Yanks Survive Weird Marathon at Fenway

If ever there was a "must-win" game for the Yankees in mid-July, this was it. If they had lost yesterday's game against the Boston Red Sox at Fenway Park, it would pretty much have meant that the season was over. But a win would have put them legitimately back in the American League Eastern Division race.

It may have been the fulcrum game of the 2017 season. And before it was over, a lot of people were asking, "What the fulcrum is going on?"

It's Yankees vs. Red Sox at Fenway. This is a matchup where anything can happen, and so much does.

Luis Severino started for the Yankees. He was terrific. And, knowing that today would feature a rain-forced doubleheader, Joe Girardi knew that his usual 95-pitch limit for starting pitchers would have to go out the window. He let Sevy throw 114 pitches in 7 innings, and he allowed just 1 run on 4 hits and 2 walks, striking out 6.

It is unfair to ask more of a starting pitcher than that, especially at the little green pinball machine in the Back Bay. The only run Sevy allowed was in the 3rd inning, on 2 walks, an infield single, and a sacrifice fly.

Unfortunately, that 1 run stood up, as Chris Sale, Boston's big acquisition of the offseason, was also brilliant, taking a 13-strikeout shutout into the top of the 8th inning. He allowed a leadoff walk to Brett Gardner in the 1st, a leadoff double by Starlin Castro in the 2nd, a double by Gary Sanchez in the 3rd, a grounder resulting in an error that allowed Chase Headley to reach 1st base in the 4th, and a leadoff walk by Castro in the 7th -- and he stranded them all. He allowed a single by Gardner in the 8th, but was relieved by Craig Kimbrel, and he stranded Gardner.

Girardi brought Tyler Clippard in to pitch the 8th inning. Tyler Clippard. At Fenway Park. I couldn't look. Sure enough, Clippard allowed a leadoff single to Tzu-Wei Lin. But it worked: He got the next 3 guys out.

In 93 appearances with the Red Sox over the last year and a half, Kimbrel had never blown a save at Fenway. (He has 279 for his career, having led the National League 4 times while with the Atlanta Braves.) But a 1-run lead is never safe at Fenway, and Matt Holliday showed why, taking him 443 feet over the Green Monster. Tie ballgame.

The Yankees threatened for more: Castro then reached on an error, and was replaced by pinch-runner Jacoby Ellsbury, who stole 2nd. But Kimbrel then struck out the side: Headley, Didi Gregorius and Ji-Man Choi.

Bottom of the 9th. Girardi thought for himself, instead of looking in his binder, and decided to save Aroldis Chapman for the bottom half of a later inning, in case the Yankees got a lead in the top half. He brought in Dellin Betances, and he got the Sox out 1-2-3.

The Yankees got a 2-out walk from Sanchez in the 10th, but couldn't get him home. Now, Girardi was managing in extra innings. There has got to be something in the Geneva Conventions against this.

He started by bringing Chasen Shreve on. He allowed 2 singles. The winning run was on 2nd with nobody out. Girardi got Shreve out of there, and brought in... Adam Warren? No, no, no... Yes, yes, yes: Warren got the next 3 guys out.

Then came the top of the 11th, and this is where it got weird. Holliday drew a leadoff walk. Ellsbury grounded to 1st base, and 1st baseman Mitch Moreland decided not to go for the easy out at 1st, but for the lead runner at 2nd, Holliday. Given that outs are at a premium at Fenway, this might not have been the best move.

Seeing this, Holliday went back toward 1st. Xander Bogaerts, the Sox shortstop, took Moreland's throw as if Holliday had kept going to 2nd, stepped on the bag for the forceout, and threw back to 1st. Moreland -- apparently, no relation to 1980s Philadelphia Phillies and Chicago Cubs player Keith Moreland -- stood for the throw, but it hit Ellsbury, who was still entitled to try and reach the base, and bounced into foul territory. Ellsbury was safe.

Red Sox manager John Farrell argued that Holliday interfered, much like Reggie Jackson was accused of doing in Game 4 of the 1978 World Series. Gary Cederstrom, the umpires' crew chief, gathered his men, talked it over, and decided that Holliday hadn't interfered, intentionally or otherwise, and let Ellsbury keep 1st base.

Farrell told Cederstrom that the Sox were playing the rest of the game under protest. However, the Yanks ended up not scoring in the inning, so the protest is pointless: Even if the play is overturned, the result will not be affected.

