Sox beat Yanks in 10 after Mo blows save

BOSTON -- On Friday afternoon, Joe Girardi talked about the tendency for Yankees-Red Sox games to get "a little crazy.''

It was part of his rationale for putting Phil Hughes in the bullpen for Saturday afternoon and Sunday night because, well, you just never know in these games.

That certainly was an apt phrase for Sunday night's 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Red Sox in front of 38,189 at Fenway Park.

Hughes did get into the game to start the 10th -- after the always unexpected craziness of Mariano Rivera blowing a save -- and 13 pitches later, the game was over.

Hughes (2-4) got the first out, but David Ortiz lined a ground-rule double to right, Carl Crawford was walked intentionally and Josh Reddick ended the game with a first-pitch single to left.

The Red Sox moved a game ahead of the Yankees and improved to 10-2 against them this season.

"Coming in, that's all we heard about,'' Hughes said of the lack of success against the Red Sox. "To be so close to taking two out of three is kind of a hit.''

Hughes, who would have been Tuesday night's scheduled starter against the Angels if he hadn't been needed Sunday night, will not start then. Girardi said A.J. Burnett, scheduled to start Wednesday night, could move up and that Ivan Nova, who started Thursday night in Chicago, could be an option as well. "There's some different things we could do,'' Girardi said.

Hughes, coming off his best start of the season in Chicago last Tuesday, when he allowed three hits in six shutout innings, could end up getting skipped altogether.

"I felt like I made some good progress in my last start,'' Hughes said. "If I have to wait around, it won't be something that's fun to deal with. But again, I don't really make these calls.''

Rivera's blown save was his fifth of the season, matching his 2010 total.

"I can't blame anybody but myself,'' said Rivera, who had converted eight straight save chances before Sunday night. "I didn't get it done.''

Said Girardi: "It happens. He's not perfect. He's been pretty close, but he's not perfect.''

With the Yankees ahead 2-1 on home runs by Eduardo Nuñez and Brett Gardner, Marco Scutaro opened the ninth by driving Rivera's 2-and-2 pitch off the Green Monster for his fourth hit of the game. Jacoby Ellsbury bunted back to Rivera, who looked at third, saw no one covering and fired to first to barely get the out.

Third baseman Nuñez also came in on the bunt, but Rivera said it wasn't the young infielder's fault that the bag was uncovered, given that he didn't know the bunt would come right back to Rivera. "Hard play,'' Rivera said. "He [Nunez] couldn't get back in time.''

Dustin Pedroia's liner to left was plenty deep enough for a sacrifice fly that tied it at 2.

Before all of that came the oddities of Freddy Garcia matching Josh Beckett and Nuñez and Gardner hitting home runs to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead. The two have totaled nine homers this season.

In fact, the only predictable element of Sunday night was that the teams needed to go into Monday morning to play to a conclusion.

Garcia, who had a 10.29 ERA in two previous starts against Boston this year, allowed one run in five innings to keep his team in it against Beckett, who had a 0.86 ERA in three previous starts against the Yankees.

Nuñez drew the Yankees even with a solo homer a batter after Russell Martin was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double in the fifth. Gardner, who had three hits, ripped a tiebreaking home run off Matt Albers with two outs in the seventh to make it 2-1.

Before Rivera entered the game, a bullpen that starred in Friday night's victory did so again, with Boone Logan, Cory Wade, Rafael Soriano and David Robertson holding the Red Sox scoreless for three innings.

Girardi called the series loss "disappointing,'' but other than CC Sabathia, his team collectively pitched better than it has all season against Boston, baseball's highest-scoring club.

"We've bounced back a lot this year and we'll bounce back again,'' Girardi said. "We pitched a lot better, so I feel a lot better about that.''