Yankees Pick Lackey Apart, Down Sox Behind Dominant Sabathia

With a tough pitching match and a lineup featuring Bill Hall, Darnell McDonald, and J.D. Drew (against a lefty) in the outfield, the Sox didn't have too much of a shot in this one. No surprise, then, that the Yankees evened up the series with a 5-2 win.

The only offense the Red Sox could get going all day came in the second inning, when a leadoff home run from Victor Martinez was followed by back-to-back doubles from Beltre and Lowell to score a second run. After that, Sabathia shut down the Red Sox inning after inning, exiting after eight. The Sox managed some decent contact at times, but mostly resulting in easy fly balls.

Mariano Rivera closed out the game with an easy save in the ninth, taking the Red Sox down in order.

John Lackey, on the other hand, was anything but dominant. With Lackey wild early and hittable late, the Yankees quickly tied the game in the bottom of the second with a walk and a triple, before taking the lead in the fifth on four straight two-out hits and tacking run number five in the sixth inning.

Lackey's disappointing start is made just a little worse by the fact that, for once, the middle of the pen was up to the challenge. Manny Delcarmen struck out two in a clean inning against the heart of the order before Felix Doubront matched him in his first appearance out of the pen. Not a bad debut.

Josh Beckett gets A.J. Burnett tomorrow. Hopefully Beckett can keep it rolling better than Lackey has of late.