Red Sox 1, Yankees 4: Feel Bad Defeat

The Yankees found the perfect way to respond to Boston's feel-good Saturday afternoon win. Perfectly reversing the score, dealing Josh Beckett another blow, and keeping the Red Sox lineup almost completely in check, the Yankees made sure there was little to smile about Sunday night.

Hiroki Kuroda was every bit as dominating as Jon Lester was the night before, if not more so. The Red Sox didn't get their first hit until the third inning--a Nick Punto single--and their second would wait until the fifth. Only an Adrian Gonzalez homer was there to give the Red Sox something to hang their hats on, and that's very little all things considered.

The Red Sox, meanwhile, received another bad start from Josh Beckett. Throwing high in the zone, falling behind batters, and surrendering 10 baserunners in six innings, Becektt should frankly count himself lucky to leave with just four runs to his name. To do so, he needed both of Ichiro's homers to come with the bases empty, and the second came shortly after he had stranded the bases loaded in the fifth. A few at bats earlier, and Beckett would have seven earned runs.

The only positive there is that it was better than Josh Beckett had been recently, especially considering that it came against the Yankees. It's a stretch, but it was an outing very similar to the one that gave us our first sign of improvement from Jon Lester.

The Red Sox have gone five series since they took out the Tigers 2-1. At this point, .500 is seeming like an optimistic goal.