Maine news, sports, weather from Portland Press Herald / Maine Sunday Telegram, Portland, Maine

July 8, 2012

Red Sox: Win some, lose some

Boston rebounds with newcomers to win the second game after a rout in the opener.

The Associated Press

BOSTON - Newcomers Pedro Ciriaco and Mauro Gomez had three hits each, and the Boston Red Sox gained a split of their day-night doubleheader Saturday with a 9-5 victory against the New York Yankees.

Ciriaco drove in three runs with a bases-clearing double one day after being called up from Pawtucket. Gomez is 8 for 17 in five games since being promoted from the Triple-A team Tuesday night.

Andruw Jones hit three homers in the doubleheader, including two of the Yankees' four in their 6-1 win in the opener in which Freddy Garcia pitched 6 2/3 solid innings in muggy conditions. They added three homers in the second game, running their baseball-high total to 133. They're on a pace for a club-record 255. The 1997 Seattle Mariners hold the major league record with 264.

Injuries to second baseman Dustin Pedroia and third baseman Will Middlebrooks led the Red Sox to call up Gomez to fill in at third and Ciriaco to play second and shortstop. The rookies played key roles in the sixth inning, when the Red Sox scored three runs, and in the seventh, when they added four to build their 9-4 lead.

Ciriaco hit a three-run double in the sixth, then reached on a two-base error, stole third and continued home on a wild throw by catcher Russell Martin in the seventh. Gomez singled in the sixth, doubled in a run in the seventh and scored both times.

The Red Sox broke a five-game losing streak with their first win in five games against the Yankees. New York is a major league-best 51-33 after its three-game winning streak ended.

For the third straight game, the Yankees had a big first inning, scoring three runs in the nightcap. They had five in that inning in Friday night's 10-8 win and four in Saturday's opener.

The three runs came with no outs on Mark Teixeira's 15th homer after Derek Jeter reached on an error by Gomez and Curtis Granderson singled. But Felix Doubront (9-4) allowed one more hit before Jones led off the seventh with a solo homer, his 10th, cutting the lead to 5-4.

The Red Sox made it 3-1 in the third when Gomez doubled, took third on Ciriaco's single and scored on Daniel Nava's double-play grounder. Nick Punto's sacrifice fly made it 3-2 in the fifth.

Boston knocked Phil Hughes (9-7) out of the game with three in the sixth, loading the bases on a single by Adrian Gonzalez, an error by Jeter and a single by Gomez.

Ciriaco then cleared the bases with his third hit.

Gonzalez doubled in the seventh, one of his three hits as he extended his hitting streak to a career-best 18 games.

He scored on a triple by Ryan Sweeney, who came in on Gomez's double. Gomez scored on an error by third baseman Jayson Nix before Ciriaco came in on his steal and a bad throw. The Yankees ended the scoring on a solo homer in the ninth by Eric Chavez, his seventh.

In the opener, Nick Swisher belted a three-run shot in the first and Nix added a solo drive in the fourth. Swisher snapped an 0-for-17 slide with his 13th homer. The next batter, Jones, followed with a drive to nearly the same spot.

"It's crazy, man. Like I've always said, this team's designed to hit home runs," Swisher said. "That's kind of our thing."

Each of the four homers in Game 1 came against Franklin Morales (1-2).

"Yeah, his fastball kept moving in over the middle of the plate to right-handed hitters. He couldn't control it," Red Sox Manager Bobby Valentine said. "He gave up the home runs to home-run hitters in hitters' counts."

Jeter had three singles for New York.

Robinson Cano went 1 for 4 and scored for New York, but his streak of games with at least one RBI ended at nine.

He equaled Jeter's 2004 surge as the longest by a Yankee since Reggie Jackson went 11 in a row in 1979.

Morales lasted 3 1/3 innings, yielding six runs and six hits.

"I was just throwing my pitches and missing," he said. "I missed with my fastball and they hit homers."

Garcia (3-2) gave up one run and six hits under overcast skies, improving to 10-4 in 23 career games against Boston.

"He did an amazing job. He used all his pitches," Yankees Manager Joe Girardi said.

 

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