Error-Prone Yanks Split DH With Red Sox

The Yankees committed a season-high four errors, leading to a pair of unearned runs, extra baserunners and extended innings in a 9-5 loss to the Boston Red Sox in the nightcap of a split doubleheader Saturday.

Following a 3-hour, 59-minute game in the opener and a long muggy afternoon, the Yankees appeared worn down.

But captain Derek Jeter wasn't thinking that way.

"That's an excuse," he said. "You play the same game. We didn't play well. That's the bottom line."

Yankees manager Joe Girardi agreed that the errors made things a lot tougher.

"It was part of our downfall," he said. "That and giving up the two-out hits. It stretches innings. In the fifth, we gave them an extra out and in the sixth we gave them one, too."

Newcomers Pedro Ciriaco and Mauro Gomez carried the Red Sox. Ciriaco had four hits and four RBIs, and Gomez added three hits.

Ciriaco drove in three runs with a bases-clearing double one day after being called up from Pawtucket. Gomez is 8 for 17 in five games since being promoted from the Triple-A team Tuesday night.

Andruw Jones hit three homers in the doubleheader, including two of the Yankees' four in their 6-1 win in the opener in which Freddy Garcia pitched 6 2-3 solid innings in muggy conditions. They added three homers in the nightcap, running their baseball-high total to 133. They're on a pace for a club-record 255. The 1997 Seattle Mariners hold the major league record with 264.

Injuries to second baseman Dustin Pedroia and third baseman Will Middlebrooks led the Red Sox to call up Gomez to fill in at third and Ciriaco to play second and shortstop. The rookies played key roles in the sixth inning, when the Red Sox scored three runs, and in the seventh, when they added four to build their 9-4 lead.

Ciriaco hit a three-run double in the sixth, then reached on a two-base error, stole third and continued home on a wild throw by catcher Russell Martin in the seventh. Gomez singled in the sixth, doubled in a run in the seventh and scored both times.

The Red Sox broke a five-game losing streak with their first win in five games against the Yankees. New York is a major league-best 51-33 after its three-game winning streak ended.

For the third straight game, the Yankees had a big first inning, scoring three runs in the nightcap. They had five in that inning in Friday night's 10-8 win and four in Saturday's opener.

The three runs came with no outs on Mark Teixeira's 15th homer after Jeter reached on an error by Gomez and Curtis Granderson singled. But Felix Doubront (9-4) allowed just one more hit before Jones led off the seventh with a solo homer, his 10th, cutting the lead to 5-4.

The Red Sox had made it 3-1 in the third when Gomez doubled, took third on Ciriaco's single and scored on Daniel Nava's double-play grounder. Nick Punto's sacrifice fly made it 3-2 in the fifth.

Boston knocked Phil Hughes (9-7) out of the game with three runs in the sixth, loading the bases on a single by Adrian Gonzalez, an error by Jeter and a single by Gomez. Ciriaco then cleared the bases with his third hit.

"It was a grind today," Hughes said. "There were runners all over out there. They really broke through with that bases-loaded double."

Gonzalez doubled in the seventh, one of his three hits as he extended his hitting streak to a career-best 18 games.

He scored on a triple by Ryan Sweeney, who came in on Gomez's double. Gomez scored on an error by third baseman Jayson Nix before Ciriaco came around on his steal and a bad throw. The Yankees ended the scoring on a solo homer in the ninth by Eric Chavez.

In the opener, Nick Swisher belted a three-run shot in the first and Nix added a solo drive in the fourth. Swisher snapped an 0-for-17 slide with his 13th homer. The next batter, Jones, followed with a drive to nearly the same spot.

"It's crazy, man. Like I've always said, this team's designed to hit home runs," Swisher said. "That's kind of our thing."

Each of the four homers in Game 1 came against Franklin Morales (1-2).

"Yeah, his fastball kept moving in over the middle of the plate to right-handed hitters. He couldn't control it," Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said. "He gave up the home runs to home-run hitters in hitters' counts."

Jeter had three singles for New York.

All-Star slugger Robinson Cano went 1 for 4 and scored a run for New York, but his streak of games with at least one RBI was snapped at nine. He equaled Jeter's 2004 surge as the longest by a Yankee since Reggie Jackson went 11 in a row in 1979.

Morales lasted just 3 1-3 innings, yielding six runs and six hits.

"I was just throwing my pitches and missing," he said. "I missed with my fastball and they hit homers."

Garcia (3-2) gave up one run and six hits under overcast skies, improving to 10-4 in 23 career games against Boston.

"He did an amazing job. He used all his pitches," Girardi said.

The Yankees hit consecutive homers again in the fourth when Jones and Nix each sent one into the Green Monster seats. It was Jones' 43rd multihomer game.

"It's nice. Get a lead early, four or five runs, just got out go out there and shut it down," Garcia said. "And that's what I did."

Gomez had an RBI single in the fourth for Boston.

NOTES: New York has 32 homers in its last 17 games. ... Martin broke an 0-for-30 slump with a double in the second. The Red Sox activated Sweeney from the disabled list before the second game and optioned OF Ryan Kalish to Triple-A Pawtucket. ... Valentine said LF Carl Crawford's rehabilitation assignment was halted briefly because he suffered a mild strained groin rounding second on a triple for Double-A Portland on Thursday. ... The opener was to make up an April 22 rainout.

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