Austin Romine walked to lead off the top of the 12th, but was erased by a double play. Aaron Judge walked with 1 out in the top of the 13th, but was stranded. Ellsbury walked to lead off the top of the 14th, and Headley singled him to 2nd, but the Yankees couldn't get them home. Judge walked again with 2 out in the top of the 15th, but, again, was stranded.

Meanwhile, Girardi made a good move, letting Jonathan Holder pitch 3 innings, in which he allowed just 1 baserunner. Then he brought Chapman in for the bottom of the 14th, and while he walked a batter, he didn't let him score. He brought Ben Heller in to pitch the bottom of the 15th, and that worked, too.

This would be the best game Girardi has managed all season -- if only the Yankees could push a run across. But it went to a 16th inning, making it the longest Yanks-Sox game at Fenway in 51 years, a 6-3 Boston win on June 4, 1966, on a walkoff home run by Jim Gosger (yeah, surrre) off THE Dooley Womack (2 Ball Four references there). The Yanks and Sox played a 19-inning game in The Bronx on April 19, 2015, a Sox win.

The question now was, Would either manager have any pitchers available for the rest of the series? Farrell brought in Doug Fister, who was supposed to start on Tuesday night. Ellsbury led off the inning, and, using his experience as a former Red Sock, crashed a drive off the Green Monster, pulling into 2nd for a double. Headley singled to center -- but while the Monster giveth, it also taketh away: Despite his speed, Ellsbury was unable to score on the play.

That would not be the case on the next one: Gregorius singled him home, and brought Headley to 3rd. Romine singled home Headley. Ronald Torreyes bunted the runners over. Gardner was intentionally walked to set up the double play. But Sanchez flew to left, and the sac fly was enough to get Sir Didi home.

Girardi left Heller in to finish the job: He got Dustin Pedroia to ground to 2nd, Bogaerts to fly to right, and Moreland to fly to center.

After 16 innings, and 520 pitches between the 2 teams over 5 hours and 50 minutes, the game was finally, fully in the books. Yankees 4, Red Sox 1. WP: Heller (1-0). No save. LP: Fister (0-3).

*

So now, the Yankees are 3 1/2 games behind the Sox, 2 in the loss column, as we have 3 games in hand on them.

Today, because of a rainout earlier in the season, we have a full day of baseball. At 1:05, on TBS, CC Sabathia will start for the Bronx Bombers, Rick Porcello for The Scum. CC was supposed to start in Minnesota tomorrow night, with Bryan Mitchell going in this game. But with the bullpen so exhausted, Mitchell is needed there.

Masahiro Tanaka starts the 2nd game, against David Price, with the first pitch on ESPN scheduled for around 8:00. Tanaka could have been moved up to start the 1st game, thus giving CC a few additional hours of rest, but Tanaka has a much better record at night, and CC is more likely to go long anyway, which our relievers will need. (It is, of course, legal for a player, including a pitcher, to appear in both games of a doubleheader.)

I said before the series that the Yankees needed to take 3 out of 4. A split of today's games means a split of the series, and, at this point, I'd take it.

Come on you Bombers! Beat The Scum!

Yanks Win, Sox Lose, Ortiz Loses It

The Yankees, not hitting, and with injuries stacking up, were not in the best of positions to face their arch-rivals last night.

Nevertheless, when the Boston Red Sox come in, you better be ready.

Michael Pineda started for the Yankees, and he pitched all right for 6 innings, allowing 2 runs, 8 hits and a walk. He allowed a home run to, of course, David Ortiz, the big fat lying cheating bastard, in the top of the 1st, to make it 2-0 Sox. But he settled down after that, and didn't allow another run through 6.

In the bottom of the 1st, Brian McCann doubled home Jacoby Ellsbury. In the bottom of the 2nd, Dustin Ackley singled home Starlin Castro. Tie game, 2-2.

So Pineda got through the 6th with the game tied. All right, leave him in for the 7th, right? Right. Except Joe Girardi got it wrong: He saw them triple digits on Big Mike's pitch count (106), and he brought in...

Chasen Shreve? With David Ortiz, the big fat lying cheating bastard, as the potential 5th batter of the inning? In a tie game? After he's already hit yet another steroid-aided home run off the Yankees?

Oh, that's it: Lord, deliver me from this evil, and take me now.

Sure enough, Christian Vazquez led off the top of the 7th with a double. Shreve got Mookie Betts to pop up.

