» Damon and Yanks Crash Again, 6-4 Yankees Blog

July 05, 2008

YANKEES 4
RED SOX 6

Friday afternoon at the Stadium, the Yankees dropped their second straight to the Red Sox, 6-4. It was July 4th, the only fireworks were the Red Sox bats against Darrell Rasner. Aside from the terrible loss, Johnny Damon crashed into the wall, injuring his shoulder and had to be taken out of the game.

Darrell Rasner struggled again , as he allowed six runs on 10 hits in five innings. After beginning the year 3-0, Rasner fell to 1-7 in his past eight starts. With a 3-0 lead, Rasner gave up 3 runs in the third inning on one of the most bizarre plays ever seen. Johnny Damon tracked down a deep fly ball, caught the ball in his glove, and then crashed into the wall in left field. As Damon hit the wall, the ball dislodged from his glove and sat on the top of the wall for about 3 seconds, before falling back into play. Youkilis turned it into a triple, and by the end of the inning, the Yanks were tied at 3-3, and Johnny Damon was taken out of the game. Boston took the lead in the fifth inning when Lowell crushed a three-run homer, to give the Sox a 6-3 lead.

Offensively, the Yankees struck in the first inning…and then the familiar not scoring for the rest of the game occurs, as they stranded the bases loaded twice. In the first-inning outburst, Alex Rodriguez stroked a two-run double to drive in Damon and Bobby Abreu, and Jason Giambi came through with a sacrifice fly to give the Yanks a 3-0 lead. Derek Jeter added a late RBI in the 9th to score the Yanks 4th run.

Even worse than the fact that the Yankees dropped yet another game, and dropped back to 9 game behind the first place Rays, is that Johnny Damon is expected to be out until after the All-Star game. This Red Sox series, and the upcoming Rays series could be a huge point in the season.

The Yankees will play Game 3 of the set on Saturday afternoon, when Mike Mussina will face Justin Masterson.

GAME NOTES:
RASNER: 5IP, 10H, 6ER, 2SO
AROD: 2-4 2RBI