Yankees 3
Red Sox 1
With apologies to Yogi Berra, the AL East is over, even if the math doesn’t prove the Red Sox officially are departed.
With Andy Pettitte’s brilliant pitching and Jason Giambi’s opposite-field two-run homer, the Yankees edged the Red Sox 3-1 last night in front of a Yankee Stadium gathering of 50,006.
The victory enabled the first-place Yankees to stretch their lead over the Bosox to 8½ lengths and reduce their magic number to 17. Any combination of Yankee wins and Red Sox losses totaling 17 gives the Yankees their fifth straight AL East title.
As for the Red Sox, their best bet to extend their season into October is to grab the AL wild-card spot – and that’s starting to look almost as tough as catching the Yankees, since Boston trails the Angels by 6½ games.
Pettitte, who missed his last start due to a stiff lower back, went seven innings, allowing one run and six hits.
“I wasn’t as sharp as I have been, but that’s because I missed a start,” said Pettitte, who improved to 9-5. “My back feels really good. I thought I might have problems in the fifth inning, but it felt good.”
Hitting against Derek Lowe’s sinking fastball in the third – and with three infielders shifted on the right side of the diamond – Giambi took a 3-2 pitch over the left-field fence for a two-run homer that erased a 1-0 Red Sox lead. It was Giambi’s 34th homer.
“Derek doesn’t make a lot of mistakes,” Giambi said of Lowe. “He left [a sinker] over the plate. You look for the one mistake and I got it and I didn’t miss it.”
While the Yankees would love to have a healthy Mariano Rivera for the postseason, they are perfect without him. Since Rivera went on the DL on Aug. 16, the Yankees have converted nine of nine save chances.
Steve Karsay hurled the final two innings for his ninth save last night. Karsay worked around Nomar Garciaparra’s leadoff single in the eighth by getting Manny Ramirez to hit into a 6-4-3 double play. Shea Hillenbrand followed with a single, but Karsay whiffed Carlos Baerga.
“We feel good about it, but it’s not over,” Karsay said of the pennant race. “You have to take one game at a time until we clinch. You can’t look forward to next week or you will find yourself in a position you don’t want to be in.”
After winning the first of three games against the Yankees in this series, the Red Sox lost without an injured Pedro Martinez on Tuesday night and watched the Yankees beat Lowe last night.
Lowe, 18-7, only had one bad inning – a three run third – but it was enough to beat him because Pettitte was so good. In seven frames, Lowe gave up three runs and seven hits.
The Yankees finished the season series against the Red Sox with a 10-9 ledger, winning won four of the last five games.
Pettitte gave the Red Sox a chance in the first inning when Johnny Damon, Garciaparra and Ramirez strung together one-out singles. But Pettitte retired Hillenbrand on a grounder to Nick Johnson at first and induced Baerga to ground to short.
Baerga failed in the clutch again in the third when he grounded back to Pettitte with runners on first and second with two outs.
“Damon had a great bunt and Nomar hit a good pitch,” Pettitte said. “I made a mistake to Manny. It was nice to get out of it with one run.”
Pettitte was supported by Raul Mondesi snaring Ramirez’ liner to right in the fifth and Bernie Williams making a running catch on Garciaparra’s short fly in the third.
