DAVID ORTIZ

A POWERFUL CHAMPIONSHIP TEAM
David Ortiz bombs the Yankees
behind Josh Beckett

April 21, 2007 ... The Sox have beaten the Yankees for two successive days, including today by a 7-5 score. While A-Rod kept alive his streak of hitting in each of the Yankees' first 16 games, with a double and RBI single, the big blasts this afternoon came courtesy of Big Papi.

Ortiz's two-run first-inning double and two-run fourth-inning home run (his sixth of the season and fourth in seven games) were the centerpieces of a Sox surge against rookie Jeff Karstens (seven runs in 4 1/3 innings) that allowed Josh Beckett to recover from an unsteady start and go 6 2/3 innings for his fourth win without a loss in 2007.

Rodriguez was left in the on-deck circle by Sox closer Jonathan Papelbon, who issued a one-out walk to Melky Cabrera, then struck out Derek Jeter on a 97-mile-per-hour fastball and retired Bobby Abreu on a liner to center to end the game before a sellout throng of 36,342 in Fenway Park.

Papelbon remains perfect in April save opportunities with five this season, 10 last April, when he launched his career as a closer supreme.

Hideki Okajima, who did a marvelous job as Papelbon's stand-in to save Friday night's 7-6 comeback win, was summoned for some more rescue work yesterday and came through.  Okajima struck out Jason Giambi to quell a Yankee uprising in which one run already had scored and the tying runs were on base. Okajima is unscored upon in his last eight appearances since giving up a home run to Kansas City's John Buck on his first pitch as a big leaguer.

After both teams put up deuces in each of the first two innings, Ortiz's home run deep into the right-field stands made it 7-4, two batters after Crisp had scored on a ground out, and placed the undermanned Yankees now in the position of having to win behind rookie Chase Wright tonight to avoid a sweep.

Beckett, whose last appearance here against the Yankees was the unsightliest of his career with nine runs on seven hits and nine walks in 5 2/3 innings during the Bombers' season-turning five-game sweep in the Fens last August, was touched for a couple of runs in the first on three singles and a walk, and a pair in the second, a throwing error by third baseman Mike Lowell fueling the inning.

Beckett thrashed about a bit in the Sox' dugout after he was lifted in the seventh after a two-out Yankees rally after Derek Jeter singled, Bobby Abreu walked, and Rodriguez lined an RBI single to right. Jeter has hit in 12 games in a row; A-Rod's 31 RBIs match his career high for any month (August 2003, with Texas) and he still has eight games scheduled, four against the Sox, in which to better that mark.

Beckett's mood lightened considerably after Okajima set down Giambi, then retired Robinson Cano on a grounder to start the eighth. Mike Timlin got the last two outs of the eighth.

Jason Varitek had two more hits yesterday, giving him five for the series and improving his average to .267, while Crisp bunted his way on in the second and scored, singled and scored in the fourth, and has brought a level of energy that the Sox haven't seen since he was hurt last April.

Rookie second baseman Dustin Pedroia, mired in a 1-for-28 slump (.036) and hitless in his last 13 at-bats, went to the bench yesterday. Alex Cora, with game-winning hits in each of the last two contests, including Friday night's flare off Mariano Rivera after he'd entered as a defensive replacement, made his third start at second base. He bunted for a hit and scored in his first at-bat yesterday, then bunted again to set up another run in the fourth.

Center fielder Johnny Damon (hamstring, back) and catcher Jorge Posada (bruised thumb) did not start for the Yankees, although Damon pinch hit to start the ninth and grounded to shortstop. Torre said after the game that Posada would not be available tonight, while he'd have to wait and see on Damon.

Ortiz's fourth-inning home run was his 179th as a member of the Red Sox. He ranks 10th on the team list, with one more than Nomar Garciaparra.