May 21, 2007
...
With a
single defeat, the Sox did not concede their commanding advantage in
the American League East. They're 9 1/2 games ahead of the
second-place Bombers, who slipped a half-game ahead of the Orioles,
who played an exhibition in Cooperstown, N.Y. in spite of tonight's
6-2 loss to the Bombers before 55,078 in Yankee Stadium.
New
York's marquee names all stepped up to make it a miserable night for the Sox and
Tim Wakefield. Johnny Damon had three hits and stole two bases. Alex Rodriguez
and Jason Giambi hit home runs. Derek Jeter drove in an early run. Chien-Ming
Wang allowed 10 runners in 6 1/3 innings, but he choked off the big inning
whenever the Sox entertained the notion of staging one.
Damon
started it all off with a base hit off Wakefield, the first of nine hits in five
innings off the knuckleballer, who also walked five. Three batters later,
Rodriguez homered, his third in three games and 18th of the season, to give the
Bombers a 2-0 advantage.
An
inning later, Giambi, who had been dropped to seventh in the order and had just
one hit in 26 at-bats, put one in the upper deck in right to make it 3-0. A
double by Robinson Cano and singles by Damon and Jeter made it 4-0 before the
inning was over.
Wakefield issued three walks in the third but escaped when Cano rolled out. But
Cano did not miss a chance to deliver with two more runners on in the fifth,
driving a triple into the left-center-field gap after doubles by Kevin Youkilis
and Ortiz had given the Sox a run in the top of the inning.
Wang,
who got out of a bases-loaded jam in the second when he struck out Youkilis,
departed in the seventh after Julio Lugo drew a one-out walk and Youkilis lined
another double to left, sending Lugo to third. Ortiz drove a sacrifice fly to
left off Mike Myers to make it 6-2, but Manny Ramirez looked at a third strike
from Brian Bruney to end the inning. It was the 19th time this season Ramirez
has taken a third strike.
Ramirez
was something more than a passive observer in the seventh, when, with hair
extensions flying, he made a nice diving catch of Cano's flare. But nowhere to
be seen was the thunder in his bat that he exhibited against the Yanks last
season, when he hit .556 (25 for 45) with 7 home runs and 21 RBIs against them.
Ramirez, who had a single in five trips last night, has just 2 RBIs in his last
nine games, and has gone without a home run in his last dozen.
J.D.
Drew is a newcomer to the Yanks-Sox rivalry, but the sight of pinstripes did not
put an extra charge in his bat. Drew, who told Francona that he's over last
week's back-wrenching crash into the Fenway bullpen wall, was hitless in five
trips and is batting just .160 (12 for 75) in his last 22 games, a period that
began April 22, the last time he hit a home run.
The Sox,
of course, have been thriving even with Ramirez and Drew contributing little
offensively, but when the players who have been carrying the club have a quiet
their absence is more noticeable. Wang, who missed three weeks with a strained
hamstring, had a lot to do with that.
The Sox
stirred in the eighth when Coco Crisp drew a two-out walk and lead-footed Doug
Mirabelli reached on a chopper in front of the plate when Bruney threw wildly,
pulling first baseman Doug Mientkiewicz off the bag. Joe Torre went to his
bullpen again, summoning Scott Proctor, who hit Cora in the elbow with his first
pitch. That brought up Lugo, who had homered here off Proctor in his first game
as a member of the Sox April 27. This time, Proctor prevailed, Lugo grounding
into a nicely turned force play by Cano.
With one
win, the Yankees did not suddenly cure all that ailed them. Should they lose the
next two, the Bombers may be angling again for space on the obit pages. But for
one night, at least, the Yankees reminded one and all that they still can look
like world-beaters, even against the Sox, who had slapped them around last month
in winning five times in six meetings.
Daisuke
Matsuzaka was named American League Player of the Week; such an honor, he told
reporters, does not exist where he's from. Matsuzaka beat out countryman Ichiro
Suzuki despite Ichiro's eye-popping stats for the week: a .577 average and eight
stolen bases. Matsuzaka got a free watch out of the deal.
Kevin
Youkilis extended his hitting streak to 14 games with a fifth-inning double.
