The Red Sox have beaten the Yankees 9-5 Wednesday night.
With a two-run lead, Daniel Bard came out to pitch the eighth, and managed to get by with a little help from his defense. Marco Scutaro made a terrific play to snag a sharp grounder off the bat of Robinson Cano, and immediately after that Dustin Pedroia picked an exploding ground ball from Nick Swisher, tossing to Adrian Gonzalez for the easy out. The final man went down with no help from anyone, however, as Bard blew a 98-MPH fastball past Eric Chavez for strike three.
The two extra runs for the Red Sox came from Jason Varitek’s bat. Josh Reddick hit a flair to left that landed on the foul line, and skipped up into the stands for about as cheap a double as you’ll ever see. But it would hardly matter which base he wound up on, as Jason Varitek came up and bashed a two-run shot off of Luis Alaya into the bullpen.
If Bard hadn’t been bad enough in the top of the eighth, out came Jonathan Papelbon. The Yankees had no chance, going down in order with a pair of strikeouts to end the game.