Red Sox win 1st game at new Yankee Stadium 6-4

[May 05, 2009]  NEW YORK (AP) -- The Boston Red Sox got off to a winning start at the new Yankee Stadium.

Jon Lester matched a career high with 10 strikeouts, Mike Lowell and Jason Bay homered and the Red Sox held off New York 6-4 Monday night in a rain-delayed game that ended at 1:10 a.m.

Jonathan Papelbon pitched 1 2-3 innings for his seventh save, striking out Robinson Cano with the bases loaded to finish it.

Slumping David Ortiz doubled twice as the Red Sox improved to 4-0 this season against their longtime rival.

Switch-hitter Mark Teixeira homered from each side of the plate and Johnny Damon also connected for the Yankees. There have been 36 home runs at the stadium, a record for the first 10 games at a major league park.

A delay of 2 hours, 17 minutes at the start dampened the enthusiasm, and only a few thousand fans in the announced crowd of 46,426 sat through the drizzle on a chilly, blustery evening.

Any Red Sox-Yankees game is sure to get a bit testy, and this one delivered a few sparks. New York manager Joe Girardi jawed with Boston first-base coach Tim Bogar, and there was a buzz after Yankees reliever Alfredo Aceves flattened AL MVP Dustin Pedroia with a fastball.

The Red Sox went 285-484-4 across the street at The House That Ruth Built and lost the opener when Babe Ruth homered in the Yankees' 4-1 win on April 18, 1923. Lester (2-2) got Boston off to a better start all these years later, beginning by striking out Derek Jeter, Damon and Teixeira.

Down 4-0 and taking awful swings against Lester, the Yankees rallied in the fifth inning. Coincidence or not, the comeback came immediately after Girardi was ejected by plate umpire Jerry Meals for disputing a called third strike on Jeter.

With the crowd still stirring on the next two pitches, Damon hit a two-run homer and Teixeira connected to make it 4-3.

Girardi got heated an inning earlier, too, when he shouted from the dugout at Bogar while Boston's Kevin Youkilis batted. It was not certain what they argued about, but Girardi shifted his spot on the bench to get closer to Bogar, who shouted back.

Youkilis struck out twice and grounded into a double play, and left in the sixth because of tightness in his lower left back.

The Red Sox scored in each of the first four innings against Phil Hughes (1-1). Lowell hit a solo homer and an RBI single, and Ortiz doubled twice.

Teixeira led off the eighth with a homer against Ramon Ramirez that made it 6-4.

Notes: The crowd was the smallest to watch Boston play at Yankee Stadium since 44,617 turned out on May 28, 2003. ... Girardi was ejected for the eighth time in his career, the fifth time as a manager. ... Teixeira had gone eight games without an RBI. ... Municipal Stadium in Kansas City (1955), Enron Field in Houston (2000) and Miller Park in Milwaukee (2001) each served up 35 homers in the first 10 games.

[Associated Press; By BEN WALKER]

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