Curtis Granderson (2 homers, 4 RBIs). Nick Swisher was 2 for 3 with a run, RBI and two walks while Alex Rodriguez (2 for 3, double, 2 runs, 2 walks) and Ichiro Suzuki (2-run double, 2 runs) contributed to the laugher for the Yanks.

Cody Ross was 2 for 3 with an RBI single, Pedro Ciriaco was 2 for 3 with a double and run while Dustin Pedroia had a double, walk and stolen base. In the near future (possibly tomorrow) after I have some time to breath and wash the stink away from this incomprehensibly bad season, I plan to write a post highlighting the few Red Sox that had good seasons (hint: those three play prominent roles). Jose Iglesias also had an RBI single, hopefully that gives him some confidence heading into the winter.

Until then, let's hope that a Men In Black type mind eraser device exists and that we can all use it to get rid of all our memories having to do with the 2012 Red Sox. They were truly the most hateable Boston sports team that I've ever seen and it would be tough to top them in that particular way.

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Jacoby Ellsbury's Walk-off Hit Pushes The Red Sox To A 4-3 Win Over The Yankees

For the first time in weeks, maybe months, baseball was fun again for one night at Fenway Park. Jacoby Ellsbury (4 hits, double, 2 RBIs, run, stolen base) celebrated his 29th birthday in style by hitting a walk-off RBI single as the Red Sox beat the Yankees 4-3 in a better than expected series opener.

These games mean nothing on the surface to Boston (64-78, 33-41 home) while New York (79-62, 38-34 away) fell back into a first-place tie in the AL East with the surging Orioles (who beat the Rays 9-2).

Ellsbury, Dustin Pedroia (3 hits, 2 RBIs) and Yankees killer Pedro Ciriaco (2 hits, 2 runs) did most of the damage with nine of Boston's 12 hits. The reason the Red Sox won a game (seems weird to write that) is because they were 5 for 12 with runners in scoring position. The Yankees were 1 for 12 which will never get it done when you want to make the playoffs.

Jon Lester (3 earned runs, 5 hits, 5 strikeouts) was extremely wild, issuing seven walks in 5.1 innings but the Red Sox bullpen picked him up. Junichi Tazawa (1.2 scoreless innings) struck out three, Craig Breslow had a scoreless eighth and Andrew Bailey (1-0) earned the win with a scoreless ninth.

Hiroki Kuroda (6.1 innings, 3 earned runs, 8 hits, 6 strikeouts) also had a no-decision but David Robertson (1-7) was the scapegoat for New York since he allowed three hits including Ellsbury's walkoff.

Robinson Cano gave the Yankees a 1-0 lead in the first with a ground out. Ellsbury and Pedroia's RBI singles made it 2-1 Red Sox in the third. Derek Jeter put New York back on top with a two-run double in the sixth. Pedroia (15th of the season, 3rd in 4 games) answered with a solo shot in the home half of the frame, that set the stage for Ellsbury's memorable single to right which scored Ciriaco with the winning run ahead of Ichiro's throw.

Aaron Cook (3-9) faces David Phelps (3-4) tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN) in a game that has no chance to match the excitement of this one. I guarantee it.

UPDATE 9/12: Scott Atchison was activated off the 60-Day DL and Franklin Morales went on it to make room on the 40-man roster.

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When Ichiro Suzuki Is Hitting Tape-Measure Bombs Against You, Might As Well Look For Another Profession

Chew on this: with 40 games left in their 2012 regular season, the Red Sox could go 40-0 and they still wouldn't win 100 games.

Boston (59-63, 30-29 away) went quietly in the night with a 4-1 loss to New York (72-49, 39-24 home) to wrap up a series loss (2-1) at Yankee Stadium. The Red Sox fell to 4-8 against the Yankees this season. There are two more series between these woefully mismatched rivals: at Fenway in September and closing out the regular season in the Bronx the first few days of October.

Josh Beckett (5-11) couldn't contain one of MLB's best sluggers as Ichiro Suzuki took him deep for solo homers in the fourth and sixth innings. The Texas Toughguy had about his best outing possible: six innings, four earned runs, seven hits, six strikeouts, three walks and two home runs allowed but he still lost.

Even with Beckett's extended breaks between pitches, this one was over in 2 hours and 51 minutes which has to be the quickest Red Sox-Yankees contest in years. Boston ended their 10-game, 11-day road trip (longest of the season) at 4-6.

Hiroki Kuroda (12-8, 2.96 ERA), who was a free agent that the Red Sox easily could have signed last winter, proved to be yet another wrong choice they have made in the last year-plus. He shut down Boston for eight innings, allowing one earned run on four hits with four strikeouts and no walks.

Rafael Soriano worked the ninth for his 31st save of the season and second of the weekend.

