The Yankees hit five home runs in the series opener.
Franklin Morales pitched into the sixth and allowed six hits against the Yankees, but four of them were home runs.NEW YORK - The last time the Red Sox visited Yankee Stadium, they took two of three games and lit a flickering flame to their playoff hopes.
That was only three weeks ago. Much has happened since, little of it good, so Friday night's 6-4 loss to New York was disappointing but unsurprising.
The Yankees hit five home runs - four off Red Sox starter Franklin Morales - but it was a 135-foot single by Jayson Nix that turned this one.
Nix swatted an opposite-field, two-out single to shallow right in the sixth, scoring Casey McGehee to break a 4-4 tie.
It came off Clayton Mortensen, who looked poised to pitch out of an inherited jam before Nix bested him.
"He got the barrel on it and just flicked it out to right. It was not a bad pitch, but it's got to be better - very frustrating,'' Mortensen said.
Nick Swisher's second home run in the game came in the seventh, with Mortensen the victim. Dustin Pedroia nearly tied it in the eighth, but his 400-foot drive off David Robertson with a man on was caught at the wall in center.
Pedroia's three-run homer in the third had given Boston a 4-3 lead. They managed only three baserunners over the final six innings, and five hits in the game.
"(The Yankees) hit five home runs, and that's the way they live, and that was too much for Dustin to combat,'' Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said.
"He almost did. He hit that last ball a ton.''
Pedroia marked his 29th birthday Friday, but his glum post-game look said this was not a day of celebration.
By winning two of three at the Stadium in late July, the Red Sox made a trade deadline statement that they still saw themselves as playoff contenders, not pretenders.
What followed has been a 5-11 record in August, stories of a near-mutiny by players during that late-July trip to New York, and a tumble from playoff contention that might be too late to reverse.
Morales is 3-4. He had made seven previous starts, and six were excellent.
The only rough time came against the Yankees, who reached him for six runs and six hits in 3 1/3 innings of a 6-1 loss on July 7 at Fenway Park.
Morales has given up one home run over six starts to teams other than New York. The Yankees have clubbed him for eight homers in two starts.
Part of the problem is that against more patient teams, Morales' strike-pounding style gives him the edge.
The Yankees, however, don't wait for the pitcher to dictate the terms. They swing early in the count, and get results.
"I try to attack the hitters, but when you miss with that team, somebody's going to pay,'' Morales said.
"I'm the guy that paid, and I lose.''
"Other than the home runs, Franklin wasn't that bad. He just wasn't good enough,'' Valentine said.
"They hit all his pitches. It wasn't just one type of pitch.''
For a time, it looked as if only a rain stoppage would save Morales, who gave up home runs in an early-inning downpour to Swisher, Curtis Granderson and Russell Martin in the first two innings.
Granderson's second-inning homer was the first allowed by Morales to a left-handed hitter in 106 at-bats this season. No American League pitcher had faced more lefty hitters without giving up a home run.
A throwing error by Yankees starter Phil Hughes and Pedroia's three-run homer created a four-run Red Sox rally in the third. Hughes had previously been 3-6 with a 6.17 ERA against Boston, but he has beaten them twice in the last three weeks.
His error on Friday was a mark against him, but it meant he allowed the Red Sox no earned runs in seven innings.
"You've got to give their side credit, and we had some bad at-bats. Probably a combination of both,'' Red Sox outfielder Carl Crawford said.
After Granderson and Martin went back-to-back in the second, the Yankees went quietly until the fifth.
Derek Jeter's home run tied it 4-4. It was the 250th home run of Jeter's career.
"I talked to myself and said you've got to keep this score and execute. Jeter hit the first slider I threw,'' Morales said.
Valentine was asked if Pedroia's drive in the eighth, which died in Granderson's glove, typified the way the season has been going.
"Not necessarily,'' he said.
Yes, necessarily.