Red Sox Hang On To Beat Yankees, 5-4
NEW YORK (AP) -- Clay Buchholz won his third straight start, Adrian Gonzalez and Kevin Youkilis homered, and the Boston Red Sox beat the Yankees 5-4 on Friday night as the struggling rivals met for the first time in New York this season.
Buchholz (4-3) was given an early lead but allowed Russell Martin's tying, two-run homer in the fifth. Youkilis' homer gave Boston a 5-2 lead in a three-run seventh.
With the Yankees threatening in the eighth, Daniel Bard got Jorge Posada to end the inning with a groundout on a 101 mph fastball.
Jonathan Papelbon finished for his sixth save in seven chances, ending career-high stretches of six games and 20 days without one.
He allowed Curtis Granderson's two-out RBI single before getting Mark Teixeira to pop out with the tying run on base.
Gonzalez homered leading off the fourth against Bartolo Colon (2-2), his fourth homer in three games, and he put the Red Sox ahead with a seventh-inning sacrifice fly off Joba Chamberlain.
Youkilis reached out for a 98 mph fastball and powered it over the right-field scoreboard for a two-run homer.
Buchholz, 1-3 with a 6.25 ERA against the Yankees coming in, allowed two runs and five hits in seven innings, struck out seven and walked one.
Granderson tripled to the base of the left-field wall off Bard in the eighth and scored on a wild pitch. Alex Rodriguez walked, Bard hit Robinson Cano on the left foot with a pitch, and the runners advanced on a double steal. Bard struck out Nick Swisher with a 99 mph fastball, then fell behind 3-0 to Posada before working it full and getting him on the fastest pitch of the night.
Boston (18-20) stopped a two-game skid and remained five games behind AL East-leading Tampa Bay. The Yankees, who dropped to 1-3 against the Red Sox on Friday the 13th, lost their third straight home game for the first time since Sept. 22-25 and dropped two games behind the Rays.
In Colon's first start since an orthopedic surgeon said he injected stem cells into the pitcher's right shoulder and elbow last year, he gave up three runs -- two earned -- five hits and three walks in six-plus innings.
A crowd of 48,254 filled the ballpark for the first sellout since opening day. It was the first Friday the 13th game between the rivals in a decade -- and the first between them in New York in 20 years.
Boston started seven left-handed hitters against Colon, who entered with a .311 opponents' batting average against lefties and a .238 against righties. The 2005 AL Cy Young Award winner, who turns 38 on May 24, struck out Jacoby Ellsbury on a 96 mph fastball leading off the game.
Gonzalez's eighth homer of the season, a drive into the second deck in right, put the Red Sox ahead. Youkilis reached when Martin allowed a third strike to get by him for a passed ball and, after two walks, scored on Carl Crawford's groundout.
Buchholz didn't allow a hit until Rodriguez singled in the fourth, then gave up Martin's homer to left-center, just above the glove of a leaping Ellsbury Jarrod Saltalamacchia singled leading off the seventh, chasing Colon after 103 pitches. The speedy Ellsbury bounced to shortstop against Chamberlain, but the Yankees could only get the force at second. Dustin Pedroia then executed a perfect hit-and-run single past the space Cano vacated to cover the second-base bag, putting runners at the corners for Gonzalez, who hit a sacrifice fly to the left-field warning track.
NOTES: Youkilis and Martin each ended 45 at-bat homerless streaks. ... New York RHP Phil Hughes began his rehab program by throwing 30 times from 50 feet on flat ground. Hughes hasn't pitched since April 14 after experiencing a lack of velocity in his first three starts, when he was 0-1 with a 13.94 ERA. ... Yankees RHP Carlos Silva is to pitch at Double-A Trenton on Saturday after two starts for Class-A Tampa. He was released by the Chicago Cubs during spring training and agreed to a minor league contract with New York on April 9. ... Buchholz made a diving stab on Brett Gardner's one-hopper between the mound and first in the third inning, then had a nifty backhand toss to first to beat the batter. ... A disputed call by Mike Everitt allowed Gardner to advance to second in the fifth -- the second-base ump ruled Pedroia's foot came off the bag as he stretched to reach Jeter's hit-and-run grounder to the shortstop side of the bag. But Buchholz retired Granderson and Teixeira. ... The stadium public-address system failed to work in the late innings. Jeter, in a 2-for-16 slide, singled in the ninth and with his 2,964th hit moved past Sam Crawford into sole possession of 29th place.
