Jacoby Ellsbury helps Boston Red Sox edge New York Yankees 4-3 – MLB Update
New York Yankees were beaten by the Boston Red Sox 3-4 at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts on Tuesday, September 11 in the opening game of their three match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Starting pitcher Jon Lester produced a sensational performance, giving up just five hits and three runs in five plus solid innings. Striking-out five batters, he managed to keep the Yankees on the defensive. Relief pitchers Junichi Tazawa and Craig Breslow
combined to toss up two plus perfect innings and closer Andrew Bailey pitched the scoreless ninth for his first win of the year.
Jacoby Ellsbury put Red Sox on the board with an RBI single to centre in the third inning. Dustin Pedroia singled to right in the third and later smacked a solo home-run to left in the sixth inning to level the score 3-3.
Credit should be given to Pedroia for producing a match winning performance under pressure. Surely, he will be looking to maintain his excellent form to help his team end the season on a bright note.
With score tied 3-3 in the ninth, Ellsbury earned an RBI single to right and the White Sox grabbed an emphatic victory.
"That was a great feeling," said Ellsbury, who had four hits on his 29th birthday. "The fans were great tonight. They were into the game, energetic, and we just want to keep putting on a show for them."
"Ciri and Mike did a good job of getting in scoring position," he added. "I knew if I hit something to the outfield, Ciri's going to score with his speed."
"With the Yankees in town, they're battling for a (playoff) spot, and at this point we can just go out and try to play spoiler," left fielder Cody Ross said.
The Red Sox will be extremely satisfied with the result of the game after going through a very hard time last month. Bobby Valentine and company will take a lot of confidence from their win against the American League East Division leaders and it will be
interesting to see if they can take the momentum into Game 2 to wrap up the series.
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