Rallying Relief

The Red Sox scratched out their first win of the 2010 season, rallying past the Yankees in Sunday night’s opener at Fenway Park. Boston inked a 9-7 victory over their AL East rivals from New York. The defending champion Yankees allowed the Sox to erase a 5-1 fifth inning lead. C.C. Sabathia issued one run through four frames before a three-hit, one run fifth. Marco Scutaro, the newly acquired Boston infielder, knocked in J.D. Drew to cut Boston’s deficit to three runs. The Yankees enabled three more runs in the bottom of the sixth as the Red Sox tied the game 5-5. The Yankees beat up Sox reliever, Ramon Ramirez, in the erratic seventh before Boston rallied again. Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez provided the runs in New York’s half of the seventh to put the visiting team up by two. Gold glovers, Kevin Youkilis and Dustin Pedroia supplied the power for Boston in the seventh. Youkilis smacked three extra-base hits for the home team during the opening game. Pedroia clocked a two-run bomb off first year Yankee reliever, Chan Ho Park. Youkilis scored later in the inning on Damaso Marte’s wild pitch past Jorge Posada to give the Sox a one run advantage. The Yankees bullpen continued to struggle throughout the game. Park was charged with the loss and recorded just two outs in his Yankees debit.
New York tallied two runs on back-to-back solo shots by Posada and outfielder, Curtis Granderson. Both homeruns came off Boston starter, Josh Beckett, in the second inning. Posada had three hits and two RBIs to lead New York. Sabathia gave up five runs and six hits while Beckett tossed 4.2 innings of eight hit ball. Adrian Beltre put the Sox on the scoreboard with a sacrifice fly in the second. Brett Gardner countered two frames later for the New York offense. Gardner got his season off on the right foot with a single to begin a three run fourth inning. Derek Jeter’s base hit scored Nick Swisher, and Gardner stole home (a double steal with Jeter) to pad the Yankee lead to 5-1. Thirty-three year old, Hideki Okajima, earned the win for Theo Epstein’s club and Jonathan Papelbon sealed his first save of the season. The Sox save man induced a Granderson ground ball with the tying run at the plate in the ninth. Both teams had 12 hits and left nine on base in the opener of this three-game series.

Parting Points: Donovan McNabb has swapped NFC East teams. The quarterback is headed to Washington for two draft picks.