G134: Yankees 5, Red Sox 2

Yankees - 010 210 100 - 5  9  0
Red Sox - 000 200 000 - 2 13  0

Sabathia (6-10-2-2-10, 128) finally tamed the Boston bats in his fifth start against the Red Sox this season, although he needed to throw more pitches than he had in any of his previous starts as a Yankee (by innings: 17-33-13 21-25-19).

The Red Sox came up short all night long, leaving 16 men on base and hitting only 2-for-13 with RATS:

2nd inning: With one out, Jarrod Saltalamacchia fanned with runners at 1st & 2nd and Jacoby Ellsbury grounded to second with the bases loaded.

3rd inning: Leadoff batter Marco Scutaro was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double.

4th inning: Boston scored twice (Carl Crawford HR, Scutaro RBI double), but Adrian Gonzalez struck out to end the inning, stranding runners at 2nd and 3rd. (He also whiffed in the first and third.)

5th inning: With runners at 2nd and 3rd and one out, Crawford lined to second and Salty struck out.

7th inning: Bases loaded with one out: Boone Logan struck out Salty and Darnell McDonald.

9th inning: David Ortiz doubled to start the inning against Mariano Rivera. Two outs later, Salty was hit by a pitch, but pinch-hitter Josh Reddick lined out to left to end the game.

Boston has left as many as 16 men on base in only one other nine-inning game this year: April 10, a 4-0 win over the Yankees. The Red Sox's LOB high this year is 17, set in the 16-inning, 1-0 victory over Tampa Bay on July 17. ... In 2010, the most Red Sox left on base in any game was 13.

New York chipped away at Lackey (7-7-5-4-3, 119), scoring in four of his seven innings. Nick Swisher went 3-for-3 (with a walk), Eric Chavez had two RBI singles, and Robinson Cano singled, doubled, walked, and scored two runs.

There was some drama after Francisco Cervelli hit a home run over the Wall in the fifth. After his trot, he stomped on the plate and clapped his hands together with extreme exuberance. Cameras caught Lackey (with a barely noticeable smirk on his face) watching Cervelli all the way to the dugout. When the MFY catcher led off the seventh inning, Lackey drilled him in the back with his first pitch. Cervelli barked towards the mound and the benches emptied, though nothing happened. To my dismay, Lackey did not dramatically clap his hands together towards Cervelli. In the bottom half of the seventh, after Logan struck out McDonald to strand three Boston runners on base, Cervelli ran off the field, yelling and pumping his fist about five times (video here). This would appear to be, as the news stations say, a developing situation.

CC Sabathia / John Lackey

Ellsbury, CF
Scutaro, SS
Gonzalez, 1B
Pedroia, 2B
Ortiz, DH
Lowrie, 3B
Crawford, LF
Saltalamacchia, C
McDonald, RF

The Red Sox are 10-2 against the Yankees this season. New York has hit .225 in those 12 games, with a team ERA of 5.98. ... Alex Rodriguez had an MRI on his sprained left thumb yesterday and may miss the series.

Earlier this month, YFSF asked: Is The Rivalry Dead? Paul SF said it's "languishing". I don't know if I'd describe it that way - though the division/playoff set-up has certainly sapped a lot of intensity from any pennant race this season. The relationship between fans of the two teams changed forever in 2004 and I suspect, as Paul does, that the intensity of the late 70s and mid 00s may be a thing of the past.

Meanwhile, the classy Yankees - who have sold more than $1,000,000,000 in merchandise in the last decade - are threatening to take Tracy Coyle, who has been selling Evil Empire t-shirts out of her garage, to federal court.

The Yankees ... argued that the Baseballs Evil Empire mark would cause confusion and "deceive" the public into thinking the T-shirts and caps were Yankees products.

"How could it create confusion for their fans?" says Coyle. "It has a devil face, there's horns and a pitchfork. It doesn't say Yankees."

If the Yankees are claiming that their fans could be confused by the design, then they are freely admitting their fans are morons.

Wednesday: Phil Hughes / Josh Beckett, 7 PM
Thursday: A.J. Burnett / Jon Lester, 7 PM

Game thread here.