Napoli homer helps Red Sox beat Yankees 8-7 in 11
Boston Red Sox’s Mike Napoli, left, celebrates his walk-off home run in the 11th inning of a baseball game against the New York Yankees in Boston, early Monday, July 22, 2013. The Red Sox won 8-7. AP
BOSTON— Mike Napoli homered with two outs in the 11th inning to help the Boston Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 8-7 on Sunday night.
The Red Sox scored seven runs after falling behind 3-0, thanks in part to Napoli’s three-run homer in the third. But they coughed up the lead when New York scored two in the sixth and two in the seventh to level it 7-all.
It stayed that way until Napoli hit a 3-2 pitch from Adam Warren (1-1) into the center field bleachers.
Pedro Beato (1-0) pitched the 11th for the win, giving up a single to Eduardo Nunez before he was erased trying to steal second; replays showed he was barely safe.
Nunez, Brett Gardner and Robinson Cano had three hits apiece for the Yankees.
Napoli also struck out three times and grounded into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the eighth. The Yankees had runners at first and second with one out in the 10th but Drake Britton, making his second major-league appearance, got Lyle Overbay to ground into a double play.
The victory left the Red Sox with a 60-40 win-loss record through their first 100 games, 1½ games in front of the Tampa Bay Rays in the AL East and seven in front of the fourth-place Yankees. Boston won the three-game series between the longtime rivals on a weekend when New York learned that both shortstop Derek Jeter and third baseman Alex Rodriguez won’t be able to return from the disabled list any time soon.
At Anaheim, Bartolo Colon pitched a four-hitter for his third shutout this season and center fielder Chris Young robbed Albert Pujols of a home run to help the Oakland Athletics beat the Los Angeles Angels 6-0.
Eric Sogard hit a two-run homer to back Colon (13-3), who struck out five and walked one.
The 116-pitch complete game was Colon’s 35th in 395 big league starts, and the shutout was the 12th of his career.
The Orioles had a 4-2 win over the Rangers at Arlington, with Chris Tillman pitching into the ninth inning in his return from the All-Star game to help Baltimore sweep the three-game series between 2012 playoff teams.
In other AL games, the Tigers beat the Royals 4-1 and the Indians beat the Twins 7-1 to avoid sweeps, the Rays completed a three-game sweep by holding off hte Blue Jays 4-3 and the Mariners trounced the Astros 12-5 to notch their season-best sixth straight win.
In the National League, Matt Kemp returned to the lineup with a home run and a double in the same inning as the Dodgers completed a sweep of the Nationals with a 9-2 win in Washington to stay within a half-game of NL West-leading Arizona.
At St. Louis, Adam Wainwright worked eight sharp innings for his National League-leading 13th win and Allen Craig ended the game with a leaping catch at the left-field wall as St. Louis beat San Diego 3-2.
The Pirates had a 3-2 win over the Reds at Cincinnati, the Mets beat the Phillies 5-0 in New York, the Diamondbacks held off a late rally by San Francisco to win 3-1 and avoid a three-game sweep, the Rockies edged the Cubs 4-3 and the Brewers clung on to beat the Marlins 1-0, with Caleb Gindl hitting his first career home run in the bottom of the 13th inning.
Miami has gone a club-record 37 innings without a run, the longest drought by a major league team in 28 years.
