G123: Yankees 8, Red Sox 4

Yankees - 112 210 010 - 8 10  2
Red Sox - 020 101 000 - 4  9  0

Josh Beckett (8-9-8-0-5, 120) allowed a career-high five home runs, including one to Derek Jeter on his first pitch of the night.

He is the 3rd Red Sox pitcher since 1954 to allow at least five dongs in a game. The other two are Dennis Eckersley (5 on July 1, 1979 at the Yankees) and Tim Wakefield (5 on September 15, 1996 against the White Sox and 6 on August 8, 2004 at the Tigers).

Fun facts from SoSH's "What the holy hell is wrong with Beckett?" thread:

He was scored upon in 10 straight innings before finally getting a scoreless one tonight.

He has allowed 9 home runs in his last 12 innings.

Beckett had allowed 7 earned runs at Fenway since May 23 -- and seven in 4.2 tonight.

CC Sabathia (3.58, 125 ERA+) / Josh Beckett (3.38, 140 ERA+)

A victory would put Boston 5.5 GB with 39 games to play, including three in New York in late September.

It is the first time the two pitchers have met since 2007 ALCS 5, when Sabathia was with Cleveland. (They also met in Game 1.) Beckett and Boston won both of those games.

2009 Beckett vs Yankees
  
            IP   H  R ER BB  K  PIT  SCORE
0425  NYY  5.0  10  8  8  4  3  116  Bos 16-11
0505 @NYY  6.0  10  3  3  1  5  108  Bos 7-3
0609  NYY  6.0   1  0  0  2  8   93  Bos 7-0
0807 @NYY  7.0   4  0  0  2  7  115  NYY 2-0
 
2009 Sabathia vs Red Sox
  
            IP   H  R ER BB  K  PIT  SCORE
0611 @BOS  7.0   6  4  4  2  6  123  Bos 4-3
0808  BOS  7.2   2  0  0  2  9  123  NYY 5-0
  
2009 Boston vs New York
  
W W W W W W W W L L L L L W

Jed Lowrie will begin a rehab assignment with Pawtucket on Monday.

David Ortiz's home run on Saturday gave him eight consecutive 20-home run seasons. He's the sixth Red Sox player to have seven 20-home run seasons, joining Ted Williams (16), Dwight Evans (11), Jim Rice (11), Manny Ramirez (8) and Carl Yastrzemski (8).

Greg Montalbano was drafted by the Red Sox in 1999 and spent four years in the minor leagues. He died on August 21 of testicular cancer at age 31. Kevin Youkilis, who played in the minors with Montalbano, had "GM" inscribed on his cap yesterday.