JASON BAY

SWEPT AWAY BY A "RALLY MONKEY" ...
Jason Bay ties it up and Youkilis walks it off

April 24, 2009 ... With two outs in the bottom of the ninth inning a runner on, the Yankees up by two, and the closer's closer on the mound, Jason Bay reversed a Mariano Rivera cutter and drilled it to the yellow line in dead center field. And 38,163 fans rose to agree that in the end, it felt exactly like it used to.

First Bay struck to tie the score at 4-4. Then Kevin Youkilis launched a Damaso Marte pitch over everything in left with one out in the 11th for a 5-4 Red Sox victory. Somehow it all strangely made sense in the looking-glass world of the Red Sox and Yankees.

The home run brought a pile of red shirts to home plate. It was a mammoth shot, a fitting shot, the crowd filling the night with chants of "Yooouk" after a game that seemed lost much earlier.

Overlooked in the euphoria was a lapse by the Sox bullpen, which had allowed one run in 17 2/3 innings before the seventh, when Hideki Okajima surrendered hits to the first four batters in the Yankee order and Mark Teixeira blooped an RBI single that broke a 2-2 tie preceding Robinson Cano's sacrifice fly for a two-run lead.

There wasn't much to enjoy early for the Sox. They stranded 13 runners and grounded into four double plays in the first five innings. There were chances missed. Far too many.

Pedroia turned the tables on the Yankees, starting two key double plays in the last three innings. And there were other stellar defensive plays. Bay's diving grab spared Okajima even more damage in the seventh. Mike Lowell made a diving stab of a liner by Nick Swisher in the third. Any number of plays by Pedroia earlier.

The second baseman started a rare 4-2-3 double play to save Javy Lopez some damage in the ninth, then added a 4-3 DP in the 11th. That last preserved a tie, and the chance for another comeback against the Yankees. Rivera against the Sox suffered his 12th career blown save against the Sox, his most against any club.

Lester and the Yankees' Joba Chamberlain left their starts with the score 2-2. Lester had thrown 102 pitches by the time Swisher doubled with two outs in the fifth. One more pitch got him out of the inning, but he was far deeper into his pitch count than anyone on the Sox would have liked. He finished his evening with six innings and 114 pitches. Good stuff, but not good enough.

The first run scored was a gift from the opposing pitcher and Jacoby Ellsbury's speed. After Ellsbury opened the bottom of the first by lining a single to right field, Chamberlain balked him to second. Running on a pitch to Pedroia, Ellsbury was credited with a steal of third base, then came tearing around the bag as Jose Molina missed the pitch for a passed ball. With Pedroia urging him on, and gesturing for him to slide, Ellsbury scored.

You want more drama? Try Jonathan Papelbon vs. Teixeira with men on second and third and two outs in the 10th. It took seven pitches, and a 96-mile-per-hour fastball, but Teixeira did exactly what the crowd was hoping he would, strike out swinging.

Nick Green had his third consecutive multihit game and fifth of the season. He's hitting .357 during the Sox' eight-game winning streak. Six of his 10 hits in that span have gone for extra bases.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, this was the first time the Sox hit a tying homer in the ninth and a walk-off in extra innings against the Yankees. The last walk-off homer for the Sox against the Yankees prior to last night was Bill Mueller's July 24, 2004, when he hit a two-run shot in the ninth inning off Rivera.