A week ago, there were pockets of grumbling inside the Yankees’ universe about the club not making a deal to help at the trade deadline.
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Sergio Mitre was the fifth starter and the corner outfielders looked slow in the field.
The on-the-record quotes spoke of the Yankees having made their moves in the offseason and asserted the roster was good enough to win.
Well, the Yankees could use an upgrade over Mitre, but today that winter spending spree that bagged CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira certainly has trumped the Red Sox acquiring Victor Martinez and Casey Kotchman at the deadline.
Thanks to Sabathia’s best outing in pinstripes, one that followed a sensational performance by Burnett, the Yankees hung a 5-0 loss on the Red Sox yesterday in front of 48,796 at Yankee Stadium.
In 7 2/3 scoreless innings, the big left-hander with the outsized contract limited the Red Sox to two hits, walked two and struck out nine. For his efforts, Sabathia (12-7) received a rousing ovation when leaving.
“It was unbelievable,” Sabathia said. “I had goose bumps walking off.”
The Yankees’ sixth straight win stretched their AL East lead over the reeling Red Sox to a season-high 5½ games.
Tonight the Yankees turn to Andy Pettitte, hoping to sweep the Red Sox and leaving them to fight the Rays for the AL wild card. Jon Lester goes for the visitors, who haven’t scored a run in the last 24 innings and are 3-for-33 (.091) with runners in scoring position in the last three games against the Yankees.
“We talked about winning a game,” said Yankees manager Joe Girardi, whose club was 0-8 against the Red Sox when the series started Thursday night. “And we talked about winning the series.”
The series is won. Now the worst that can happen is the Yankees ending it 4½ games ahead. The best? A 6½-game bulge with 52 games remaining.
Sabathia retired the first 13 batters before walking David Ortiz with one out in the fifth. He didn’t allow a hit until Jacoby Ellsbury’s soft, two-out single to center in the sixth.
The only trouble surfaced in the seventh, when Sabathia walked Martinez and gave up a single to Kevin Youkilis to open the inning. But Sabathia fanned Ortiz on a check swing and got Mike Lowell to hit a grounder to Robinson Cano that Derek Jeter turned into 4-6-3 double play. Jeter jumped over a sliding Youkilis at second and fired to first to get a slow-moving Lowell.
Sabathia had to be as good as he was because Clay Buchholz (1-2) was solid. The Red Sox starter gave up a run in the third when Teixeira’s two-out single to right scored Melky Cabrera. Jose Molina’s sacrifice fly in the sixth upped the lead to 2-0.
As if Red Sox-Yankees needed additional juice, it arrived in the bottom of the seventh when plate umpire Jim Joyce ejected reliever Ramon Ramirez after he drilled Alex Rodriguez in the back with a pitch with one on and one out.
Hideki Matsui followed with a single to left that loaded the bases for Cano (3-for-4). His grounder to Kotchman at first forced Teixeira at home, but Nick Swisher drew a 3-2 walk off Enrique Gonzalez to force in Rodriguez for a 3-0 lead.
Jeter, who was in a 3-for-25 (.120) funk and had killed a scoring chance in the third by grounding into a 5-4-3 double play, tucked a two-run, opposite-field homer inside the right-field foul pole in the eighth for a 5-0 cushion.
With all the zeroes on the Red Sox’s side of the scoreboard, that was enough.
“It feels good to do that to any team,” Burnett said dominating the Red Sox in consecutive games. “But especially with that team and in this rivalry. We talked about it before we signed, about pitching back-to-back. It’s awesome.”