The Red Sox tied up their weekend series versus the Yankees by winning 5-3 last night.  E-Rod gave up one of his two earned runs in the 1st.  A-Rod faced E-Rod, and he homered again over the monster, just like he did off Clay Buchholz.  But after that, things went diferently as the Sox lineup struck.

In the 3rd inning, De Aza simply singled.  Then he stole second, the ball went off hsi helmet, and he just kept on going to third base.  It was a throwing error by catcher John Ryan Murphy.  Hanigan did his job and grounded out to score De Aza and tie the game at 1.  The Sox had blown a 2nd inning first and third off a Big Papi double and Hanley Ramirez single, though. Panda and Napoli blew it, with a pop out, then a double play.  In the bottom of the 4th, Ortiz, Ramirez and Sandoval were due up, their best three.  Ortiz singled.  Then Hanley gave the Sox a 3-1 lead with a 2 run home run, his 19th of the season.  Ramirez is tied for 8th in AL home runs and has as many as Orioles star third baseman Manny Machado.

In the 5th inning, Jacoby Ellsbury homered for the Yankees just like he did at Fenway with Boston, every once in a while, to make it 3-2 Red Sox.  They secured their lead in the seventh inning.  De Aza singled, and he went to second on a ground out by Hanigan.  2 down, 1 on.  What are the chances of scoring two runs in the inning?  Not so high, but the Red Sox went out and did it.  Adam Warren came in, and Mookie Betts tripled off him.  A home run, which was doubtful, and he had the cycle.  Holt then walked.  1st and 3rd.  And Betts scored on Xander Bogaerts’ infield single that made it 5-2 Red Sox, 1st and 2nd, 2 outs.  The Yankees third pitcher came in.  Unfortunately, he was enough to settle down the Sox hitters, even though Big Papi walked the bases loaded.  Ramirez was a strike out victim with bases loaded.  He could of hit a grand slam, for 20 homers and a 9-2 lead.  RISP trouble stopped him and it didn’t happen.  There were two outs though, so what do you expect.  There’s about a 50-50 chance another run will score.  Grand slam?  Like a 1 in 50 chance.  Or, okay, maybe more like 1 in 10, 1 in 15 or 1 in 20.

Rob Refsnyder was debuting at second for the Yankees and didn’t get a hit, so he wasn’t a help when they scored in the 8th.  Yes, the Yankees cut the lead short in the 8th, making it 5-3 on Jacoby Ellsbury’s infield single, and a double by Brett Gardner to score him.  Koji came in.  He gave up a double, but retired the rest of the batters.  The Red Sox tied the series at 1-1 with a 5-3 win.  For some reason, they aren’t on Sunday Night Baseball because they aren’t that great of a match-up anymore.  The Cardinals and Pirates fighting for the NL Central are.  They play the finalke at 1:30.  Don’t miss it, or my recap on it.