A brief recap: Garland didn't bring his "A" game yesterday and allowed 6 earned runs, while Johnson did and shut us down for the first 6 innings. Riske relieved Garland in the 7th and gave up one more run. But things changed in the bottom of the 7th. The first Sox batter, Iguchi, broke the no-hitter with a single, Thome walked, and Paulie brought in the first Sox run. Then, JD almost hit a three-run homer but the ball bounced off the wall and the ground rule double brought in the 2nd Sox run. That was it for Johnson who was relieved by Villone. Villone loaded the bases by walking Crede. At this point the Sox batters (AJ, AC, BA) started swinging at anything Villone threw and and the Sox came out of the 'bases loaded, nobody out' situation with zero runs. The rally continued in the 8th with a solo homer by Iguchi and a 3-run homer by Joe Clutch (new career high 78 RBI) off Professor Farnsworth. Rivera though relieved Farnsworth, got AJ to line out and got the Yankees out of the 8th. In the 9th after Cintron grounded out, BA was hit by a pitch and Iguchi singled and the Sox had 2 on (Pods struck out after the HBP). Rivera got Thome to ground out though and the Yankees held on to the 1-run lead for the 7-6 win.
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