Red Sox 3, Yankees 2: Pedro Ciriaco's Perfect Location

If there's one player who seems to know where to hit 'em, it's Pedro Ciriaco.

Okay, so that's not entirely accurate. In fact, Ciriaco's season has been pretty bizarre in that regard so far. At times he's sprayed line drives all over the field and gotten nothing from them but frustrating outs, at others hit weak grounders and reached base time and again.

These last two games, however, it's been the bloops. The one that Curtis Granderson was fooled by Saturday which helped score the two winning runs, and today one that dropped in in the tenth to give the Red Sox the 3-2 lead they would hold for the win.

The run had been set up by a walk from Jarrod Saltalamacchia, and a single from Will Middlebrooks. There's more to that hit, however, as Middlebrooks had been hit by a pitch immediately before while trying to pull back on a bunt attempt. The home plate umpire also went down, however, and was unable to make the call, leaving Bobby Valentine to argue and be ejected (along with Josh Beckett) right before Middlebrooks made it all inconsequential.

The rally was only made necessary by some rough late innings. Felix Doubront had worked his way through six scoreless despite plenty of walks, largely avoiding hits and picking up a fair few strikeouts on an at times overly aggressive Yankees lineup. He would be tagged with a solo shot to lead off the seventh, however, and only the strong arm of Ryan Sweeney holding Ichiro at third would keep the Sox from surrendering the lead right then and there. A quick two-out rally in the eighth would make up for that, however, with the Yankees tying the game on a Russell Martin single off of Alfredo Aceves.

Still, in the end, when all was said and done, the Red Sox were able to leave winners. Both of the game, and of the series in New Yankee Stadium. That's something worth celebrating any day, no matter what the situation.