Sox expand lead; Lopez in for Wake

NEW YORK --- The Sox threatened to blow the game wide open when Brian Bruney walked the bases loaded, but he allowed just one run to score when Jason Bay's sacrifice fly to left pushed across Dustin Pedroia to give the Sox a 7-3 lead.

Javier Lopez came into the game in the bottom of the sixth in relief of Tim Wakefield (5 innings, 8 hits, 3 runs, 3 earned, 1 walk, 1 strikeout, 2 home runs). Lopez pitched a tidy 1-2-3 inning. Lopez ended it by striking out Robinson Cano on three pitches, getting the second baseman to go down flailing wildly at 92-mile per hour fastball that sent his bat sailing into the stands behind the Yankees dugout.

No one was injured. The bat was recovered. And the band played on.

Sox lead, 7-3, with David Robertson now on the mound in the seventh for the Yankees.