And then Girardi pulls Shreve for Kirby Yates. Right, after Shreve actually, you know, got an out.

I rip Girardi when he gets it wrong, so I have to give him credit when he gets it right. This time, boy, did he ever get it right. Yates got Dustin Pedroia to line out to short, and then he struck Xander Bogaerts out looking, leaving Big Cheati in the on-deck circle.

That K charged up the fans, and it must have charged up Aaron Hicks: Unable lately to hit the ground if he fell off a ladder, he cranked one into the bleachers in right-center field, his 1st home run of the season. 3-2 Yankees.

Top of the 8th. Dellin Betances in to pitch. He gets Ortiz to hit a line shot to right. He fans Hanley Ramirez looking. But he allows a single to Travis Shaw.

Girardi doesn't take any chances, and brings in closer Andrew Miller. He walks Chris Young. Uh-oh, those walks'll kill ya...

Unless ya don't let 'em score. Miller struck Jackie Bradley out looking. Threat over.

Top of the 9th. Miller still pitching. Josh Rutledge singles, and the tying run is on 1st. But Miller fans Mookie Betts. Then Pedroia singles. Then Bogaerts singles, but Rutledge can't score. Bases loaded, only 1 out. Tying run on 3rd, potential winning run on 2nd, possible major insurance run on 1st.

And who's up? Of course. Him. Ortiz. The biggest Yankee Killer ever (in terms of both impact and weight). The greatest cheater in the history of baseball -- and yet, only the 2nd-biggest cheater in New England sports. (Tom Brady has 4 titles, Ortiz 3.)

Ortiz worked the count to 3-and-1. Then Miller threw a pitch on the outside corner. He flipped his bat back toward the Sox dugout, sure that he'd just taken ball 4 and forced in the tying run. Instead, home plate umpire Ron Kulpa called strike 2.

Ortiz had a conniption. He screamed at Kulpa. Sox manager John Farrell ran out, knowing that the at-bat wasn't over -- and that, if the Sox did tie the game, he'd need Big Poopi's bat in the lineup for extra innings. But his own argument got him thrown out of the game by Kulpa.

Then Miller threw another pitch that just ticked the outside corner. Kulpa called strike 3, and The House That Steinbrenner Built erupted.

So did Big Sloppy. He walked back toward the dugout, kept yelling, and Kulpa tossed him, too.

This sort of thing doesn't happen to the Red Sox. It usually happens for them, especially when it hurts the Yankees. Big Popoff couldn't believe he was being treated this way. You know, like any other player would have been if he'd been such an asshole to the umpire.

He ran back out, like George Brett (another cheating asshole, although it didn't keep him out of the Hall of Fame, just like Ortiz's cheating won't keep him out) during the Pine Tar Game in 1983. He screamed at Kulpa, showing a remarkable gift for American profanity, given that English is not his first language. He was in full "Don't you know who I am?" mode.

Let me remind you: There have been Yankees who have acted that way. Billy Martin comes to mind. So does Lou Piniella. But most Yankee stars don't. Reggie Jackson never did. Thurman Munson argued, but respectfully. I can't recall Derek Jeter ever arguing with an umpire in his 20 seasons in Pinstripes. Alex Rodriguez cursed out a Red Sox pitcher who intentionally hit him, but I can't remember ever seeing him argue with an umpire. Paul O'Neill? He would get back to the dugout, and throw his helmet and his bat, and scream at himself -- but I never saw him scream at an umpire.

It remains to be seen whether Commissioner Rob Manfred will further discipline Ortiz, but getting ejected from a game by an umpire usually results in a fine and a suspension. Most likely, he'll appeal, and still be able to play in the 2 remaining games of the series. But it would be a breath of fresh air to see David Ortiz -- or any Red Sox player -- to get suspended for something.

By the way, as somebody reminded me on Twitter last night: David Ortiz has failed a PED test, while, as far as the general public knows, Alex Rodriguez has not. Guess which one has missed.

Nearly lost in the commotion was the fact that the game was not over. The Yankees still had to get 1 more out, the bases were still loaded, and the dangerous Hanley Ramirez was coming to bat.

Miller struck him out swinging.

Ballgame over! Yankees win! Theeeeeeeeeeeeeeee Yankees win! Holy cow! How about that!

3-2! We beat The Scum, 3-2! We beat The Scum, 3-2! We beat The Scum, 3-2!

WP: Yates (1-0). SV: Miller (6). LP: Rick Porcello (5-1).

