Red Sox beat Yankees for American League division lead
NEW YORK – David Ortiz hit one of Boston’s three home runs Wednesday as the Red Sox continued their 2011 dominance of the New York Yankees with an 11-6 victory that put Boston atop the American League East division.
Carl Crawford and J.D. Drew also connected, both in the ninth inning. Jacoby Ellsbury had three hits and Adrian Gonzalez added two RBIs for Boston.
Facing his most familiar foe in Boston hurler Tim Wakefield, Yankees icon Derek Jeter finished 1 for 5 to move within 11 hits of 3,000 for his career.
Jeter had a run-scoring double but also grounded into a rally-killing double play.
Alex Rodriguez homered in the fourth, but the injury-hit Yankees have lost seven of eight meetings with their old rivals this season, including all five at home.
The last time the Red Sox won their first five road games against the Yankees in a season was 1912, on the way to a World Series title.
They won three in a row at Yankee Stadium May 13-15.
“We play these guys so much. If you don’t play well they’re going to beat you,” Jeter said. “They’ve outplayed us. They have a good team. The bottom line is they can hit and they can pitch. They can do a little bit of everything.”
The bad news started for New York even before the game as they announced that pitcher Joba Chamberlain is expected to miss at least three weeks with a strained muscle in his right arm.
The Yankees scratched catcher Russell Martin from the contest with a sore back.
The Yankees can at least take heart from their experience in 2009, when they started 0-8 against the Red Sox but went on to win the World Series.
The Red Sox aren’t without injury concerns. Second baseman Dustin Pedroia was headed back to Boston for an exam of his sore right knee.
He’ll be absent on Thursday when the Red Sox will go for their second sweep at Yankee Stadium in a month. Boston send Josh Becket to the mound against Yankees ace CC Sabathia.
Beckett has beaten Sabathia and the Yankees twice in two superb starts this season.
