The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox by a score of 5-4. Joba Chamberlain started and got a no decision. Mariano Rivera got the blown save and Demaso Marte got the loss. The Yankees didn’t make the most of their opportunities against the Red Sox. Fenway Park is famed for comebacks and the Red Sox are a good hitting team. The Red Sox came into the game with a lot of confidence because they won 7 in a row. If the Yankees were to drive in some of the runners they had on base then Mariano wouldn’t of had to come in the game in the first place. The Yankees were 4-for-19 with runners in scoring position. There were many opportunities the Yankees let go especially since Jon Lester didn’t have great stuff. The Yankees had the bases loaded in the 9th inning and they couldn’t come through. Joba Chamberlain didn’t look great or overly sharp. He walked 4 batters, had deep counts and gave up more hits than innings pitched. He didn’t get a lot of swing and misses. He had 14 base runners in 5 and 1/3 innings. He got a lot of double plays and to his credit, he didn’t panic. You can’t say he pitched poorly but you can’t say he pitched very well. Tonight Joba was living at 90 to 91 mph and he’s a different type of pitcher now where he can’t make location mistakes like he did when he threw hard. Red Sox batters where laying off his slider and waiting for his fastball because he wasn’t able to locate his slider on the outer half of the plate down and away. Joe Girardi said he didn’t want to pitch Mariano Rivera more than an inning all year so why was he in the game for 4 outs? It’s probably because it’s Boston and a game he really wanted to win so he could set the tone for the whole series. The Red Sox are hot and Joe probably wanted to make a statement. Mariano was pitching to the big part of the ball park with Jason Bay and he made one bad pitch. Usually, Mariano will blow a game with little dink and dunk hits so the home run was surprising. Joe Girardi might of made a mistake in the bottom of the 11th inning. Kevin Youkilis is one the hottest batters in baseball and he bats right-handed. Demaso Marte was pitching and he throws left-handed. He could of walked Youkilis and pitched to the left-handed batter J.D. Drew. Instead, Youkilis hits a game winning home run. It was a tough loss. A loss I had a hard time writing about especially since the Yankees were one out away from winning the game.
