The New York Yankees came into Friday's game against the Boston Red Sox in desperate need for a win after losing four straight to the crosstown Mets and with C.C. Sabathia on the mound the team felt comfortable with its chances and the ace came through in a big way.
Sabathia stopped the Yankees skid at five games and the team saw the return of two injured stars in Mark Teixeira and Kevin Youkilis and both contributed to the win in big ways. In his first game back since breaking his wrist, Teixeira walked and scored the first run of the game and Youkilis, who was returning from a back injury, knocked in an clutch run later in the game. Sabathia did his part with 10 strikeouts and his velocity was back in the mid-90s to give the Yankees and boost against their division rival and now the AL East lead is within reach. Teixeira was back in action since injuring his wrist in March and the Yankees got contributions from all over the lineup with a key hit from Jayson Nix and another from Ichiro Suzuki.
The Yankee lineup is still without some star studded names like Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson, but there were plenty of stars in the stands on Friday night, as supermodel Kate Upton, basketball legend Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, sportscaster Bryant Gumbel and actor David Duchovny were all at the game. Manager Joe Girardi was ejected for arguing a call for the first time this season in the fifth inning after an out at second base that he later admitted he was wrong on and that may have fired up Sabathia and the Yankees, who kept the Red Sox offense quiet in the 4-1 victory. Jon Lester walked four and dropped to 6-2 on the season and RBI singles from Nix and Suzuki were the difference.
Sabathia pitched strong into the seventh inning and the Yankees bullpen was perfect as David Robertson took the eighth inning and Mariano Rivera got his chance to erase the memories of the Subway Series as he closed out the ninth for his 19th save of the seasons. The losing streak was the longest for the Yankees this season and after bringing up Tex and Youkilis, the Yankees sent Ivan Nova and Vidal Nuno to Scranton in Triple-A. The team has more moves to make when Andy Pettitte returns from the DL on Monday against Cleveland the team could ditch Lyle Overbay despite his 29 RBIs, as the team has Teixeira back.
The Yankees are now right behind the Red Sox at 31-23 and the team could get ahead in the AL East standings with a win in the series as they are just one game back despite losing the previous five. The Orioles and Rays are close behind and within two games, while the Blue Jays have been a huge disappointment this year despite making some big offseason moves and they are over nine games back.