Angry after Tex is hit, Yanks top Indians

They were slow to react and respond to the Red Sox, who hit Yankees with pitches and flipped a bat and swept their rivals in the Bronx.

The Yankees responded quickly Friday night with the Indians in town -- with their voices after Fausto Carmona hit Mark Teixeira with a high fastball, and with their bats in an 11-7 win.

Carmona had allowed a home run to Curtis Granderson with two outs in the second inning and followed it by coming very high and tight on Teixeira, who took the fastball off his right shoulder.

Teixeira jawed with Carmona, the benches and bullpens emptied and Joe Girardi and Manny Acta, the two managers, went nose to nose before being separated.

"If you want to send a message, if you're upset with the way you're pitching, you just gave up a home run, just throw the ball below the waist," Teixeira said. "I've been hit plenty of times in my career. But anytime it's a purpose pitch up near my neck, I don't like that."

Neither did Girardi, who admitted he yelled at Carmona as he came onto the field and then jawed with Acta because the Indians manager was telling Teixeira to tone it down.

"I didn't have the first words, but I had some words," Girardi said. "Because I thought he hit him on purpose and I didn't like it."

The Yankees were hit by pitches five times in the three Red Sox games, including one by Jon Lester that knocked Teixeira out of Tuesday's game with a bruised knee.

That, plus David Ortiz's bat flip the same night, added to the insult of the Red Sox sweep, even with CC Sabathia hitting Ortiz on Thursday night in a sort of revenge.

There were no ejections and no further problems Friday night, but the Indians are at the Stadium through Monday.

The Yankees already had a 4-0 lead when the fireworks started, and Carmona lasted only four innings in handing the Yanks and Ivan Nova a 6-0 lead. Nova (5-4) pitched seven strong innings, allowing only two runs and four hits; his teammates banged out 15 hits, three each from Jorge Posada and Robinson Cano, a long homer from Alex Rodriguez and hit No. 2,991 from Derek Jeter among them.

"[The Red Sox) came in here and pretty much embarrassed us on our home field," Rodriguez said. "Sometimes, people are too comfortable. No matter who we're playing, you can't let teams be so comfortable."

Girardi did have to go to Mariano Rivera to close out a game that was 11-2 after seven innings, thanks to wildness from young relievers Kevin Whelan, Amauri Sanit and Lance Pendleton -- Whelan walked four in two-thirds of an inning in his big-league debut -- but this was still a needed night of fire from the Yankees.

"We took out a little bit of our frustrations from the last three games," said Teixeira, who took great issue with Carmona coming high and tight after "every pitch to me the last five years [was] down and away. He must have really missed his spot."

Bartolo Colon starts Saturday and it's a safe bet that the Yankees learned their lesson from the Red Sox visit. Girardi especially, because none of his players could recall their manager blowing his stack the way he did in the second inning, when coach Tony Peña had to pull Girardi away.

"Manny told my guy to stop. Take care of your own guy," Girardi said. "I'll take care of my guy, you take care of your guy.

"And I have respect for Manny. I actually had a nice exchange with Manny at 3 o'clock today. But that doesn't mean there's not some feistiness in me, and when my guys are getting plunked, I'm going to protect them."