Yankees vs. Red Sox: Bombers Regain 1st Place of A.L. East with 10-2 Victory
October 1, 2012 · Doug Rush · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
On Monday night, the New York Yankees were faced with a must-win situation.
In their final regular-season series against the Boston Red Sox, they entered tied for first place in the A.L. East with the Baltimore Orioles.
One loss in this series could set the Yankees back and cost them home-field advantage in the postseason.
At Yankee Stadium, the Yankees took care of business by thrashing the Red Sox 10-2.
Meanwhile down in Tampa, the Rays beat the Orioles 5-3, which gave the Yankees a one-game lead in the division.
On the mound for Boston was Clay Buchholz, who seemed like nothing more than a batting practice pitcher for the Yankees on Monday night.
In the bottom of the second inning, Robinson Cano lead off with his 31st home run of the season that put the Yankees up 1-0.
Three batters later, Curtis Granderson hit a two-run home run (his 41st of the season) to make it 3-0.
One home run, a sac fly and a two-run double later, and the Yankees were up 7-0.
That led to Bobby Valentine pulling Buchholz after just 1.2 innings and putting in former Yankee reliever Alfredo Aceves.
Mark Teixeira welcomed Aceves by cranking out a two-run home run (his 24th of the season) to make it 9-0 Yankees.
I don’t know if Buchholz didn’t have it on Monday night or simply did not care, but he was downright terrible, and the Yankees too full advantage of it.
The Boston righty allowed six hits, eight runs, two walks and three home runs in just 1.2 innings of work.
His opponent tonight was Yankees ace CC Sabathia, who had another solid outing going eight innings and allowing two runs on four hits to win his 15th game of the year.
On Monday night, the Yankees looked like a playoff team while the Red Sox looked like they were ready for the season to be over.
Boston didn’t look interested in playing baseball at all and it seems like they have given up on playing for Valentine.
And if that’s the case, we all may be seeing the very final days of Bobby V in Beantown.
With the win, the Yankees improve to 93-67 and now have a one-game lead over Baltimore for the division.
On Tuesday night, David Phelps will take the start from Ivan Nova and look to keep the winning going for the Bombers while Jon Lester will be pitching for Boston.
If New York wins and Tampa beats Baltimore for a second straight game, the Yankees will win the A.L. East and secure a spot in the ALDS.
The Yankees had to win the opening game on Monday night to get on the right track and they did just that.
Now they will have an opportunity on Tuesday night to secure their destiny for October.
Stay tuned, Yankees Universe.
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