Varitek gives Bosox something in reserve

BOSTON -- Jason Varitek played in his 171st regular-season game against the Yankees Wednesday night, all of them as a member of the Red Sox.

Varitek's first home run against the Yankees came on Sept. 15, 1998. It was hit off Mike Jerzembeck. He hit another one later in the game against Mike Buddie.

Jerzembeck and Buddie are long gone from The Rivalry, but Varitek is still hitting home runs against the Yankees.

His two-run shot off Luis Ayala in the eighth inning was the icing on the cake for Boston in its 9-5 victory over the Yankees at Fenway Park.

Varitek also had the game-tying double in the sixth against Phil Hughes after the Red Sox had seen a 4-1 lead turn into a 5-4 deficit. The 2-for-4, three-RBI game was a good night's work for the 39-year-old, who has aged gracefully into the backup catcher's role behind Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

"You want to contribute," Varitek said. "But I've played the game long enough to know what the important part of the game really is."

Varitek means pitching and how he can contribute to that from behind the plate. He's always been good at that. But his offense had dropped to a barely sustainable level the last few seasons as he battled age and injuries.

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This year, though, Varitek has combined with Saltalamacchia to give the Red Sox a potent 1-2 catching punch. After Wednesday night, Varitek is batting .240 with 10 home runs and 32 RBIs. Saltalamacchia, 26, is at .252-13-46.

"We've gotten a lot of offense from our catching," manager Terry Francona said. "It's really been terrific. It's come from two guys, but still, we're getting the offense."

Said Varitek: "You can't do it on numbers. I think our biggest job still is our pitching staff, and it has to be."

The Yankees had just taken the lead against Josh Beckett in the sixth when Josh Reddick worked out a walk after falling behind 0-and-2 to Hughes. Varitek followed by reaching out on a hit-and-run and sending the ball down the third-base line, where it hugged the top of the side wall. The ball scooted past Brett Gardner and into the corner as Reddick scored the tying run; if the ball had hopped into the crowd, Reddick would have been stopped at third.

"The hit-and-run [double], it's perfect," Francona said. "It goes down the line, climbs up the wall, goes by the outfielder, Redd's running like crazy. That was a big play in the game."

One out later, Jacoby Ellsbury homered to left off Boone Logan to give the Red Sox a 7-5 advantage.

Beckett came back out and retired the Yankees' 2-3-4 hitters in order in the seventh. In the eighth, nifty plays by shortstop Marco Scutaro and second baseman Dustin Pedroia on hard-hit balls helped Daniel Bard to a 1-2-3 inning. Varitek went deep into the Red Sox bullpen in the bottom half to complete the scoring.

"A lot of good things," Francona said. "Tek with a hit-and-run and then the home run . . . There's a lot of good things that happened."