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Swisher homer, wild sixth carry Yanks to 10-3 win

May 8, 2010 - 3:42 AM By HOWARD ULMAN AP Sports Writer

BOSTON(AP) -- The New York Yankees battered the Boston Red Sox and took some more lumps themselves.

Nick Swisher hit a three-run homer in an 11-hit attack that carried the Yankees to their fifth straight win, 10-3 on Friday night. But their injury list grew when they lost Nick Johnson in the fifth inning with a sore right wrist and Robinson Cano in the sixth after he was hit on the left knee by a suddenly wild Josh Beckett.

"The card is a little short right now," said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, who also was without injured catcher Jorge Posada and center fielder Curtis Granderson. "It is frustrating, but no one is going to feel sorry for (you)."

Phil Hughes (4-0) allowed seven hits and two runs in seven innings and has a 1.69 ERA.

His confidence, Hughes said, "is up there. I'm throwing the ball well. I'm just trying to keep it going. There's a lot of season ahead of us."

Beckett (1-1) struck out six and allowed one hit in the first three innings but ended up giving up nine runs in 5 1-3. He also plunked Derek Jeter in the back in the six-run sixth and even hit his own catcher, Jason Varitek, in that inning with a pitch that forced him out of the game with a left forearm contusion.

"I had an idea where (the ball) was going. It just wasn't going where I wanted it to go," Beckett said. "When you try to overthrow like that, your delivery gets all messed up."

Neither team suggested that Beckett was trying to hit batters.

"No one's going to hit you (deliberately) with the bases loaded," Jeter said.

The Yankees have outscored opponents 37-12 during their winning streak.

Jeter played in his 2,165th game for the Yankees, breaking a tie with Lou Gehrig for second place in club history. Mickey Mantle is first with 2,401.

David Ortiz drove in both runs for Boston, which was coming off a four-game sweep over the Los Angeles Angels.

The game lasted just 3:01, shorter than the three in the teams' opening series of the year - 3:46, 3:48, 3:21. After that series, umpire crew chief Joe West said that the Yankees and Red Sox were "pathetic and embarrassing" for dragging out those three games.

The Red Sox started Friday's game with a 15-14 record, the first time they were over .500 since beating the Yankees on opening night. But since then, New York is 20-7.

They've kept winning without Posada, who hasn't played since Monday because of a strained right calf, and Granderson, who went on the disabled list on Sunday with a strained left groin. Johnson felt pain in his wrist during his first at-bat and is to be examined Saturday at a New York hospital while Cano is day to day, Girardi said.

Alex Rodriguez led off the sixth with a double and Cano was hit by a pitch. He walked slowly to first and stayed in the game for two pitches before Ramiro Pena ran for him. A passed ball moved the runners up and Brett Gardner was walked intentionally. The next six batters all got RBIs - Francisco Cervelli with a walk, Randy Winn (single), Jeter (hit by pitch), Marcus Thames (single), Mark Teixeira (single) and Rodriguez (sacrifice fly).

Beckett threw inside pitches to two other batters, sending Cervelli to the dirt on a 3-2 pitch and coming close to Teixeira.

"In a 3-1 game, there's certainly no intent in any one of those situations," Boston pitching coach John Farrell said. "I don't think any one of us foresaw the sixth inning unfolding like it did."

And the pitch on which Beckett hit Varitek?

"We switched the signs a little bit," Beckett said. "That was completely my fault."

Swisher's sixth homer of the season broke the scoreless tie in the fourth. The Red Sox made it 3-1 on a sacrifice fly by Ortiz in the bottom of the fourth. After the Yankees went ahead 9-1, Ortiz singled in a run in the bottom of the sixth.

The last two runs scored in the eighth on a sacrifice fly by Thames and a single by Adrian Beltre.

NOTES: Yankees LHP Andy Pettitte will miss his next scheduled start with an elbow problem. ... Cano's 14-game hitting streak against Boston ended. ... Beckett has allowed 26 earned runs on 31 hits in his last 22 1-3 innings. ... Swisher has five homers and 14 RBIs in his last 13 games. ... Hughes had retired 72 of 81 right-handed batters before allowing hits to three of the next four in the fourth and fifth.