Game recap: Yankees at Red Sox 6/3/07

Alex Rodriguez (pictured) was vindicated. After blowing an opportunity to drive in the go-ahead run on a sacrifice fly in the seventh, he hit a home run to right-center field off Jonathan Papelbon to win the game Sunday night.

After being tormented by Red Sox fans all weekend, Rodriguez finally got a hit in a huge spot to silence his vocal critics. Fans showed up to the game on Friday night with blonde masks, alluding to the "Stray-Rod" pictures in the New York Post. Everytime a pop up went to Rodriguez, the Red Sox faithful yelled in an effort to mimic him yelling "hah" on a pop up in Toronto last Wednesday.

Early it in the game, it looked like the Yankees wouldn't need Rodriguez's heroics. They had opened up a 4-0 lead by the fifth inning. However, in the bottom half of that inning, the Red Sox were able to push across five runs, knocking out starter Andy Pettitte in the process.

The damage could have been worse. However, Yankees catcher Jorge Posada blocked Julio Lugo from scoring the sixth run in the fifth.

This left Red Sox starter Josh Beckett in line for the victory, even though he put up rather mediocre numbers. When he left the game during the seventh inning, the fans gave him a standing ovation and he tipped his cap.

The Yankees were able to tie the game in the top of the eighth of reliever Hideki Okajima. Hideki Matsui led off the inning with a single and then Robinson Cano tripled to center field to drive him home. However, Cano was stranded at third.

Mariano Rivera was able to shut the door in the ninth inning. The only blemish was a Kevin Youkilis hit by pitch. Brian Bruney got the win, and Papelbon got the loss.

With this win, the Yankees improve to 24-30 and will travel to Chicago to play the White Sox for a four-game series.

Photo courtesy of The Associated Press and Yahoo! Sports