CSN: Red Sox top Yanks in rainy 6-inning game

NEW YORK -- It rained. It poured. But the Red Sox left Yankee Stadium Sunday night as winners, 3-0, in a rain-shortened, six-inning baseball game.

Three separate rain delays prematurely ended the rubber match of the Sox-Yanks series, as thunder and lightning took over, and the Yankee Stadium field began to flood.

Clay Buchholz pitched five innings of "complete game" baseball, giving up just two hits and one walk with four strikeouts. He made 71 pitches.

The Red Sox offense came just in time in the 4th, 5th, and 6th innings. Mike Napoli hit into a fielder's choice that scored Dustin Pedroia. Jose Iglesias and David Ortiz hit solo shots in the fifth and sixth innings, respectively.

Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda pitched 5.1 innings before the game's second rain delay, allowing three earned runs on eight hits. He struck out five.

The Red Sox have Monday off before they host the Texas Rangers on Tuesday.

*****

STAR OF THE GAME: Clay Buchholz
If there was any concern about how Buchholz would respond following a 10-day shutdown, it was answered quickly. Buchholz blanked the Yankees over five innings, allowing just two hits -- one that never left the infield -- and lowered his ERA to 1.62 for the season.

HONORABLE MENTION: David Ortiz
There's no truth to the rumor that Ortiz's mammoth homer to open the sixth inning -- a sky-high shot that seemed like it would never come down until it did, deep in the right field bleachers -- led to the torrential downpour. Then again....
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GOAT OF THE GAME: Hiroki Kuroda
Kuroda didn't pitch terribly, but with no support from his lineup, any run at all would have been enough to sink his team -- and Kuroda gave up three of them.

TURNING POINT: With the way Buchholz was dominating the Yankees, a 1-0 lead seemed big. But when Ortiz rocketed his homer into the seats in right, the 3-0 lead in the sixth seemed insurmountable. When the rain started soon after, it was.

BY THE NUMBERS: Buchholz's 1.64 ERA is the lowest for any Red Sox starting pitcher after 11 starts since Pedro Martinez (1.44) in the 2001 season.

QUOTE OF NOTE: "Three rain delays -- a fake one and two real ones. What else can you do?'' David Ortiz on the Red Sox' weather-shortened night.

Game story by CSN staff.

Source: http://www.csnne.com/blog/red-sox-talk/sox-top-yanks-3-0-rainy-6-inning-game

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