The play was scored a hit, giving Loretta four hits in the game (he's 17 for his last 32) and the Sox a 4-3 lead in a 5-3 victory as they overcame deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 before 54,956 at Yankee Stadium, most of whom waited out the occasional drizzle to bear witness to Jonathan Papelbon's 13th save in 13 chances, in a nine-inning game that came within a minute of lasting four hours.
The Sox took two of three in the series and have won three of four this season against New York, but last night felt like the first close-game encounter.
The Sox had won, 7-3 and 14-3, and lost, 7-3. But last night was a scrappy affair, case in point being the sixth inning, when Joe Torre used four pitchers to face four Red Sox batters (Scott Proctor on Loretta, Mike Myers on David Ortiz, Tanyon Sturtze on Manny Ramírez, and Ron Villone on Trot Nixon) with the Sox behind, 3-2. Last night it was a legitimate showdown that, finally, felt like Sox-Yankees.
''I guess you could say that, since both managers were really managing pretty tight there, not leaving anything to chance," said Loretta, whose average has climbed rapidly, to .280.
The Yankees looked for much of the night to have the game in control, despite losing left fielder Hideki Matsui in the first inning. Matsui broke his left wrist diving for Loretta's fly ball and could be out three months.
The Yankees scored twice in the first against Tim Wakefield, forcing him to throw 33 pitches in an inning in which he fanned two, walked two, gave up two singles, and allowed two runs (on Jorge Posada's single). They made it 3-1 in the fourth on a Jeter RBI single, scoring Bubba Crosby, who'd singled and stolen second (one of four steals against Wakefield).
The Sox, meanwhile, were piling up base runners and leaving them on base (15 for the game). They left the bases loaded in the first, fifth, and sixth but had only one run to show, mostly because of the Yankees' defense.
