Lester kills rally
A-Rod, Yankees put down in 5th
The moment was perfectly crafted for Alex Rodriguez.
Bases loaded. No outs. Momentum building after the Yankees scored two runs to narrow the Red Sox lead to seven runs.
(Cue the dramatic hero music)
The Yankees' confidence was high with the team riding an eight-game winning streak, all facets of their game at peak performance.
Jon Lester had thrown 79 pitches to that point, and Rodriguez, celebrating his 33d birthday, would be the fifth batter he faced that inning.
But Lester got Rodriguez to line to third, and then retired the next nine batters before Manny Delcarmen took over in the eighth of last night's 9-2 Red Sox victory.
The Yankees collected 10 hits off Lester, but scored just two runs - both in the fifth. They stranded seven runners in the first five innings.
"Our team has been playing well lately, swinging the bats, and we put ourselves in decent position there that one inning, but [Lester] battled and he got through it," said Yankees outfielder Johnny Damon, who was on third when Rodriguez lined out. "I think he's going out there and showing he's one of the better pitchers around."
The Yankees are fifth in the American League with 28 comeback wins and manager Joe Girardi said he thought the team had a chance for another one with Rodriguez up in that situation.
"Yeah, you think that you have a chance with A-Rod up," Girardi said. "He hits a line drive to [Mike] Lowell, [Xavier] Nady just misses a pitch, he pops it up, and that's baseball."
Lester faced eight batters in the fifth, and it took him 29 pitches to escape.
The Yankees also left runners on in the second inning when Derek Jeter grounded into a double play with two on, and Bobby Abreu struck out on a 95-mile-per-hour fastball.
"I like our approach against Lester tonight," Girardi said, who watched Lester shut his club out at Yankee Stadium on July 3. "We had much better swings against him. Not that our approach is bad; we had a lot more hits off him tonight and we hit the ball better off him. That was good."
"It's a tough inning," Lester said, referring to the fifth. "They battled. That's what the Yankees do."
But as Damon said, so did Lester, who picked up the win to improve to 9-3. Last night he went seven innings and struck out eight while giving up two runs on nine hits.
"That's two games in a row where he just had total control over the game. Jon Lester is a very good pitcher," Damon said. "I actually thought he had better stuff tonight than when he shut us out." 