The Sox will enter the All-Star break at an incredibly disappointing 43-43 after a 7-3 loss to the New York Yankees.
To nobody's great surprise, the Yankees once again scored in the first inning, staying amusingly true to their pattern of putting up one less in each game: first five, then four, then three, and tonight two runs off of Jon Lester. The damage was done early, as the first three batters reached, and while a bad play by Mauro Gomez perhaps cost Lester a double play and, as a result, a run, it was still a poor effort by the southpaw.
With another run coming in the second, Lester finally seemed to settle down in the third and fourth innings, striking out the side to put an exclamation mark on the fourth. Meanwhile, the Sox had gotten him a couple of runs back, as Pedro Ciriaco scored when Derek Jeter dropped a pop-up in the first, and then again when Jeter failed to throw him out on a fairly routine ground ball and David Ortiz hit a long double to left.
Just when the Sox were getting close, however, Lester fell apart again. A single and a triple to the triangle in the fifth brought a fourth run in to score, and after a walk and single brought in a fifth his night was over, with five runs (four earned) on the board in just 4.1 innings.
While Boston wasn't showing any real sign of coming back in the next couple of innings, the Yankees didn't let that stop them from building their lead. It was Andruw Jones who did it, striking again with his fourth homer of the series hit to left into the Monster seats off of Scott Atchison. With Nick Swisher already on base, the Sox' deficit grew to five runs.
The Sox would finally score again in the eighth, but have an opportunity to really get back in it go by the wayside, as Mike Aviles just missed a thee-run homer, instead settling for a wall ball double that brought one home, and Daniel Nava just missed catching some wall with Aviles and Mauro Gomez in scoring position, ending the inning with a long fly to left.
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