Yanks Destroy Red Sox 20-11 in Opener

(AP Photo/Elise Amendola)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
NYY	2	4	0	0	6	3	1	0	4		20	23	1
BOS	1	0	0	0	3	3	0	0	4		11	12	1

WP - Andy Pettitte (10-6)
LP - Brad Penny (7-8)
Talk about setting the tone for a series. Wow, what a beating the Yankees handed the Red Sox in front of a packed Fenway park. It wasn't pretty, in fact as some points is what just an awful game to watch, but the Yanks stormed into Boston and battered Boston pitching to the tune of 20 runs on 23 hits and took the opener 20-11. The 31 runs were the most ever scored in a Yankees-Red Sox game.

For more on the history of this crazy 31 run game, check out this post by Tyler Kepner.

I'm not going to go into detail of how all 31 runs scored, but I'll give you the key hits, especially on the Yankees side. The Yanks got on the board early with two runs in the first. Then, after Boston scored a run of their own off Andy Pettitte in their half of the first the Yankees came right back with four more runs. The big hit in the inning was a two-run double by Mark Teixeira.

The score would remain 6-1 until the top of the fifth when the Yanks blew the game wide open with six more runs and knocking Brad Penny out of the game. That inning was capped off by Hideki Matsui's three-run homer.

Boston scored three of their own in the bottom half of the inning off Pettitte to make the game a little interesting. Then, the Yanks scored three of their own in the top of the sixth to build their lead back up to 11.

Once again Boston would come back with three runs, this time knocking Pettitte out of the game. Pettitte started off very well, holding Boston to just one run over the first four, but once the Yankees started spending a half hour batting every inning Andy lost his command and wasn't the same pitcher. In 5 innings he allowed 7 runs (5 earned) on 7 hits, walked 2 and struck out 4. Most importantly he was able to pick up his 10th win of the season.

Brian Bruney came in to replace Pettitte, and was absolutely awful. He couldn't find the plate, walking three and hit a batter in just 1.1 innings. Of his 37 pitches, just 14 found the strike zone. Part of this could have been due to his lack of use lately, but that's really no excuse. The team is up 10 runs, there is no reason to throw anything by strikes. If you were pissed watching this at home, all you had to do was look at Joe Girardi's face to know he was pissed right along with you.

Bruney did get out of the 6th before the Sox could do much more damage, but then after the Yanks scored their 16th run in the top of the seventh, he quickly got back into trouble in the bottom half. He walked Jason Varitek, hit Casey Kotchman, and then walked Nick Green to load the bases with just one out. That would be it for Bruney as a frustrated Girardi had to make another call to the pen.

Damaso Marte came into the game to face the left-handed David Ortiz. Now, I was starting to worry at this point. Marte had been awful prior to going on the DL and a homer at this point would have cut the lead to five and in Fenway five runs is nothing. But Marte got Ortiz to fly out, and then he struck out the right-handed hitting Mike Lowell to end the inning. It was a very impressive two-thirds of an inning from Marte.

The score would remain 16-7 until the top of the 9th. That was when Matsui would add his second 3-run homer of the night to extend the Yankees lead to 19-7. The homers were his 20th and 21st of the season. Then, after Robinson Cano reached on an error Nick Swisher made it an even 20 with an RBI double.

Sergio Mitre pitched the final two innings for the Yanks, and while he looked good in the 8th, the 9th was something he might want to forget. Unlike Bruney he didn't walk anyone, but everything he threw got hit hard. Eventually he got out of it and finished off the game, but not until the Sox scored four runs on four hits. It's not really a big deal because the Yanks had such a huge lead, but it was still frustrating to watch.

Besides Johnny Damon who left the game after the first after fouling a ball off his knee, every Yankee starter (and Eric Hinske who replaced Damon) drove in at least one run. Eight guys had multi-hit games, five players had multi-RBI games, the smacked 11 extra base hits, and were 15-for-25 with runners in scoring position.

Speaking of Damon, he's fine and is listed as day-to-day. He said it was "unlikely" that he'd play tomorrow, but we could see him back in the lineup on Sunday.

