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Boston hasn’t been the best this year, but they finally managed to get another win against their arch rivals Saturday, winning 4-1 in New York. In another rare instance this season, the Sox actually drew first blood, spotting starter Jon Lester a lead before he even took the mound. Carl Crawford started the offense with a one-out single, which was followed by a stolen base. That in turn was followed by a big two-run homer to left for Adrian Gonzalez to give Boston a 2-0 lead.

New York tried to respond in the bottom of the first, drawing a lead-off walk for Derek Jeter followed by a single from Nick Swisher. However, Lester took control from there, sandwiching a ground-out between two strikeouts to get out of the inning.

Good pitching on both sides kept the offense to a minimum, until the bottom of the 4th. With two outs, Curtis Granderson drove a fastball to deep center to put the Yankees on the board, his 32nd long-ball of the season. However, a single followed by a double and an error in Boston’s favor in the 5th quickly got that run back.

New York again tried to respond in their half of the 5th, even having Ichiro steal second. However, Nick Punto stopped the rally before it started with an excellent defensive play that will in all likelihood be on SportsCenter’s Top Plays Sunday. Playing third base, a grounder from Jeter bounced into the air off Punto’s glove. Punto then snatched it mid-air with his bare hand and quickly tossed over to Gonzalez at first for the out, holding Ichiro at second.

Offense was difficult to come by from then on out, but Boston did manage to add another run in the 9th on a wild pitch. The Yankees got a leaf-off single against Alfredo Aceves in the 9th, but were able to do nothing else in taking the loss.

Sox Stud of the Game: Pedro Ciriaco

Ciriaco was 4/4 on the day, continuing his position as a thorn in the side of New York this season. He also stole a base and scored a run.

Sox Dud of the Game: Cody Ross

One of three players to go hit-less, Ross was 0/4, all strikeouts. You really want better production than that, especially against the Yankees.

Game Notes:

W: Jon Lester (7-10)
L: David Phelps (3-4)
S: Alfredo Aceves (25)

• The Yankees are now 0-42 this season when trailing after the 8th.
• This was also just the 14th time this season (and third time since May 30) that the Yankees have been held to at most one run.
• In the 8th, the Red Sox brought Craig Breslow into the game to be caught by Ryan Lavarnway. It was the first time since 1883, 129 years ago, that a major league team used two battery-mates from Yale together. For comparison, the American League was created in 1901.

Tags: Adrian Gonzalez, Alfredo Aceves, Carl Crawford, Cody Ross, Craig Breslow, Jon Lester, New York Yankees, Nick Punto, pedro ciriaco, Red Sox, Ryan Lavarnway