Last night, Clay Buchholz lasted 3 2/3 innings in a game that spiraled so far out of control it ended with the Yankees winning, 15-9. The last Sox starter to make it through the seventh inning? That would be last season. The Red Sox scored six runs in the fifth inning, in which 11 batted and five straight got hits. But the Yankees scored four in the fourth and four in the fifth, off Buchholz and his replacement, Julian Tavarez. Sox relievers allowed eight hits and seven runs in 4 1/3 innings of work. Though Tavarez was praised Monday for keeping the game in Cleveland close enough for Ramírez’s ninth-inning heroics, he couldn’t replicate the feat. Assisted by Julio Lugo’s sixth error of the season (as a team, the Sox have nine), Tavarez allowed three earned runs (four total) to his pitching line, and the explosion of offense stopped only when David Aardsma appeared. But Aardsma (2 innings, 2 hits, no runs) couldn’t finish the game himself. He was relieved by Mike Timlin, against whom the Yankees went 5 for 5 in two appearances last weekend. Timlin fared no better last night, allowing three hits and four runs in one inning, although he thought he should have.
J.D. Drew (.349) had three more hits and two RBIs and Casey had two hits. Every Sox hitter who stepped to the plate recorded a hit with the exception of Jacoby Ellsbury, who went 0 for 5.
Sox Notes: Kevin Youkilis had X-rays on his left big toe and they were negative. Youkilis hit a foul ball off his foot in the sixth inning and came out of the game in the eighth (replaced by Jed Lowrie). The toe is bruised and the first baseman/third baseman is day-to-day.
