The Red Sox have fallen to the Yankees 6-2 on Fenway's 100th birthday.
It's a sour end to what should have been a sweet day, with Clay Buchholz providing the lemon. Living up in the zone, Buchholz saw a run score in the first on an error, and then completely fell apart. Home runs to Nick Swisher and Eric Chavez in the second, another for Chavez in the fourth, one for Alex Rodriguez in the fifth, and another for Russell Martin in the sixth.
Ivan Nova found himself in a much more comfortable. After giving up a homer to David Ortiz to start the second, he managed to avoid any real damage for another four innings, only having a second run come across when Nick Swisher lost a fly ball in the sun.
While the Sox were able to put some men on base, the ninth spot in the lineup was once again completely bereft of production, with Jason Repko, Nick Spears, and Nick Punto stranding three men between them. Jarrod Saltalamacchia contributed another three left on base including a rally-killing double play.
The Sox fall to 4-9, and find themselves 3.5 games back of the Yankees just 13 games into the season.
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Some Small Relief: The Sox did get three scoreless innings from the combination of Junichi Tazawa (5 outs), Scott Atchison (4 outs) and Justin Thomas (1 out). Tazawa looked good making his first appearance of the year, and the Sox are certainly in need of help in the bullpen, so any good sign is welcome.
Another Fun Substitution: Not long ago we had Nick Punto pinch-hitting for Jason Repko. Today the Sox took a step further down the ladder, sending Nick Spears to the plate in place of Repko. Not to worry, though, as Punto made his appearance coming off the bench for Spears in the ninth. Ugly.
A Bad Day: What should have been a day to remember for Red Sox fans instead turned into one to forget. Another loss to the Yankees, another loss to begin the season, another reminder of September...Are we 4-9 in the season, or 15-24 since September 1?