Yankees sweep Red Sox
Photo credit: Photo by Kathy Kmonicek | Fans display the sweep sign after Alex Rodriguez hit a solo home run in the 7th inning as the Yankees play the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium.
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Joe Girardi acknowledged the doubts about the Yankees before this series started.
"There were question marks about this team," Girardi said before last night's game, referencing the problems against top-caliber teams, specifically the Red Sox, who were 8-0 against them.
The Yankees provided quite a few answers over the last four days.
Behind Andy Pettitte's best start, home or away, of the season and game-changing home runs in the eighth inning by Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira, the Yankees completed a four-game sweep of the Red Sox last night with a 5-2 victory in front of 48,190 "Sweep"-chanting fans at the Stadium.
The Yankees, with their first four-game sweep of Boston in the Bronx since 1985, moved 6½ games ahead of the Red Sox.
The Yankees (69-42), who won their seventh straight, trailed 2-1 in the eighth after Phil Coke gave up a two-run home run to Victor Martinez that ended Boston's scoreless-inning streak at 31.
Alex Rodriguez finally got the Yankees on the board in the seventh against Jon Lester, torpedoing his 1-and-1 pitch deep to left-center to make it 1-0. It was Rodriguez's 21st home run and No. 574 of his career, moving him past Harmon Killebrew into sole possession of ninth on the all-time list.
Rodriguez came out of the dugout as the frenzied crowd demanded a curtain call, but the electricity was momentarily sucked out of the place when Martinez went deep against Coke, who replaced Pettitte to start the eighth.
But against hard-throwing righty Daniel Bard in the bottom of the eighth, Damon re-energized the Stadium by homering to right-center to tie it, and Teixeira followed with a shot into the second deck in right to make it 3-2. The Yankees batted around in the four-run inning that made it 5-2.
Mariano Rivera allowed a leadoff single to J.D. Drew and a walk to David Ortiz in the ninth but earned his 32nd save.
Pettitte, who came in 4-4 with a 5.28 ERA at home this season, went seven innings, allowing five hits. He struck out four and walked two in his first start all season in which he did not allow a run.
Pettitte had to work out of more trouble than Lester, who was 3-0 in five starts with a 2.02 ERA in his career against the Yankees. But each of those times, Pettitte worked out of his difficulties.
He allowed a two-out single to Drew in the second and walked Mike Lowell, but struck out Jason Varitek. Pettitte loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth but escaped the jam by getting Varitek to fly out to left.
After allowing a leadoff single to Nick Green in the fifth, Pettitte retired the last nine batters he faced.
Pettitte's sixth inning might have been his most impressive as he struck out Kevin Youkilis on an 85-mph slider, got Jason Bay looking at a 90-mph cutter and induced a flyout to center from Drew. The 11-pitch inning was Pettitte's easiest until he needed just eight to set down the Red Sox in order in the seventh.
Lester made just the one mistake to Rodriguez, allowing three hits until his leadoff home run in the seventh. He set down the Yankees rather effortlessly in the sixth.
Lester gave way to Bard in the eighth and he got pinch hitter Hideki Matsui and Jeter out relatively easily before giving up the home runs to Damon and Teixeira. Nick Swisher's two-run single against Hideki Okajima made it 5-2.