Yes, I got to say, it was a good day. But it wasn't quite the same as Ice Cube's "good day." The Lakers didn't play, in a rare playoff miss for them. The Seattle SuperSonics have been gone for 8 years. And, yes, we did "get static from the cowards," i.e. the Red Sox.

The series continues this afternoon.

Another Yankee Outburst Crushes The Scum

Remember how I wondered, during the Yankees' 13-run outburst against the Chicago White Sox on Friday and their 12-run onslaught on Sunday, if they were saving any runs for their arch-enemies this week?

Apparently, they were. I just hope they didn't spend themselves last night, because there's 2 more games against The Scum.

Last night, Masahiro Tanaka started for the Yankees. Doing so for the Red Sox was 23-year-old Henry Owens, making his major league debut. Uh-oh, the proverbial pitcher the Yankees have never seen before.

The Red Sox began the night 13 games behind the 1st place Yankees. So far, I like what I'm seeing.

But, looking at the Red Sox lineup, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Most of the usual suspects are gone. David Ortiz, the big fat lying cheating bastard, is still there as the designated hitter. Mike Napoli is still there at 1st base -- mainly because you can't have 2 DHs, and 1st base is the least taxing field position.

But Dustin Pedroia is injured, and unavailable for this series. They had former San Francisco Giants World Series hero Pablo Sandoval, putting "Kung Fu Panda," who may be even more rotund than Big Papi, at 3rd base -- because the DH and 1st base slots were already occupied. Former Florida Marlins and Los Angeles Dodgers star Hanley Ramirez was in left field, having returned to the Sox, his 1st organization.

Brock Holt? Blake Swihart?J ackie Bradley Jr.? Xander Bogaerts? These sound like names of soap opera characters -- the kind dashing, if dimwitting, young man that the leading lady, tired of her husband's neglect and philandering, uses for her own affair, and then sees them killed by the show's villain of the month. Alejandro De Aza? Maybe a similar character in a telenovela.

Anyway, the Sox' makeshift lineup worked just enough... for a while. For 5 1/2 innings, it was a tight pitching duel. The Yankees struck immediately, with a single by Chris Young, a walk by Alex Rodriguez, and a single by Mark Teixeira. But Owens settled down after that, and the Sox got him 2 runs in the top of the 5th: A double by Napoli, singles by De Aza and Swihart, and a sacrifice fly by Bradley.

According to Baseball-Reference.com, a website which is your friend whether you know it or not, the Yankees began the bottom of the 6th with a 38 percent chance of winning the game. That seems a little low, considering A, how they've been hitting lately; B, the short right-field porch at Yankee Stadium; and C, the quality, or rather lack thereof, of the Red Sox bullpen.

Young led off the inning with a single. A-Rod doubled him over to 3rd. Then Sox manager John Farrell -- a native of New Jersey, a graduate of Shore Regional High School in West Long Branch, and himself a former pitcher and pitching coach, so he darn well should have known better -- pulled a blunder that might have come right out of Joe Girardi's Binder Full of Strategies. After just 5 innings and change, having thrown 96 pitches, he pulled Owens for a reliever, Robbie Ross.

Big mistake. Teix singled home young to tie the game. Brian McCann doubled home A-Rod to give the Yanks the lead. Carlos Beltran grounded to 3rd, and Sandoval couldn't hold the runner. 4-2 Yankees.

Sandoval put the Sox right back in the ballgame by leading off the top of the 7th with a home run. Girardi relieved Tanaka with Justin Wilson, but he allowed a hit and a stolen base, so Girardi replaced him with Dellin Betances, who immediately made things worse with a wild pitch, a walk, and a stolen base. But he struck out Holt to keep it a 1-run ballgame.

It didn't stay that way. As with a non-baseball hero of the old Yankee Stadium, 1937-48 Heavyweight Champion Joe Louis, knocking the 2015 Yankees down turned out to be the worst thing the opposition could have done. It didn't knock 'em out, it only made 'em mad.

The Sox ended up using 3 different pitchers in the bottom of the 7th, just like the Yankees in the top of the 7th. Unlike the Yankees, they did not hold their opponents to just 1 run.

The Sox began the inning with Jean Machi on the mound. Jacoby Ellsbury grounded to short, and Bogaerts made a bad throw. Young drew a walk. A-Rod singled home Ellsbury. 5-3.

