After a long weekend of constant taunting and heckling from Red Sox Nation, Alex Rodriguez put it all behind him with one swing of the bat. As the rain fell in the 9th inning, A-Rod took an 0-2 pitch from closer Jonathon Papelbon over the right field wall to break a 5-5 tie and put the Yankees ahead for Mariano Rivera. Rivera, who received only his seventh opportunity to save a game this season battled with David Ortiz before getting him to hit a towering shot to Bobby Abreu in right field. He would then strike out Manny Ramirez and Mike Lowell to close out the game and seal the victory. For New York, it was their third win in the last four games, and their fourth win in the last six against Boston to pull the season series to 7-5 in favor of the Red Sox. With their last six to play at the end of August and September, the Yankees needed to make the most of this series and they came up big taking two of three to cut the standings deficit by a game to 12.5 back.

Andy Pettitte was sharp through four innings not allowing a run but following five straight hits and a Bobby Abreu miscue in the fifth, the Red Sox charged back from 4-0 to take the lead, 5-4. Pettitte would leave the game with back spasms after getting only one out in the fifth inning. Feeling comfortable with the lead through six innings, Josh Beckett departed with two outs in the seventh looking to secure his ninth consecutive win. But the Yankees would tie the game in the eighth against Boston’s Yankee killer, Hideki Okajima, when Robinson Cano tripled home Hideki Matsui. In bottom of the eighth, Bobby Abreu redeemed himself with a great running catch to preserve the tie on hot hitting Dustin Pedroia’s gap shot. With the rain falling steadily in the ninth, Alex Rodriguez came to the plate 0-4 in his career against Jonathon Papelbon. With two outs and an 0-2 count, A-Rod drilled the game winning homerun over the right field wall for the much needed victory. Roger Clemens the Yankees savior? I think people better look at A-Rod and his four ninth inning homeruns this season along with all the go-ahead RBIs that have kept the Yankees out of the AL East cellar. All hail Alex Rodriguez…to be continued.

(5 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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