Jeter's blast leads Yankees past Red Sox <h3>NY YANKEES 4, BOSTON 3</h3>By Mike Salk PA SportsTicker Contributing Writer BOSTON (Ticker) --With a pair of aging aces on the mound at Fenway, the pitchersruled the day for seven innings. But with the game on the linein eighth, it was New York Yankees' captain Derek Jeter whostole the show. Jeter hit a three-run blast and Roger Clemens turned in a guttyperformance against his former team to lead the Yankees to a 4-3victory over the Boston Red Sox on Sunday. "(Jeter) took care of it tonight," Yankees manager Joe Torresaid. "I have been here 12 years and he has been here 12 yearsand when he was really young I used to marvel at it but afterthe first couple years, it isn't a shock anymore." With runners on second and third in a 1-1 game, Jeter hammered ahanging splitter from Boston starter Curt Schilling (8-8) overthe wall in left to put the Yankees on top, 4-1, and ultimatelyearn a victory in the final regular-season meeting between thestoried rivals this season. "It feels good," Jeter said. "But it was only the eighth inningand you know the game is never over here so it feels good tocontribute. But we still had a long way to go." In his first start at Fenway Park since Game Three of the 2003American League Championship Series, Clemens was effectivethrough six innings. "It was a great ballgame," he said. "It was well played on bothsides." With the crowd derisively chanting his name, the seven-time CyYoung award winner who spent the first 12 seasons of his careerwith the Red Sox, allowed only two hits and one unearned run. "Roger was great. He was absolutely great," Torre said with asmile. "If Johnny (Damon) doesn't lose that ball in the lightsin the first inning, he doesn't give up anything." The Sox struck for that unearned run in the first after JacobyEllsbury led off with a line drive to left that was dropped byJohnny Damon. He proceeded to steal second and later scored ona single by Mike Lowell. Damon, who played center field for Boston for four seasons, hadnot played left field here since he was a member of the Oakland<div class="pre">Athletics in 2001. He rebounded to make a stronger play in the</div>sixth, diving to take a hit away from Jason Varitek withrunners on first and third. Boston's 1-0 advantage held up for five innings until RobinsonCano led off the fifth with a home run into the Monster seats inleft field. It with his 18th of the year, and his fifth in 18contests against the Red Sox. While Clemens was out after six, his counterpart kept his pitchcount down and lasted into the eighth. But after striking outMelky Cabrera to start the inning, Schilling allowed consecutivehard singles to former teammate Doug Mientkiewicz, and pinchhitter Jason Giambi. Schilling caught a break as Mientkiewicz stayed at third onDamon's groundout to first, but after throwing five pitches toJeter, he left a splitter over the plate for the three-runblast. "We were on the same page," explained Schilling of hiscommunication with catcher Jason Varitek. "We called the rightpitch. I just hung a (splitter)." Schilling was charged with four runs and six hits in 7 2/3innings, while striking out two and not issuing a walk. The41-year-old missed his location very few times, throwing 65 ofhis 90 pitches for strikes. "He got through the lineup until Jeter's homerun," reasonedFrancona, who has drawn criticism twice this series for stickingwith pitchers too long. "It was such a low pitch count, he wasgetting eight pitches an inning, using all his pitches,locating. He looked really, really good." The Red Sox got a run back in their half of the eighth whenLowell hit a solo blast off Yankees rookie Joba Chamberlain(1-0). It was the first earned run allowed by the 21-year-oldrighthander in 18 career major league innings. New York closer Mariano Rivera made it interesting in the ninth,allowing a run and loading the bases, but he got Boston sluggerDavid Ortiz to pop out to shallow center field to end the gameand earn his 28th save of the season.
