Series win good for Yankees' psyche

BOSTON

Four hours and 21 minutes, or 135 games. Choose your time measurement. Either way, it felt like a marathon for the Yankees to get to this point late Thursday night.

They finally defeated the Red Sox in a 2011 series.

Yes, the Yankees outlasted their rivals, 4-2, at Fenway Park, giving them their first series victory in five tries against Boston and raising their overall record against the Bosox to 4-11.

And through the combination of elements -- some expected, some absolutely not -- in this rubber game, the Yankees (82-53) provided hope to their fans that they can perhaps handle Boston (83-53) in the series that matters most of all.

"I think it was important, I do," Joe Girardi said of winning a series, "and our guys got it done."

They prevailed on a night when virtually no one gave them a chance, as they started the beleaguered A.J. Burnett against Boston's highly regarded Jon Lester. They won even though high-profile prospect Jesus Montero went 0-for-4 and got hit by a pitch in his major-league debut, stranding six teammates on the bases.

And just to add a little flavor to the final mile, closer Mariano Rivera surely scared the daylights out of Yankees fans by loading the bases with two outs in the ninth before getting Adrian Gonzalez to look at a game-ending strike three.

Burnett drew a no-decision, but coming off two ghastly starts and facing the extremely dangerous Red Sox offense, he drew notice for just how much better he looked. Helped by a strong curveball, the righthander allowed two runs and five hits in 5 1/3 innings, walking two and striking out four. Girardi correctly lifted him with one out and two on in the sixth, at which point Boone Logan and Cory Wade cleaned up and kept the game close -- with a big assist from Curtis Granderson's diving catch on Jed Lowrie's liner to end the inning.

"He was real good," Girardi said of Burnett. " . . . For what he went through in August [an 11.91 ERA in 22 2/3 innings], he was great."

Burnett departed as the losing pitcher, with the Yankees trailing 2-1, but a three-run seventh turned that around. Russell Martin's two-run double, crushed to right-centerfield, turned the game around.

Can this game turn the Yankees' season around? Eh. Not sure such a dramatic revival was really necessary. Yet for a team that has carried an inferiority complex since it whiffed on both Cliff Lee and Andy Pettitte while Boston picked up Gonzalez and Carl Crawford, we shouldn't dismiss this as meaningless.

Before the game, Girardi tried to argue the point that the Yankees had played the Red Sox much better this past month, compared to the 1-8 showing from April through June. That carried a grain of truth, but the Yankees aren't a team that settles for rationalizations. They demand results from themselves.

They trail Boston by just a half-game in the American League East now, and the two teams are even in the loss column. We know that the battle for first place loses its luster when both clubs will make the playoffs no matter what. However, in a season that could revive the Northeast Corridor American League Championship Series we witnessed in 1999, 2003 and 2004, having the home-field advantage that comes with the division title could prove crucial.

If the Yankees didn't "need" this win for their morale, it nevertheless has to help as they anticipate the possibility of one October series to settle both the rivalry and the league representative in the World Series.