G59: Red Sox 6, Yankees 5

Yankees - 010 110 200 - 5 11  0
Red Sox - 121 200 00x - 6  9  0

Yet another Yankees starter failed to finish the third inning and the Red Sox bullpen held the line to notch the seventh straight win over the New Yorkers this season.

Wang (2.2-6-4-3-3) threw 29 pitches in each of the first two innings. He walked three in the first inning, with Bay's single putting the Sox on the board. In the second, Nick Green and Dustin Pedroia struck back-to-back RBI doubles. Mike Lowell drove Wang's first pitch of the third over the Wall for a dong. However, Wang's miserable performance did lower his ERA: 14.46 to 14.34!

Kevin Youkilis smashed a two-run dong into the Red Sox pen off Phil Hughes in the fourth to give Boston a 6-2 lead.

New York battled back -- back-to-back home runs by Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira (4-for-5) off Ramon Ramirez to start the seventh closed the gap to 6-5. Ram-Ram also allowed a two-out single, but Hideki Okajima came in and struck out Shemp. A leadoff walk was bunted to second in the eighth, but Jeemer fanned both CI and Damon to close that door.

In the ninth, Jonathan Papelbon walked Slappy with one out, but struck out Robinson Cano and then got Dumbo to fly to left.

J.D. Drew tripled and walked three times and George Kottaras smacked two doubles. David Ortiz walked twice in four trips and had a fly out to deep center.

Boston now has a one-game lead over the Yankees in the East. The Blue Jays were rained out in Texas and are 2 GB.

***

Chien-Ming Wang (14.46, 31 ERA+) / Tim Wakefield (4.50, 106 ERA+)

Since coming back from the disabled list, Wang has chopped 20 runs off his ERA (!), but has still surrendered 16 hits in 12.2 innings. In his start last Thursday against Texas, he went 4.2-7-5-1-5, 69.

***

Jed Lowrie could begin a rehab stint in the minors in little more than a week. Terry Francona: "We need to certainly look at him the next three days, let him have the next three days before we contemplate anything. See where his strength is."

In his last seven starts, Josh Beckett has a 1.70 ERA; in his last four outings, it's 0.31. Last night, he became the first Red Sox pitcher to allow one hit or less in six or more scoreless innings against the Yankees in 19 years (Greg Harris, 8-1-0-0-7, June 7, 1990).