NEW YORK (AP) – Six months later, Pedro Martinez and the Boston Red Sox held on against the Yankees and completed a weekend blowout in the Bronx.
Martinez pitched seven crisp innings and Manny Ramirez hit a two-run homer off Javier Vazquez, leading the Red Sox to a 2-0 win Sunday and their first series sweep of New York since 1999.
Boston, the AL East leader, took three in a row at Yankee Stadium and extended New York’s losing streak to a season-high four. Despite a record $183 million payroll, the listless Yankees left their booing fans to wonder when all those heralded All-Stars will start justifying their stratospheric salaries.
New York, which has won six straight division titles, fell 41/2 games back of the AL East lead for the first time since May 10, 2002, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. At 8-11, the Yankees are three games under .500 this late in the season for the first time since they had the same record on April 22, 1997.
Catcher Jorge Posada dropped a pair of foul popups, shortstop Derek Jeter made a throwing error, and Jeter and Hideki Matsui let David Ortiz’s pop down the left-field line drop between them for a double. The Yankees, in a season-long funk, were batting an AL-low .221 coming in and managed just four hits in losing to the Red Sox for the sixth time in seven games this year.
Jeter, overmatched against Martinez, went 0-for-4 with three strikeouts overall and extended his hitless streak to a career-high 25 at-bats, prompting boos from the sellout crowd of 55,338. Bernie Williams went 0-for-4, dropping his slide to 2-for-26.
On a cloudy, drizzly afternoon, “Let’s Go Red Sox!” chants could be heard from the stands.
How different it was last October, when Martinez failed to hold a 5-2, eighth-inning lead in Game 7 of the AL championship series, and New York won the pennant on Aaron Boone’s 11th-inning homer off Tim Wakefield. And Boston has spurted to the quick division lead despite missing shortstop Nomar Garciaparra and outfielder Trot Nixon, who haven’t played this season because of injuries.
Martinez (3-1), using a biting breaking ball, improved to 10-8 lifetime against the Yankees. He allowed four hits, struck out seven and walked one.
Martinez escaped a second-and-third, one-out jam in the fifth when Enrique Wilson popped up and Jeter took a third strike. After Alex Rodriguez doubled in the sixth for his second hit of the game, Jason Giambi grounded to second and Gary Sheffield hit a foul popup, starting a string of 11 straight outs by the Yankees to end the game.
Scott Williamson finished with hitless relief for his first save, completing Boston’s first sweep of New York since Sept. 10-12, 1999.
Desperate for starting pitching, New York started Vazquez (2-2) on three days’ rest for the second time in his career. He pitched well, striking out eight in six innings and allowing four hits, but dropped to 0-3 against the Red Sox because of a hanging curveball to Ramirez on an 0-2 pitch in the fourth.
After Mark Bellhorn walked leading off the inning – Vazquez’s only walk of the game – Ramirez followed with a deep drive to left. It was his second homer of the series and 20th at Yankee Stadium, tying Rafael Palmeiro for the most by active opponents.
-Associated Press
