Tiger Woods was in the seats behind home plate, and Fred Couples watched his beloved Yankees take batting practice while leaning on a dugout fence last night.
In a little more than a month, Woods and Couples can repay the favor by inviting the Yankees to play golf with them, because the Bombers will have plenty of time for non-baseball activities in October.
Putrid performances by Andy Pettitte and Alex Rodriguez, who were showered with boos from the sold-out crowd, put more nails in the pinstriped coffins that will carry the room-temperature bodies out of The Bronx.
When the Yankees opened a three-game series against the Red Sox at Yankee Stadium, it was generally understood they needed to sweep the wild-card leaders. And with Pettitte on the mound, Joe Girardi felt confident his desperate club had the right man going.
“Andy has always been a big-game pitcher for the New York Yankees and I am glad he is out there,” Girardi said beforehand.
Then the manager and the rest of the uniforms watched the Red Sox cop a 7-3 victory in front of 55,058 because they punished Pettitte.
The loss dropped the Yankees six games back of the Red Sox and went to Pettitte, who is 13-10. In 4″ innings, he allowed six runs and 10 hits, fanned three and walked three.
When Josh Beckett was scratched due to numbness in his right fingers and Tim Wakefield inserted, many believed the Yankees received a break. Wakefield was 9-17 against the Yankees and was winless in his last six starts against them.
But Pettitte allowed Wakefield (8-8) to stick around for five innings in which he gave up eight hits and three runs.
Pettitte was loudly booed when he left in the fifth, but that was mild compared to what Rodriguez heard.
Rodriguez, who went 0-for-5, hit into two double plays and was hitless in two at-bats with runners in scoring position. He heard it from the crowd when he popped up in the fifth with two runners on, in the seventh when he banged into a 6-3 double play with the bases loaded and when he made a throwing error in the eighth. Rodriguez was booed when he stepped into the batter’s box in the ninth and again when he fanned to end the ugly evening.
Johnny Damon homered twice for the 11th time in his career.
Jonathan Papelbon recorded the final four outs for his 34th save.
Damon greeted Wakefield with a leadoff homer in the first, Jose Molina singled in a run in the second and Damon homered again in the fifth.
A three-run fifth hiked the Red Sox lead to 6-2 and featured a two-run, infield single by Jeff Bailey. After Coco Crisp singled in Bay, Bailey batted with runners on second and third. His slow grounder to Rodriguez scored Jed Lowrie from third and, perhaps knowing Giambi’s arm isn’t accurate, Crisp never stopped running at third and scored without a throw.
Giambi appeared to believe Bailey was called out at first but he was safe.
Three straight hits to open the third – doubles by David Ortiz and Kevin Youkillis and Bay’s single – led to two runs and put the Red Sox up, 3-2.