The Sox and Yankees are ready to wrap up the first half of the series with the fourth game of their series in Fenway Park.
We'll keep you up-to-date on all the action as it goes down in Boston.
Yankees 7, Red Sox 3, End 8th -- The Sox finally score again, but in an inning where they came tantalizingly close to really making this a game again, it smacks of too little, too late. After putting two men on with two outs, the Sox saw Mike Aviles hit the ball a long way to left. It doesn't have quite enough height, however, catching the Monster just a foot short of a home run. The RBI double gets them their third run before Daniel Nava goes to the same area. While his ball has the height, however, it doesn't quite have the distance, allowing Curtis Granderson to make the play up against the wall.
Yankees 7, Red Sox 2, Mid 8th -- Mark Melancon gives up a couple hard-hit balls around a pair of strikeouts, but with two down Pedro Ciriaco once again leaves his mark on the game, making a tremendous diving play to snag a low line drive off the bat of Alex Rodriguez, robbing him of a surefire base hit.
Yankees 7, Red Sox 2, End 7th -- A pair of leadoff walks do nothing to help Boston's situation in the score line, as Pedro Ciriaco grounds out, David Ortiz goes down swinging, and Nick Punto hits one to Jeter to end the inning.
Yankees 7, Red Sox 2, Mid 7th -- Andruw Jones is having a field day weekend in Fenway, and may have just put the nail in this particular coffin. Once again just completely destroying a pitch--this time off Scott Atchison--Jones makes it a five-run game with just nine outs to go. The Sox have to rally in a hurry, or this one's over.
Yankees 5, Red Sox 2, End 6th -- Ivan Nova, unfortunately, isn't flinching, and is doing a great job of taking advantage of the lack of patience shown by plate vision shown by Jarrod Saltalamacchia and Mauro Gomez, picking up another pair of strikeouts on the free-swingers in a 1-2-3 sixth.
Yankees 5, Red Sox 2, Mid 6th -- Scott Atchison works around a leadoff single despite some difficulty turning double plays behind him, keeping the Sox in the game for the sixth inning.
Yankees 5, Red Sox 2, End 5th -- Pedro Ciriaco manages to reach base again, singling up the middle. Tonight, though, his energy doesn't seem to be enough for the Sox, as David Ortiz grounds to second to start the double play. Nick Punto manages to knock a ball off Mark Teixeira's glove for a hit, but with Cody Ross striking out behind him the inning ends without any much-needed runs.
Yankees 5, Red Sox 2, Mid 5th -- And just like that, Lester falls to pieces again. A leadoff single scores when the next batter, Alex Rodriguez, hits a long fly ball into the triangle, where Ryan Sweeney goes down after colliding with the wall trying to make a catch on what ends up a triple. He stays in the game to watch Lester strike Robinson Cano out, but then a walk and an Andruw Jones RBI single spell the end to the southpaw's unfortunate night and leave the Sox down by three.
Yankees 3, Red Sox 2, End 4th -- The bottom of the Boston lineup hit their pop-ups to the wrong place, sending them back of first base rather than second, where Jeter would be waiting to drop them. As is, it's an unproductive 1-2-3 inning.
Yankees 3, Red Sox 2, Mid 4th -- Jon Lester suddenly seems to be finding his stride, striking out the side in the fourth. If he can keep it up through the end of his night, it'll be a start reminiscent of his last outing in Oakland: first inning struggles that lead to general domination.
Yankees 3, Red Sox 2, End 3rd -- It's once again Derek Jeter helping the Red Sox to a run in the second. This time the help comes when he can't get Pedro Ciriaco out on a ground ball to his left--always Jeter's trouble spot--allowing David Ortiz to score him when he goes off the wall in left. Another poor play by Jeter on a Nick Punto ground ball leads to another generously-scored infield single, but the Sox don't bring in a run despite loading the bases with one out, as Jarrod Saltalamacchia watches a called strike three and Ryan Sweeney grounds out to first to end it.
Yankees 3, Red Sox 1, Mid 3rd -- A single that gets under Nick Punto's glove at third is all the Yankees get in the top of the third. You may have noticed that Nick Punto was not originally in this game, which brings us to the bad news: Adrian Gonzalez has left the game due to illness, leaving Nick Punto batting...cleanup.
Yankees 3, Red Sox 1, End 2nd -- Ivan Nova gets the bottom of the order 1-2-3 with three strikeouts. Not an impressive performance from the offense, that, with Gomez swinging at a pitch so far outside that it could have started out as a pickoff throw had there been anyone on first.
Yankees 3, Red Sox 1, Mid 2nd -- A leadoff double from Jayson Nix ends up costing Lester a third run in the second after a passed ball and decently long fly ball from Chris Stewart is enough to get him home, with Daniel Nava's throw hitting Nix to prevent a play at the plate.
Yankees 2, Red Sox 1, End 1st -- Derek Jeter's defense is...divisive, to put it nicely. Lauded for years by mainstream pundits for his ability to make plays that look amazing and criticized by analysts who note that they only look spectacular because he's got so little in the way of range, even Jeter's greatest critics don't question his ability to make the basic play. Tonight, however, he's 0-for-1. After Pedro Ciriaco once again brought his energy to the game with an infield single and stolen base to get into scoring position, Cody Ross came to the plate and popped one up behind short. Jeter stepped back, measured it, and let it bounce off his glove, bringing Ciriaco home for the run.
Yankees 2, Red Sox 0, Mid 1st -- Well, that was predictable. After scoring five runs in the first inning of the first game, four runs in the game two, and three in game three, the Yankees now have two in game four. The Baseball Gods work in mysterious ways. Once again the damage could have been limited by the defense, though Lester was certainly not particularly good, giving up two singles, a double, and a walk before the second out was recorded. Still, with a run already on the board and the bases loaded, Lester got the ground ball he needed.
The problem is that it came to Mauro Gomez, who is not really a third baseman. Making the mistake of trying to take the ball to third rather than fire to second or home, Gomez then put his throw in the dirt, three-hopping it to Adrian Gonzalez at first, missing the opportunity for the double play.