07 août, 2011

Red Sox Batter Yankees’ C. C. Sabathia Again

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Jacoby Ellsbury of the Boston Red Sox watches his 3-run homer in the fourth inning Saturday as Francisco Cervelli of the Yankees defends.

Brian Snyder/Reuters

The Yankees's starting pitcher C.C. Sabathia reacts Saturday after the Boston Red Sox scored the first run of the game in the third inning.

C.J. Gunther/European Pressphoto Agency

Boston Red Sox's Dustin Pedroia, left, celebrates after umpire Eric Cooper, center, calls him safe and the second baseman Robinson Cano, right, of the Yankees covers during the third inning of Saturday's game at Fenway Park.

With 16 wins and an earned run average of 2.81, Sabathia is on the outside of a tight race with Justin Verlander of the Detroit Tigers and Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels. But if Sabathia did not have to pitch against the Red Sox so often, they might be looking up at him.

As good as Sabathia has been this year, the thorn in his meaty left paw has been the Red Sox, who have made him look pedestrian, at best. The most recent example was Boston’s 10-4 victory Saturday at Fenway Park that halted the Yankees’ winning streak at eight games.

Once again, Sabathia was pasted by the Red Sox. The streaking Jacoby Ellsbury hit a three-run homer against Sabathia in a five-run fourth inning and collected a career-high six runs batted in, doubling his previous high. Red Sox starter John Lackey, while not dominant, was better than Sabathia and good enough to earn his 10th win of the season.

In all, Sabathia gave up seven earned runs and nine hits over six innings. His record against Boston fell to 0-4, with a 7.20 earned run average. Against everyone else, he is 16-2 with a 2.11 E.R.A.

He cannot subdue the Red Sox, and he is not alone. Boston leads the American League in batting average, runs, hits and total bases, and is second to the Yankees in home runs.

With Saturday’s victory, the Red Sox resumed a tie with the Yankees for first place in the American League East and won for the ninth time in 11 games against the Yankees. The teams are also tied for first place in the wild-card standings, with a big lead over the second-place Angels, making the outcome of this series less critical than it would have been before the wild card was first used, in 1995.

In the series finale Sunday night, Josh Beckett, the Red Sox’ ace, will face Freddy Garcia.

Sabathia came into the game having won nine of his previous 10 starts, and was 7-1 with a 1.01 E.R.A in his previous eight starts. But when facing the Red Sox, it is almost as if he is a different pitcher.

After the Yankees scrambled to even the score at 2-2 in the top of the fourth inning, Sabathia gave it back in the bottom half. The Red Sox pounded Sabathia for five runs in the inning, stamped with emphasis by Ellsbury’s rainbow shot into the first few rows in right field.

The inning did not start well for Sabathia. Youkilis hit a rope to the midpoint of the wall in left-center field for a double. Sabathia struck out David Ortiz, but right fielder Mike Aviles singled to right, pushing Youkilis to third, then Carl Crawford scored Youkilis with a ground single to left.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia fouled out, but Marco Scutaro kept the inning alive by smacking a line single to center that scored Aviles. That enabled Ellsbury to come to the plate with runners at first and second, and Sabathia gave him a 2-0 pitch waist high and right over the plate.

Ellsbury hit a high fly ball down the right-field line and into the grandstand for his 19th home run of the year and his eighth since the All-Star break.

Perhaps the only encouraging aspect of the day for Sabathia is that he remained in the game and held Boston scoreless over his final two innings.

In the eighth, Mark Teixeira hit his 32nd home run off Daniel Bard, but the Red Sox tacked on three runs in the bottom half against Hector Noesi.

In much the same way they rallied from a two-run deficit Friday night, the Yankees manufactured a pair of runs in the fourth inning Saturday to even the score, 2-2. The night before, Robinson Cano hit into a bases-loaded double play with no outs and the bases loaded to score a run.

This time, Cano was hit by a pitch to load the bases with nobody out, and Nick Swisher did the honors by hitting into a 4-6-3 double play that pushed home a run. In the first game of the series. Swisher got the key hit after the double play, and on Sunday, with Teixeira at third base, Eric Chavez got the run-scoring hit. His single to sent home Teixeira to make it a 2-2 game.

At the time, it seemed to signal a shift in the momentum of the game. But the Yankees’ inability to cash in more runs in the inning proved costly when Sabathia once again could not contain the Red Sox.

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