Mood Swing: Yankees lose to Red Sox after staging comeback

After a rain delay of just over two hours, the New York Yankees lost a heart-breaker to the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium by the score of 8-6.

Mark Teixeira had just completed a five-run comeback to get the Yankees back to a tie with a long two-run home run off Vicente Padilla in the eighth inning. The Yankees found themselves down by five after starter CC Sabathia slogged through six innings in which he gave up six runs on eight hits and two walks.

Sabathia, gave up three quick runs in the top of the first inning on a RBI-double from Adrian Gonzalez and a two-run double by Will Middlebrooks.

The Yankees got on the board with the first of three homers they hit on the night, when Sabathia’s personal catcher Chris Stewart hit his first home run of the season in the bottom of the third inning off Red Sox starter Jon Lester.

Lester was then to staked to the five-run lead when Gonzalez took Sabathia deep for a three-run homer in the fifth inning. Lester, who had been roughed up in his previous two starts was not especially great in this one, but he left with the lead despite giving up three runs in the third highlighted by Jayson Nix‘s two-run homer, his fourth of the season.

David Phelps kept the Yankees in it by tossing two innings of scoreless relief. He allowed just one hit and struck out three.

Phelps’ performance set the stage for a standoff between Padilla and Teixeira. There is no love lost between them as Padilla has hit Teixeira more than once and when the Yankees and Red Sox last met, the two got in a war of words in the media, when Teixeira called Padilla a head hunter.

Teixeira launched a two-run homer to right center field to tie the game. Teixeira enjoyed this one, maybe a little too much, which should stoke the fire between the two. When asked about his showboating, Teixeira slyly suggested he was waiting to make sure the ball didn’t hook foul, though the foul pole was no where in sight of the ball’s flight path.

With the game tied in the top of the ninth, Rafael Soriano came on to lock down the BoSox. He allowed a one-out walk to Jacoby Ellsbury who came around to score on a misplay by Curtis Granderson in center field off the bat of Pedro Ciriaco which resulted in a triple. Dustin Pedroia brought in Ciriaco with a sac fly to put the Red Sox up 8-6.

The Bombers could not muster anything against former Yankee and now Red Sox closer Alfredo Aceves in the ninth. Aceves notched his 22nd save of the season with a perfect frame including a strikeout.

The Yankees (60-40) remain 8.5 games up on the Baltimore Orioles and the Tampa Bay Rays in the American League East. The Red Sox (50-51) moved to within 10.5 of the Yanks.

In the rubber game tonight, the Yankees send Hiroki Kuroda (10-7, 3.34 ERA) to the mound against Felix Doubront (10-5, 4.54 ERA).