Friday, August 31, 2007

Red Sox vs. Yankees Game Summary 8/30/07

American League - Red Sox vs. Yankees Game Summary

Bronx, NY -- (Sports Network) - Robinson Cano hit a pair of solo home runs and Chien-Ming Wang threw no-hit ball into the seventh, as New York topped Boston, 5-0, in the finale of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium.

Wang (16-6) allowed one hit over seven innings, walking four and fanning five, to win his third consecutive start.

Derek Jeter finished 4-for-4 with a run scored for the Yankees, who swept the series and have won four of six. The Bombers moved a game ahead of Seattle in the AL wild card race, as the Mariners lost 6-5 at Cleveland later Thursday. Bobby Abreu added an RBI double and scored a run.

Curt Schilling (8-6) yielded six hits and two runs over seven innings, striking out four and walking one, to absorb the loss. The veteran right- hander dropped to 2-3 at Yankee Stadium in his career.

"He navigated his way through a pretty tough line up, left a couple balls out over the plate to Cano, but otherwise hit his locations," said Sox manager Terry Francona about Schilling.
Dustin Pedroia and Mike Lowell provided the lone hits for the Red Sox, who have dropped three in a row and saw their lead in the AL East trimmed from eight to five games over New York thanks to the sweep.


Down by two, Pedroia doubled with two outs in the eighth against Joba Chamberlain but Boston failed to score, and the Yanks made them pay by tacking on three insurance runs facing Hideki Okajima in the bottom half of the frame.

Jeter singled with one out and scored on Abreu's double. After Alex Rodriguez drew an intentional walk, two runs came in on Varitek's throwing error with Hideki Matsui at the plate when the ball skittered into left field on a double steal.

Matsui beat out an infield single then moved to second on Jorge Posada's ground out, and Kyle Snyder came in for Okajima to retire Andy Phillips and prevent further damage.
Chamberlain was ejected with one out in the ninth after airmailing two consecutive pitches directly over Kevin Youkilis' head.


"A couple balls slipped," Chamberlain said. "We're trying to win ballgames. I have nothing but respect for him, Youkilis plays the game hard, and it was nothing against him. There's no chance I'm trying to do that."

Edwar Ramirez entered with a 3-1 count and walked the Sox first baseman. A pair of wild pitches moved him to third, but Lowell fanned and J.D. Drew fouled out to end the game.
"Two balls going over somebody's head, not 80 miles per hour, I don't know," said Youkilis. "I didn't see other pitches going that far out of the strike zone. Those balls were pretty close to the head, and who knows what the intent was."


"That's absolutely ridiculous that you're trying to play the game, and you have this kid who's up here trying to prove himself, trying to throw the ball through the wall," fumed Yankees manager Joe Torre about the ejection. "There's no reason to throw at heads when it's 5-0. A lot of times, the umpires don't employ common sense, and something has to change."
Cano's leadoff homer to left-center in the third put the Yanks up 1-0.
Wang kept the Sox hitless through five, and Cano's second homer of the game, in virtually the same landing spot as the first, boosted New York's lead to 2-0 in the home half.
In the seventh, Youkilis reached on Jeter's throwing error and Lowell ended the no-hit bid by punching a ball through the right side for a single. Drew followed with a grounder to third that turned into a double play when Youkilis was ruled out of the basepath avoiding a Rodriguez sweep tag. Francona was ejected arguing the call by third-base umpire Mark Carlson, and Jason Varitek went down swinging to preserve the shutout.


"In my mind, it wasn't initially called and I think I was in the baseline when the tag was put down, added Youkilis. "There's some rule that's out there, whatever, and it's one of the things in baseball that's never clearly identified."


Game Notes:
New York has won six of the last seven meetings between the teams and leads the season series 8-7. The teams will play three more games in Boston from September 14-16...The Sox were without Manny Ramirez for the second straight game due to back problems...Roger Clemens held the Sox hitless through 5 1/3 on Wednesday...It was the third time in Cano's career he hit home runs in back-to-back at-bats...Boston is 40-31 on the road this season, the highest road winning percentage in the majors, and sports the best day-game record in baseball at 29-13...Lowell extended his hit streak to 12 games...The Sox return home Friday to open a three-game series against Baltimore, while the Yankees continue their nine-game homestand by welcoming Tampa Bay on Friday.


Copyright 2007 Courtesy of The Sports Network.

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