Derek Jeter continued his red-hot road trip with another three-hit game. He went 3-for-6 with a double, two RBI, and three runs scored. He is now 19-for-35 on the trip.

Alex Rodrgiuez, who entered the game just 1-for-10 at Fenway this year, went 4-for-4 with triple, and RBI, and two runs scored. Mark Teixeira had three hits, drove in three, and scored three. Melky Cabrera picked up four hits. It was obviously a very impressive performance by the Yankees offense tonight.

There was one bone-headed play on the Sox side that I feel needs to be mentioned. With two out in the third and the Yankees up 6-1, Dustin Pedroia hit a ball deep into the left field corner. Eric Hinske missed the ball and it took a crazy bounce off that stupid wall and rolled 3/4 of the way back into the infield. For some reason Pedroia tried to stretch it into a triple, but Jeter hustled over to pick the ball and fired to A-Rod at third to get Pedroia. Why you try to get to third with two out and down five is beyond me, but hey, I'm glad the idiot tried it.

So after dropping the first eight to Boston this year, they come back to win the next five and currently sit 7.5 games up on Boston in the AL East. They will look to make it six in a row over Boston when they send A.J. Burnett to the mound tomorrow afternoon. Starting for the Red Sox will be right-hander Junichi Tazawa. First pitch is set for 4:05 p.m., and the game can be seen on FOX.

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Jeter, SS	6	3	3	2	0	0	1	.333
Damon, LF	1	0	0	0	0	1	1	.284
Hinske, LF	4	2	2	1	1	0	1	.257
Teixeira, 1B	5	3	3	3	1	0	2	.286
Rodriguez, A, 3B	4	2	4	1	1	0	0	.263
a-Hairston, J, PH-3B	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	.257
Matsui, H, DH	6	2	2	7	0	1	6	.266
Posada, C	5	2	2	2	1	1	0	.275
Cano, 2B	6	2	1	1	0	0	4	.311
Swisher, RF	6	1	2	1	0	2	1	.246
Cabrera, Me, CF	6	2	4	2	0	0	0	.273
Totals	49	20	23	20	5	5	16
a-Walked for Rodriguez, A in the 9th.
BATTING 2B: Jeter (22, Penny), Hinske 2 (12, Penny, Ramirez, R), Teixeira (34, Penny), Cano (34, Bowden), Posada (21, Bowden), Cabrera, Me (21, Bowden), Swisher (24, Ramirez, R). 3B: Rodriguez, A (1, Delcarmen). HR: Matsui, H 2 (21, 5th inning off Bowden, 2 on, 0 out; 9th inning off Ramirez, R, 2 on, 1 out). TB: Jeter 4; Hinske 4; Teixeira 4; Rodriguez, A 6; Matsui, H 8; Posada 3; Cano 2; Swisher 3; Cabrera, Me 5. RBI: Posada 2 (57), Hinske (21), Teixeira 3 (92), Rodriguez, A (65), Matsui, H 7 (66), Cano (61), Cabrera, Me 2 (48), Jeter 2 (56), Swisher (65). 2-out RBI: Posada 2; Teixeira; Swisher. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cano; Matsui, H 2; Teixeira. GIDP: Cano. Team RISP: 15-for-25. Team LOB: 7. FIELDING E: Cano (7, throw). DP: (Cano-Jeter-Teixeira).

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Pettitte (W, 10-6)	5.0	7	7	5	2	4	0	4.25
Bruney	1.1	1	0	0	3	0	0	4.67
Marte, D	0.2	0	0	0	0	1	0	13.50
Mitre	2.0	4	4	4	0	0	2	6.82

Pitches-strikes: Pettitte 105-65, Bruney 37-14, Marte, D 6-5, Mitre 33-17.

RED SOX STATS

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Hideki Matsui (2-for-6, 2 HR, 7 RBI, 2 R)

HONORABLE MENTION: Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira, Derek Jeter and Melky Cabrera. (Sorry, but when you score 20 runs you have a lot of guys who do great jobs.)

Tomorrow's Game

Yankees @ Red Sox
Game Time: 4:05 p.m. TV/Radio: FOX, WCBS

RHP A.J. Burnett (10-6, 3.69) vs. RHP Junichi Tazawa (1-2, 5.40)