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Yankees jump on Wakefield, Red Sox

Jun 2, 2007 - 5:17 AM BOSTON (Ticker) -- All it took to break the New York Yankees out of their collective offensive funk was a date with Tim Wakefield and the Boston Red Sox.

Jorge Posada drove in three runs and Robinson Cano and Bobby Abreu each had a pair of hits and a pair of runs scored as the Yankees pounded the archrival Boston Red Sox, 9-5, on Friday.

New York had no trouble handling Wakefield's knuckleball, pounding the veteran righthander for eight runs in 3 2/3 innings.

Posada, who leads the American League in hitting with a .360 mark, provided the big blast. The veteran catcher doubled home three runs in the fourth off reliever Kyle Snyder - after Wakefield had been lifted - to push the Yankees' advantage to 9-3.

"We had great at-bats," Posada said. "We got people on base and that big hit came. It's just a matter of being more patient. Winning makes a lot of things well. The way we're playing now, it feels right."

Cano, whose average had dipped as low as .234 on May 14, followed up a 4-for-4 effort Wednesday in Toronto with two hits on Friday, including a two-run homer to get New York on the board in the second. The 24-year-old second baseman has brought his average back up to .269.

The story was the same for Abreu. The veteran on-base machine had gotten off to a horrendous start this season, coming into the Red Sox series with just a .228 batting average and having been dropped all the way down to the seventh spot in the lineup. Abreu, who came into the game with just eight extra-base hits this season, doubled twice.

After a 1-2-3 first inning in which he threw just nine pitches, Wakefield ran into trouble in the second. He surrendered Cano's homer and walked four batters, including Johnny Damon with the bases loaded, to give New York an early 3-0 advantage.

The Red Sox came back with a pair of runs in the second as Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang struggled early. But the Red Sox left the bases loaded in both the first and second innings, and left runners on second and third in the third frame.

Boston's inability to capitalize on the opportunities left the door open for New York, which broke the game open with a six-run fourth.

Wakefield (5-6) has now dropped eight of his last nine decisions against the Yankees, dating to May 2005. The 40-year-old began the season 4-3 and led the league with a 1.79 ERA. Since then, he is just 1-3 with a 9.13 ERA.

"I just didn't have it tonight," Wakefield said. "I felt good in the first. Got through 1-2-3 and then in the second, out of the stretch, I didn't feel comfortable, never could find any rhythm and then 1-2-3 in the third, and in the fourth just all over the place."

Wang (4-4) settled down after the third, lasting 5 2/3 innings to earn his fourth win.

"Wang hasn't had a great deal of success against this club and they are a good hitting ballclub and they've had some success against him, but the thing I admire most about what he did tonight was that he kept battling," Yankees manager Joe Torre said.

The young sinkerballer yielded three runs and 10 hits.

"It seemed like he was strong early," Posada said of Wang. "He left a couple of pitches up in the zone, but (his) sliders were good. I thought he threw a few more sliders to those guys, and I didn't want to throw that many this time, but his slider was outstanding today. We went to that early."

The bad news got worse for the Red Sox when both their Nos. 5 and 6 hitters went down with injuries.

Mike Lowell was hit by a pitch in the third and left the game the following inning with a left hand contusion. X-rays were negative. J.D. Drew left the game two innings later with a strain in his right hamstring and is being listed as day-to-day.

The lone bright spots for Boston were Kevin Youkilis, who extended his hitting streak to 23 games with a single in the sixth, and Dustin Pedroia, who extended his hitting streak to 11 games with a 3-for-4 effort.

"Playing Boston here the game is never over, especially here," Yankees captain Derek Jeter said. "So you've got to continue to score runs because it seems like as the game progresses, the wall gets closer and closer and it's not a good feeling."

There were some fireworks in the bottom of the ninth, as Yankees reliever Scott Proctor threw a pitch underneath Youkilis' chin.

Youkilis took exception with the pitch, screaming at Proctor, who was immediately ejected from the game, joining his manager as the two Yankees to be ejected. Torre was ejected by third base umpire Jerry Crawford in the fifth.

"There was nothing wrong," Youkilis said. "There's nothing. What happens, happened. It stays on the field, it stayed on the field, and that's it. It's gonna happen every once in a while. I get hit all the time. It's gonna happen. But you're never happy if the ball's coming at your head."

A total of five batters were hit in the game.

"I don't think any of the hitting tonight was on purpose," Torre said. "I am watching it on TV obviously but (home plate umpire Brian) O'Nora just reacted to Youkilis and his reaction.

"I think he was scared because the ball jumped up because you could see Proctor got underneath the thing but I firmly believe that any of that stuff tonight was not on purpose."