You're great Swish, but don't ever bunt again. (AP Photo/Winslow Townson)
In perhaps the least expected turn of events in recent Yankee history, A.J. Burnett managed to turn in a respectable performance against the best non-Yankee offense in Major League Baseball — allowing less than three earned runs in a start for the first time since June 29 against the Brewers — as the Yankees battled back to win the rubber game against the Red Sox 4-2, snapping a six-series losing streak against their rivals and winning a series against Boston for the first time since May 2010.
The Yankees had Jon Lester on the ropes early, forcing the lefty to throw 42 pitches in the first inning, but they were only able to push one run across the board. The Yankees would have multiple chances to score in each inning thereafter — and would strand 13 total baserunners — but couldn’t get anything else off of Lester. However, they did get the dominant southpaw out of the game after five innings, which is a pretty big accomplishment in and of itself. This was the first time Lester failed to go at least six innings against the Yankees since April 6, 2010 — a span of six starts.
A.J. Burnett’s final line of 5.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, 2 BBs and 4 Ks was far better than even the most wide-eyed optimist could have expected of Burnett coming into this game. The only damage done came off the bat of Dustin Pedroia, who hit a two-run home run (of course) and picked up two more hits. He’s now batting infinity on the season against the Yankees.
Down 2-1, the Yankees put two runners on with one out facing old pal Alfredo Aceves, prompting Terry Francona to summon Daniel Bard an inning early. In the key at-bat of the game, Bard surrendered a double to Russell Martin on a full count (Russell battled back from 0-2), scoring both runners while Martin got to third on the throw. Eric Chavez followed with a base hit of his own to extend the new Yankees lead to 4-2, and that’s where it would stay. Speaking of Chavez; heck of a series for him — he went 4-7 with a walk and knocked in four of the Yankees’ 14 runs in this series.
Huge props to the Yankee bullpen, who combined for 4 2/3 scoreless innings in this one, although Boston didn’t go quietly against Mariano Rivera in the ninth, because they never do. Mo wound up with a two-out bases loaded situation facing Adrian Gonzalez, but struck Gonzo out looking on a pitch that looked like it may have been a ball on TV but was definitely a strike.
And lastly, in his Major League debut Jesus Montero came to the plate with the bases loaded in the first inning but struck out, and ended up going 0-4 with two flyouts, a groundout, a hit-by-pitch and a run scored.
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17 Responses to Yankees battle back to beat Sox 4-2; win first series against Boston since May 2010
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TIQ IQ
That’s first win in 18 months for a series *in* Boston, right?
Looking at the schedule, it looks like its the first overall.
Well, that’s awful
What? You mean we’re in FIRST?
Matt,
Yeah, this was technically the first series win for the Yankees against Boston since May 7-9, 2010 at Fenway. Since then they did the following:
- Split a two-gamer at Yankee Stadium May 17-18, 2010.
- Split a four-gamer at Yankee Stadium August 6-9, 2010.
- Lost a three-gamer at Yankee Stadium September 24-26, 2010.
- Lost a three-gamer at Fenway Park October 1-3, 2010.
- Lost a three-gamer at Fenway Park April 8-10, 2011.
- Got swept in a three-gamer at Yankee Stadium May 13-15, 2011.
- Got swept in a three-gamer at Yankee Stadium June 7-9, 2011.
- Lost a three-gamer at Fenway Park August 5-7, 2011.
So yeah, the series win was a long time coming. Going back to the beginning of 2010, the Yankees are only 13-20 against the Red Sox.
Remember how you felt last Friday, that CC, Phil and AJ were going to start against Lackey, Beckett and Lester? It feels like a genius move now, with 2oo3 from Beantown, and hope that the pitching buzzsaw has gotten started again. CC looked mahvelous, and AJ done good.
I like Ken Singleton’s plan to have Phil ready on AJ’s starts, to come in, “like in spring training.” He gets some action, rests his arm, gets the bullets ready for the playoffs.
A genius move? Come on. Starting the guy with the worst ERA in the AL and letting him get pounded for 10 straight starts is not a genius move, even if he eventually pitches a good game.
well, the genius part is that, lo and behold ye weak of faith, he did NOT get pounded. Might have stirred a rebound, even. Would that not be nice?
That would be great. I wouldn’t call it genius, though.
I love Singleton, but that’s a terrible plan. I don’t think Hughes will pitch much anyway, but sitting him on the bench for all days except possibly the days AJ pitches does him no good at all.
Well, he may pitch else, say if he wasn’t needed to backup AJ. He could go a couple innings a couple days before AJ pitches, then be limited if used to support AJ. What I like is to let his arm rest, but keep him in tune, trying out stuff.
Or, you could stay with the six man…
I think Hughes will be used on a case by case basis. If he’s needed in a game before AJ starts, he will come in. If he’s not, he’ll be on standby in case AJ can’t get it done.
I’m guessing Singleton’s thinking is since the roster has expanded to 40 players the Yanks could use Noesi etc. to be a mopup men in games AJ doesn’t start thus Hughes could be AJ’s personal backup plan.
I say stay with the six-man rotation so we see what Hughes and Burnett do on the homestand beginning tomorrow night / in one more start. Whichever one doesn’t suck or sucks less stays in the rotation come rotation decision time. I want the Yanks to give Hughes one last look and see if Burnett has truly turned a corner.
Smurfy, I don’t think it’s realistic. on earth do you know if AJ is going to need backup ? The idea of a caddy is to be able to give innings in support of a struggling pitcher – so limiting the innings Hughes would pitch behind AJ had he pitched days before doesn’t make a lot of sense. I don’t like the idea of a caddy anyway; Phil did that in 2009 behind Wang and it just did not work.
Well, Joe and Larry are pretty clever, let them work it out. they can operate from a goal to have Phil ready for AJ days, but Hector (thanks, Duh) can also serve, giving them some flexibility.
The facts are that Phil lost the mini-competition, his arm is not quite recovered to battle-ready status. Note his valiant effort at 95, that fizzled back.
If AJ will convert to relief work, it will take development time, and he has taken a step toward usefulness as a starter again.
Not to be overlooked: Andruw Jones’ at-bats. Great stuff.
36 pitches in 4 PAs. Awesome.
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[...] then something incredibly strange and completely unexpected happened: A.J. Burnett threw a pretty good game. Against the Red Sox. In Boston. Including that September 1 outing, A.J. finished the season [...]