Dead Soxy: Ramirez, Papelbon lead Sox over Yanks (4/12)

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After being dominated by New York Yankees starter Chien-Ming Wang on Friday, the Boston Red Sox fought back through the rain and defeated their division rivals 4-3 at Fenway Park on Saturday evening. The game was delayed twice in the eighth inning, prompting Boston closer Jonathan Papelbon to warm up in the bullpen three separate times before coming into the game with two outs and none other than Alex Rodriguez at the plate. Amazingly, after all that waiting, warming up, cooling down, and rain, Papelbon was able to strike out Rodriguez to end the inning, and had a perfect 9th for his 4th save of the young season.

Boston ace Josh Beckett earned his first win of the season, working 6 2/3 innings and allowing 3 runs on 5 hits, striking out 5 while walking only 1, a far cry better than his first outing against Toronto earlier this past week. The big key was that he kept his control late into his outing, with the exception of one wild pitch that scored a run in the sixth. He defeated veteran right-hander Mike Mussina, who allowed 8 hits and 4 runs over 5 2/3 IP.

W:	Josh Beckett	1-1, 6.35
L:	Mike Mussina	1-2, 4.15
S:	Jonathan Papelbon	4, 1.50

Manny Ramirez was the big hero offensively for Boston, knocking a home run (his second) off of Mussina in the 4th to begin the night's scoring, and also knocking in two runs with a double in the 6th that would chase Mussina out of the game and put the Red Sox ahead for good. Standing in for Derek Jeter at short, Yankees rookie Alberto Gonzalez (no, not that Alberto Gonzalez) went 1-3 and scored a run.

Pitcher's Grade Point Scores

• Beckett: 52
• Mussina: 28

Top Performers by WPA

• Boston: Ramirez, +.382, Papelbon, +.279
• New York: Gonzalez, +.123, LaTroy Hawkins, +.034

Coming Up Next:

Tonight, New York's Phil Hughes faces Boston's Daisuke Matsuzaka in the rubber match of this three game set. The Yankees then travel to Tampa to take on the Rays, while the Red Sox head to Cleveland for a rematch of last year's ALCS against the Indians. Both series will last two games before NY and Boston will meet up again for two at Yankee Stadium.

Image courtesy of FanGraphs.

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