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Lugo has three hits, three RBI as Sox beat Yanks again

Apr 28, 2007 - 5:48 AM BRONX, New York (Ticker) -- In the middle innings, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Andy Pettitte each lost command of the strike zone. Pettitte's control was slightly worse and that continued the problems of the New York Yankees.

After Matsuzaka gave up four runs in the bottom of the fourth, Pettitte surrendered three in the top of the fifth as the Red Sox maintained their hot start with an 11-4 victory over the Yankees, who have lost seven in a row.

The Red Sox grabbed a 2-0 lead on Kevin Youkilis' two-run home run in the third and Matsuzaka (3-2) started strong.

The 26-year-old righthander struck out four of the first nine hitters before losing the strike zone in the fourth. Matsuzaka opened the fourth by issuing walks to Alex Rodriguez, Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui.

After Jorge Posada's bloop single to left field halved the deficit, Matsuzaka retired Robinson Cano and Doug Mientkiewicz, but Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter came through.

"If I got into all the things that happened in the fourth inning, that'd be a very long story and it would sound like a lot of excuses," Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. "So to keep a long story short, I will just say there is a few things I think technically I still need to work on."

"That was a difficult inning, I think he threw 41 pitches and that's almost an alarming number of pitches," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "We were in the dugout thinking how much longer we can go and he ends up giving us two more clean innings."

Damon lined a 3-2 changeup into right field for a two-run single and Jeter followed with a run-scoring base hit. The Yankees took 25 minutes to score four times and the long layoff appeared to negatively impact Pettitte, who fell apart with one out in the fifth.

After Julio Lugo walked, Youkilis singled and David Ortiz lined an RBI base hit into center field. Manny Ramirez drew a walk to load the bases and J.D. Drew struck out. But Pettitte walked Mike Lowell, which tied the game and uncorked a wild pitch during an at-bat to Jason Varitek, scoring Ortiz.

Varitek drew the fourth walk of the inning and that forced manager Joe Torre to go to his bullpen early again as he replaced Pettitte with Scott Proctor.

Pettitte (1-1), who had his start pushed back two days due to Wednesday's rainout, lasted just 4 2/3 innings and allowed five runs, six hits and five walks. He threw 100 pitches and his outing marked the 11th time in 21 games a New York starter failed to get past the fifth.

"We've lost seven in a row," Pettitte said. "That's frustrating and it's disappointing. To top it off, for me personally, it's disappointing because I had a lead and I gave it right back to them.

"It makes you sick to your stomach. I won't sleep good tonight, that's for sure."

As for Matsuzaka, he recovered nicely from the fourth and retired the side in the fifth and sixth. He allowed four runs and five hits in six innings while issuing four walks and striking out seven in a 117-pitch outing.