Farrell brought in Craig Breslow to pitch. (Another soap-opera name.) He struck Teixeira out. Then McCann crushed a home run down the right field line, his 18th dinger on the year. 8-3, and the game was effectively over. According to Baseball-Reference, at this point, the chances of the Yankees winning the game had soared from 38 percent to 99 percent.

But the winning wasn't done -- far from it. Beltran doubled. Chase Headley doubled him home. 9-3. Breslow got Didi Gregorius to fly out, but he walked Brendan Ryan, and now the Yankees had batted around. Ellsbury singled home Headley. 10-3.

Farrell brought in Alexi Ogando. (That sounds more like the name of a girl from a teen drama like One Tree Hill or Pretty Little Liars.) Chris Young welcomed him to the game with a drive down the left-field line. Home run, his 13th of the season.

Then Ogando walked A-Rod, before finally stopping the bleeding by striking Teix out. There were 3 outs in this massive inning, and 2 were Teix Ks. (Don't be mad at him, though: He, along with A-Rod and the protection he provides in the lineup, has been the biggest reason the Yankees are in 1st place.)

13-3. In the inning, the Yankees had scored nine times in the inning. How many times, Ed Rooney? "Nine times!" That's 9 runs on 7 hits, 3 walks and an error.

The TV cameras caught starter Owens in the dugout, in tears. His major league debut, for one of the iconic teams in baseball, against another, in the greatest rivalry, in the most famous stadium, and he'd done very well for 5 innings... and it had all fallen apart, through hardly any fault of his own. And now, so had he.

As anyone who's observed the Red Sox since at least the 1970s can tell you, Jimmy Dugan of A League of Their Own was wrong: There is crying in baseball.

Branden Pinder pitched a scoreless 8th, and Nick Rumbelow a scoreless 9th -- the 2nd game in a row that he's pitched a perfect 9th. And the Yankees sent Rumbelow back down to Scranton this morning, to make roster space for tonight's starter, the much-hyped Luis Severino. "Nice job, kid, now go back to Scranton, and try not to spill any bananas."

Yankees 13, Red Sox 3. We crushed The Scum. WP: Tanaka (8-4). No save. LP: Owens (0-1).

*

I saw the Yankees beat the Red Sox 13-3 once. Live. It was July 30, 1999, and it was at Fenway. My favorite live game ever. (My favorite game of any kind remains the one the Yankees played at Shea Stadium on October 26, 2000.)

Lisa Swan, the tasteful half of the Subway Squawkers, got to see last night's game on a friend's dime. She enjoyed it, as you might guess. She paraphrased Robert Duvall's line about napalm in Apocalypse Now: "I love the smell of defeated Red Sox in the morning. It smells like... victory!"

This may be the 1st time the words "smell," "Sox" (especially the Red variety) and "love" have ever been used in the same sentence. Certainly, I wouldn't have expected any Yankee Fan to use that combination! Unless he -- or, as in this case, she -- is a big fan of Apocalypse Now.

As for what Red Sox fans think, "The horror... The horror... " Or, as the guys behind Sox blog Monstah Mash put it:

I’m sure even the kind folks at Subway Squawkers can agree that this was not a game, or evena massacre–this was a 10 kilaton atomb bomb dropped on the collective hopes and dreams of an entire fanbase. The Yankees could have stopped at six or seven runs to thoroughly humiliate us, but no in typical arrogant Yankee fashion they wiped the baselines with us and it has left me standing still with my mouth gaping open in agony and confusion.

Well, boo-hoo, poor you.

The series continues tonight, with Severino making his major league debut, and Steven Wright -- not the existentialist comedian, though he is from Massachusetts and is a big Red Sox fan -- starting for the Red Sox.

Come on you Pinstripes!

The Yankee Doodle Double Standard: It's Not Cheating If the Red Sox Do It

If David Ortiz did what O.J. Simpson did -- stabbed his ex-wife and her friend to death -- instead of police chasing him down the freeway, Major League Baseball would give him an escort to Logan Airport, and fly him out of America's jurisdiction on their own dime.

Let's tell the truth: There is one set of rules for the Boston Red Sox, and another set of rules for everybody else. It's the Yankee Doodle Double Standard.

Yes, Michael Pineda was caught using pine tar last night, and he was thrown out of the game, and will likely be suspended for it -- meaning he'll miss 2 or 3 starts. Yes, it was stupid.

But the Red Sox complaining about cheating is like that idiot rancher in Nevada calling anyone else a "freeloader." This is only partially about the steroids used by Ortiz, and previously by Manny Ramirez, and who knows how many other Red Sox scofflaws. (Ah, but if the law isn't applied, how easy it is for them to scoff at it!)