Curtis Granderson had an RBI double in the first since Beckett automatically has to give up at least one run every first inning. Derek Jeter (3 for 4, 2 doubles, stolen base) scored on a wild pitch in the third inning for a 2-0 New York lead.

The Red Sox had five total hits in the game and it would have been a shutout if not for the heroics of Adrian Gonzalez (15th of the season), who continued to pad his stats with a worthless solo homer in the seventh.

Boston returns to Fenway for seven games after an off-day tomorrow. We should all be thankful that they give us time to concentrate on the utterly meaningless Patriots-Eagles preseason matchup. There is a weird scheduling quirk since the Red Sox haven't played the Angels all season but Los Angeles (62-60, 3rd AL West) is in Boston starting Tuesday then the Red Sox are in Anaheim next week.

Aaron Cook (3-6) faces Ervin Santana (6-10) on Tuesday night (7:10 p.m., NESN), Clay Buchholz (11-3) gets Jered Weaver (15-3) on Wednesday night (7:10 p.m., NESN) in what could be a classic pitcher's duel and Franklin Morales (3-4) takes the hill against fellow lefty C.J. Wilson (9-9) in the finale on Wednesday night (7:10 p.m., NESN).

I'm just excited to see Mike Trout and see up close why the Angels have struggled so much lately when it looks like they put together a powerhouse team. They should benefit greatly from playing the Red Sox six times in 10 days.

After that, Boston takes on Kansas City in four mind-numbing games wrapped around this weekend.

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Felix Doubront & Pedro Ciriaco Run New York, Everybody Knows That

With only 60 games (basically two months) left of the 2012 regular season, now is not the time to celebrate simply getting back to .500 (for the 55th time).

However, the Red Sox (51-51, 26-23 away) should be happy after they took two of three games in New York (60-41, 31-19 home) this weekend and went 3-3 on a brutal road trip against the two best teams in the AL (Rangers and Yankees). Felix Doubront pitched well tonight and Pedro Ciriaco had an RBI single in the 10th that scored Jarrod Saltalamacchia (2 runs, 2 walks) as Boston outlasted the Yankees 3-2 in 10 innings at Yankee Stadium.

After losing on Friday, the Red Sox won nail-biters last night (8-6) and tonight to make the season series 6-3 in favor of New York. There are nine remaining so you will have plenty more baseball games that are well over three hours long no matter what.

Trade bait Ryan Sweeney's two-run double in the second gave Boston a 2-0 lead it would carry until the sixth. New York cut it to 2-1 on Red Sox killer Russell Martin's solo homer (his 12th of the season) then he tied it with an RBI single in the seventh.

Jacoby Ellsbury (double) and Adrian Gonzalez (run) both had two hits for Boston while Nick Swisher added two hits for the Yankees. Somehow the Red Sox survived grounding into five double plays-the most they had recorded in over seven years.

Doubront and Ciriaco have been by far Boston's best players against New York this season. In three starts, Doubront has gone 18.2 innings and only allowed five earned runs on 12 hits. Ciriaco is 11-for-22 in five games against the Bronx Bombers with six RBIs. He has provided the winning hits the last two games as well (RBI triple on Saturday night in the 9th). Call it a small sample size, beginner's luck or not having a book on either guy yet but whatever the reason, two of the most unlikely players have carried the Red Sox to wins against their archrivals.

This evening, the young lefty went 6.1 innings and allowed one earned run on four hits with eight strikeouts and five walks. A high pitch count (109) was the only thing to complain about regarding one of the best outings of his career.

Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda went eight innings, allowing two earned runs on seven hits with four strikeouts and a walk.

Andrew Miller wiggled out of a jam (runners on the corners, 1 out) in the seventh but Alfredo Aceves (2-6) blew the save (5th time he's done that) by giving up Martin's hit in the eighth (charged to Miller). It didn't matter though since he stayed out there and eventually got the win following 2.1 innings. He struck out two and didn't allow a hit besides Martin's, the downside was that he threw 37 pitches.

The only thing I fear from these last two days is that the Red Sox front office will feel like they've figured things out so there is no need to make a big move (trading Josh Beckett). I really hope that is not the case since they should realize that he had less than nothing to do with either win or any positive things to come out of the weekend. They have until 4 p.m. on Tuesday to do the right thing and get him out of here before fans' heads explode with anger and frustration.

Boston returns to Fenway Park for its longest homestand of the season: 10 games (3 vs. Detroit, 4 vs. Minnesota and 3 vs. Texas). Their next road game is Thursday, August 9 in Cleveland which kicks off the longest road trip of the season: also 10 games.

Clay Buchholz (8-3) faces Max Scherzer (10-5) tomorrow night (7:10 p.m., NESN). Beckett (5-9) is scheduled to take the fall against Justin Verlander (11-6) on Tuesday (7:10 p.m., NESN) and Aaron Cook (2-4) gets Rick Porcello (7-6) on Wednesday (7:10 p.m., NESN).

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