Hiroki Kuroda got the start and had his best outing for a little while. The offense got him a couple runs and he did a nice job in holding down the Red Sox offense. A high pitch count chased him out of the game after the sixth and left it up to bullpen to preserve the win. Mo didn't manage to do that, but the Yankees won anyway, thanks to Ichiro Suzuki's skills on the base paths and a nice gift from the Red Sox. A walk-off wild pitch won the game for the Yankees, as they avoided a sweep with a 4-3 win.
The Red Sox opened the scoring in the bottom of the second. David Ortiz and Mike Carp led off the inning with back-to-back doubles. Ortiz scored on the second to make it 1-0. Kuroda didn't pitch too badly early on, but that second inning did a number on his pitch count. By the time the fourth inning was over, he had already thrown 92 pitches.
The Yankees tied the game thanks to a two-out rally in the fourth. After Alfonso Soriano and Robinson Cano went down in order, Alex Rodriguez kept the inning alive with a single. Mark Reynolds then hit a double to the warning track in center. A-Rod was able to score from first and the game was tied at one.
An inning later, the Yankees took the lead. Eduardo Nunez popped up for the first out. After Nunez, the next three hitters due up were Chris Stewart, Ichiro Suzuki and Vernon Wells. The best case scenario for when those three are due up right in a row, is that one of them runs into a pitch for a home run and the other two get out. The second best scenario is that all three manage to reach due to bloops or some other lucky break. The former is exactly what happened. Stewart, Ichiro and Wells all managed to reach on bloop singles, loading the bases for the middle of the order. The inning was left up to Cano after Soriano struck out. Cano did not disappoint, ripping a single down the left field line. Two runs scored and the Yankees took a 3-1 lead.
Kuroda came back out for the sixth inning despite being at 105 pitches. Ortiz led off the inning by lining a double off the left field wall. He was able to move to third and then score on ground outs by Carp and Jarrod Saltalamacchia. That cut the Yankee lead to 3-2. Kuroda eventually got the third out, without any more fuss. Despite the pitch count, Hirok threw six solid innings, allowing two runs on five hits and two walks.
The first person out of the bullpen to try and hold the lead was Shawn Kelley. He got himself in trouble by giving up hits to Jackie Bradley Jr., and Jonny Gomes. But with two outs and the go-ahead run on second, Kelley got Dustin Pedroia got to ground out to end the inning.
In a surprising move, Mariano Rivera was brought out for the eighth inning against the middle of the Red Sox order. He allowed a single to Carp, but got out of the inning without further damage.
Rivera came back out of the ninth inning, but that did not go as planned. Will Middlebrooks hit a home run that just cleared the short porch in right. It looked like it might die in deep right field, but the wind carried it out to tie the game. Mariano came back and got the next three outs, but if the Yankees were going to win, it would now have to be a walk-off.
The Red Sox brought in Brandon Workman to pitch the bottom of the ninth. After a pinch-hitting Brett Gardner struck out to start the inning, Ichiro Suzuki came to the plate. Ichiro hasn't been great, but he ended up making the difference this time. He started things off by reaching on a single. During Wells' at bat, Ichiro stole second. Wells ended up flying out, but it was enough for Ichiro to tag up and go to third. That brought Soriano to the plate. On the first pitch of the at bat, Workman's pitch was high and got past Saltalamacchia. Ichiro scampered home to score the game winning run on a walk-off wild pitch.
The Yankees came away with a much-needed 4-3 win to avoid the sweep.
The Yankees will now head out to Baltimore for a series against the Orioles. CC Sabathia and Chris Tillman are the starters for tomorrow's game, which starts at 7:05 eastern.