Jon Lester had that green goop on his glove during last year's World Series. Was he punished? Was he so much as investigated? No.

Clay Buchholz got caught with white goop on his arm last May. Was he punished? Was he so much as investigated? No. Jack Morris, now broadcasting for that night's opponents, the Toronto Blue Jays, called Buchholz out on it. And on ESPN, Hall-of-Famer Dennis Eckersley (a former Red Sox pitcher), said, "I think Jack Morris should zip it. I feel sorry for Buchholz to even have to deal with this."

Hey, Eck: If you don't want to deal with what happens if you get caught breaking the rules, don't break the rules. Buchholz got caught by Morris... and he got away with it, because he's a goddamned Red Sock.

When Pineda pitched against the Red Sox last week, some of them knew he'd been using pine tar, but backed away from accusing him of cheating:

* Pitcher Chris Capuano: "In in my mind, there is a difference between doctoring the ball to make it do something funny, versus to get a grip."

* Catcher David Ross: "Maybe it's cheating, but I don't really look at it that way."

* Even Ortiz himself, the most blatant, unrepentant and dishonest cheater in baseball history, said of Pineda that night, "Everybody uses pine tar in the league. It's not a big deal."

He's probably wrong about "everybody" using it. But he may be right about a lot of pitchers using it. And by saying, "It's not a big deal," he may be sticking up for a fellow Dominican, much like those jackasses who held up banners and Dominican flags in the old Yankee Stadium's bleachers for Pedro Martinez when he pitched his 17-strikeout one-hitter in 1999.

(You want to do that, fine, but don't do it in the bleachers. Those seats are for people who want the Yankees to win, and don't give a damn about the nationality of either side's players: The uniform is the flag.)

Sox manager John Farrell got cute: "Guys look to create a grip, but, typically, you're not looking to be as blatant as him." (Meaning Pineda.)

Oh, I see: Farrell's not mad that Pineda "cheated." He's mad that Pineda got caught.

Why? Why is getting caught cheating worse than the actual cheating? And, if it is, why, then, play David Ortiz, who cheated, lied about it, got caught, and lied about it again -- just like Pineda? Apparently, what's good for Pinstriped goose (not to be confused with Rich Gossage) isn't good for the Red-Socked gander.

Maybe Farrell's just pissed that, now, the umpires will be looking at Sox pitchers, to see if they're cheating.

Yeah, don't bet on the umps investigating Sox pitchers the same way. He's still new to this rivalry, and may not know: A Red Sox player can do whatever he wants, because the Red Sox winning is good for Major League Baseball's profits. Whereas a Yankee player can't do anything that looks to the Red Sox like it's "unfair," because, apparently -- the evidence since 1996 to the contrary -- the Yankees winning isn't good for MLB's profits.

Funny, I didn't see Pete Rozelle and Paul Tagliabue getting upset when the Dallas Cowboys won. Or David Stern when the Chicago Jordans, the Los Angeles Kobes and the Miami LeBrons won. Or Gary Bettman when the Pittsburgh Crosbys and the 2 Los Angeles teams (the Anaheim Ducks in 2007 and the L.A. Kings in 2012) won.

*

Oh yes, there was a game last night. Whatever Pineda was doing last night, clearly, it wasn't working, because the Sox already led 2-0 when he got tossed. Joe Girardi leafed through his Binder, and sent David Phelps out to replace him, and he allowed 2 more runs. Matt Thornton, Preston Claiborne and Adam Warren were more or less fine from then on.

But it didn't matter, because the fried-chicken-gulping, beer-swilling bastard John Lackey shut the Yankee bats down. Aside from an RBI single by Alfonso Soriano in the 6th, the Yankees didn't get any runs home. They left 7 men on base.

Red Sox 5, Yankees 1. WP: Lackey (3-2). No save. LP: Pineda (2-2).

The series concludes tonight, with CC Sabathia opposed by Felix Doubront. How will the Red Sox try to game the system this time? Probably by hiding CC's pregame meal, so he's hungry.

That's fine, of course. So says MLB. After all, it's not "cheating" if the Red Sox do it.

UPDATE: Right after I first posted this, MLB's decision came down: Pineda has, indeed, been suspended for 10 games. He'll miss starts at home to Seattle, and either home to Tampa Bay or away to Anaheim.