Rough house

Sox get down and dirty, rally to bump off Yankees

June 03, 2007|Gordon Edes, Globe Staff

Yankees reliever Scott Proctor may have escaped suspension yesterday for putting Kevin Youkilis on his back Friday night with a helmet-grazing fastball that Red Sox owner John W. Henry found "clear and disturbing" in its intent, but punishment was meted out by the Sox in perhaps more satisfying fashion during an 11-6 win over the Bombers yesterday at Fenway Park.

Proctor was on the mound when the Sox overtook the Yankees with a bizarre five-run, seventh-inning rally fueled by intentional walks, two errors by Yankees captain Derek Jeter, and a frightening collision involving Mike Lowell that dazed Doug Mientkiewicz, the Yankees' first baseman and an old pal from Miami, and sent him to the hospital. Tests at Massachusetts General Hospital determined Mientkiewicz had a mild concussion, a cervical sprain, and a fractured bone in his right wrist. He will be placed on the disabled list today.

And when it was over -- after a crowd of 36,294 serenaded the losers with "Where Is Roger?" and saluted Youkilis for unselfishly taking three walks at the expense of his 23-game hitting streak -- the cries of foul play this time came from the Yankees, whose hopes of building momentum with a sweep this weekend crumbled along with Proctor.

The accused was Lowell, but not for the play in which Mientkiewicz, sprawling for a throw into Lowell's path at first base, took a blow to the head as Lowell ran past. Yankees second baseman Robinson Cano complained instead about a play in the second inning, in which Lowell lowered his shoulder into Cano midway between first and second in an unsuccessful attempt to break up a double play.

"He played dirty because he threw his elbow at me . . . he caught me in my arm," said Cano, who contended Lowell's action was more egregious than the dust-up Alex Rodriguez had May 22 in New York with Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, in which Rodriguez appeared to throw an elbow.

Lowell, who came up in the Yankees' system, denied he employed an elbow and said he was doing only what he'd been taught in the minors. "If the second baseman tried to tag you, you did everything in your power to not let him get rid of the ball," Lowell said. "I'm not throwing an elbow or anything, but I'm trying to make him not be able to throw the ball. He actually made a great play, he still got rid of it."