(Solo) Shots For Everyone, Yanks Beat Red Sox 6-4

If someone had told you that one of tonight’s starters was going to give up four home runs, you would have guessed Phil Hughes, right? Wrong!

Hughes had a strange start tonight. He had six great innings and one not-so-great one.

In the great ones, he set the Red Sox down in order – in the first, second sixth and seventh innings – or only allowed one runner on – in the fourth and fifth innings. That works out to two hits in six innings which would be a fantastic outing. Unfortunately, he had the not-so-great inning  - the third –  in which he committed an error that led to four unearned runs. The big blow came off the bat of Dustin Pedroia who hit a three-run shot to give the Red Sox a 4-3 lead at that point.

All in all, it wasn’t a terrible night for Hughes who retired 13 of the last 15 batters he faced en route to his 12th win of the season. His final line: 7 innings, 4 hits, 4 runs, 0 earned runs, 1 walk, 4 strikeouts, 1 home run (106 pitches/72 strikes)

So how did the Yankees get those first three runs of the game? The aforementioned solo shots. Nick Swisher started the home run derby in the first inning with a shot off Red Sox starter off Franklin Morales to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead.

In the second inning, Curtis Granderson hit a home run – the first by a left handed off  Morales this season – which was followed by a Russell Martin solo shot to make it 3-0. Morales gave up four home runs in his last start against the Yankees and was once again victimized in the fifth inning when Derek Jeter hit his 10th home run of the year to tie the game at four. It was also Jeter’s 250th career home run.

The Yankees added two more runs thanks to an RBI single by Jayson Nix in the sixth inning and another solo shot by Swisher off Clayton Mortensen. It’s the 12th time Swisher’s hit a home run from both sides of the plate in the same game. Guess who leads in that statistic? Mark Teixeira who has done it 13 times.

Thing became a little scary in the eighth inning at two different times. The first was when David Robertson was hit in the leg with a comebacker by Carl Crawford which turned into a double. Thankfully, Robertson was okay. The second was when Dustin Pedroia nearly hit his second home run of the game. Fortunately for the Yankees it was hit to the deepest part of the ballpark and Granderson was able to make the play.

After the Andrews – Miller and Bailey – worked a 1-2-3 bottom of the eighth, Rafael Soriano entered the game looking for his 30th save of the season. He got it by striking out Cody Ross and getting both Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Mike Aviles to pop up.

Some game notes:

• From ELIAS: This is the first time in Yankees history that they’ve had a pair of five-home run games in the same season against the Red Sox.
• Jeter’s home run gave him 16 double-digit home run seasons which is tied for 2nd in Yankees History. Mickey Mantle leads that stat with 18, Yogi Berra had 16 and Babe Ruth had 15.
• This is third time this season that Yankees have hit four or more home runs in a game vs the Red Sox. The only other season since 1920 in which they’ve done that was 1961.
• With his 250th home run, Jeter joins Rickey Henderson, Willie Mays and Craig Biggio as only players with 3,000 hits, 300 SBs and 250 HRs. Not bad for someone who doesn’t hit a lot of home runs.
• One final note on Jeter’s 250th career homer – ties Graig Nettles for 9th in franchise history.
• The 2012 Yankees now have 10 players with 10 or more home runs on the season. The last time that happened was 1998.

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