August 28, 2007
...
The Yankees stuck to the business at hand, none more so than Johnny
Damon, who knows something about playing in the moment. Damon was in
the middle of it all in 2004 when the Red Sox faced seemingly
hopeless odds against the Bombers and became the first team in
history to recover from an 0-3 deficit to win the AL Championship
Series. And tonight, he hit a two-run home run in the seventh off
Daisuke Matsuzaka to break a 3-all tie and send the Sox down to
defeat, 5-3.
Damon's
homer set the stage for the Sox to get their first up-close-and-personal look at
Joba Chamberlain, the rookie phenom who had not allowed a run in his first seven
major league appearances while striking out 15 batters in nine innings with a
fastball that regularly registers in the high 90s.
The Sox did
so without Manny Ramirez, who hit his 20th home run off Andy Pettitte in the
second inning for Boston's first run but was gone when Chamberlain entered in
the eighth, having been removed in the seventh because of back spasms, according
to the club. Bobby Kielty played left field in the seventh, but was lifted for a
pinch hitter, Eric Hinske, with one on and one out in the eighth. According to a
press box announcement, Kielty also was suffering from lower back soreness.
Chamberlain blew a 99-mile-an-hour fastball past Hinske, then put him away with
a nasty slider. Mike Lowell kept the inning alive by sticking out his bat and
blooping a single to center, placing J.D. Drew in the crosshairs. Drew looked at
five pitches, including a 100-mile-an-hour fastball that missed outside, before
taking a half swing at a slider, his whiff leaving the tying runs on base.
The Sox had
come back from deficits of 2-0 and 3-2 to tie the score at 3, Jason Varitek
homering just over the leaping Damon in left field, the ball landing in the
first row of the grandstand.
Matsuzaka
spotted the Yankees a 2-0 lead in the first when he loaded the bases on a single
by Damon and a full-count walk to Bobby Abreu before hitting Alex Rodriguez in
the back with a pitch. One run scored when Hideki Matsui's ground ball was hit
too slowly for the Sox to turn two, and Jorge Posada doubled down the line in
left for the second run.
The Sox
answered with Ramirez's home run to start the second, an opposite-field drive to
right. Julio Lugo tripled to left-center to open the third, and after Pettitte
retired Dustin Pedroia on a comebacker, Kevin Youkilis worked an 11-pitch walk.
David Ortiz followed with a line drive that drove Damon back to the track, Lugo
scoring on the sacrifice fly.
The Yankees
regained the lead when Derek Jeter homered to right-center with two outs in the
fifth. The home run was the ninth of the season for Jeter, but his first in 87
at-bats, as he has been bothered by a sore right knee. The Yankees made a bid to
add to their lead in the eighth when Robinson Cano tripled with two outs, but
Manny Delcarmen struck out Wilson Betemit to end the inning.
The Yankees
turned the ninth over to Mariano Rivera, who had given up a total of six runs in
two appearances spanning one inning in his first two outings this season against
the Sox in April. That prompted the annual speculation that the elegant closer
was finally nearing the end of his Hall of Fame career. But Rivera held the Sox
scoreless in his next four outings, and last night he struck out Varitek and
Coco Crisp and broke Lugo's bat on a soft liner to second to end the game. The
save was Rivera's 23d of the season and the Yankees cut the Sox' lead to seven.
Red Sox
outfielder Bobby Kielty said he is scheduled to undergo X-rays and perhaps other
tests to determine the cause of continuing back pain, the result, he said, of
colliding with the low bullpen wall in right field at Fenway Park in his first
game with the team 10 days ago.
