After a wait of almost 3 ½ hours, Josh Beckett (5-2) outpitched Sabathia (7-4) for the third time this season. The Red Sox outscored New York 25-13 while completing their second three-game sweep at Yankee Stadium in a month.
Only a few thousand fans were left in the ballpark when Boston wrapped up its sixth win in a row overall and beat the Yankees for the seventh straight time. The Red Sox are 8-1 against their longtime rivals this year.
“It’s not how you wanted it to end tonight, it did and you’ve got to move on,’’ Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
“There’s a lot of baseball to be played until we see them again. And how we play the next month and a half or two months until we see them will have a lot to do with where we’re at,’’ he said.
A storm that brought lightning bolts over the Bronx delayed the start for 3 hours, 27 minutes. Shortly after the game began at 10:32 p.m., Beckett and Sabathia began zapping hitters, further ramping up baseball’s most-spirited rivalry.
Plunked in the right thigh by Sabathia’s 97 mph fastball in the fourth inning, Ortiz swung things in Boston’s favor a little later. The Red Sox trailed 2-0 when he singled off Sabathia to start the seventh, and his two-run double off David Robertson capped the big rally.
When it was over, Ortiz seemed more angry at the media — maybe for playing up the possibility of trouble between the teams — than at Sabathia.
“Finally got hit,’’ Ortiz said in a short rant that included some profanity.
Bad blood seemed to be brewing from the get-go on a humid night. Ortiz appeared a likely target after homering in the first two games of the series — he irked the Yankees by admiring one of those shots, which came after a brushback, and some in pinstripes talked about how Big Papi looked too comfortable at the plate.
Beckett had already hit Derek Jeter — near the elbow, with his second pitch of the game — and Alex Rodriguez around the hip when Ortiz came up in the fourth with one out and a runner on first.
Sabathia’s first pitch was a heater that squarely nailed Ortiz.
“The ball just got away from me,’’ the lefty ace said.
