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Red Sox get to Hughes, down Yankees

Apr 14, 2008 - 5:59 AM By Mike Petraglia PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer

BOSTON (Ticker) - The Boston Red Sox outlasted the New York Yankees on Sunday night.

Kevin Youkilis was one of four batters with two hits for the Red Sox and combined with Jacoby Ellsbury to drive in four runs as they claimed the rubber game of a three-game set, 8-5, over the Yankees.

After two games played under three hours, the Red Sox and Yankees reverted to old form in the series finale - a game that took three hours, 55 minutes to complete. The game was played with temperatures in the mid-40s and a wind gusting to 35 miles per hour in from left.

"It's always a long, drawn out game," Youkilis said. "Playing on FOX and ESPN can always make the games a little bit longer, and for us, we never play short games anyway, we're used to (it). Just get in at 3 a.m. in Cleveland."

Daisuke Matsuzaka (3-0) barely survived long enough to get credit for the win, throwing 116 pitches over his five innings.

"Early on, my teammates got us that big lead but I'm disappointed that I was only able to pitch like I did today," Matsuzaka said through an interpreter. "For the fact that we won, I need to thank my teammates - but for me, it was a stressful performance from the outset."

"We had some long innings when we were hitting and it was cold and his command wasn't very good," Red Sox manager Terry Francona added. "It was a struggle to get him through five (innings). We're getting to the point where we're antsy about pitch counts going up in a hurry. He gave it all he had but there wasn't a whole lot of command there."

The two teams combined for 14 walks, including 11 in the first four innings.

With David Ortiz getting the night off after starting the season in a .070 slump, the Red Sox picked up the slack by being patient with Yankees starter Phil Hughes and putting pressure on New York's defense.

Ellsbury and J.D. Drew walked before Manny Ramirez drove in the first run with a single to right. Youkilis followed with a sacrifice fly to score Drew, and Ramirez scored on a passed ball and the Red Sox led, 3-0.

"We got some bad counts (and) walked a couple of the first hitters," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "The walks seemed to score, Ellsbury and J.D. Drew, (and) we got in bad counts."

"He can have a killer outing or he can have the exact opposite and fortunate for us, he had an outing he'd probably not prefer," Coco Crisp said.

When it was over, the 21-year-old righthander had thrown 39 pitches in the opening frame.

"I don't make too much of it," Girardi said. "Obviously, it's not where we want him to be. He'll get better, he'll get better. He'll get where he needs to be. I have faith. I believe in my guys."

After the Yankees made it 3-1 on Bobby Abreu's RBI double in the third, the Red Sox finally knocked Hughes (0-2) from the game in their half of the frame on consecutive run-scoring singles by Youkilis and Sean Casey.

Hughes, who grew up a Red Sox fan, allowed seven runs, six earned and six hits in his two-plus innings.

Youkilis scored on a wild pitch from reliever Ross Ohlendorf while Ellsbury singled home Casey to put Boston up 7-1 after three.

The Yankees made it close with three runs off Matsuzaka in the fourth. New York had a chance to tie the game in the eighth when Jason Giambi led off with his second homer off reliever Mike Timlin.

The Red Sox reliever then allowed back-to-back singles before Javier Lopez ended the threat with a 4-3 double play off the bat of Johnny Damon. Robinson Cano grounded out to end the inning.

"We put ourselves in some pretty good situations to score some runs but unfortunately, we couldn't get the big hits we needed," Damon said.

Lopez and Manny Delcarmen combined on a perfect ninth to put the game away.

"On a night that wasn't really baseball weather, unless you're hoping it's October, we got to our bullpen early," Francona said. "We did some good things. David Aardsma made enough good pitches. Javy (Lopez) came in after Mike (Timlin) had a tough time overthrowing a little bit."