Papelbon saves the day and night for Red Sox

Talk about prolonging the suspense. The Red Sox and Yankees are known for intense and long battles, but today's clash started at 3:55 p.m. and ended five hours later. Of course, there was a two hour, 10 minute rain delay that interrupted the drama at an inopportune time.

With two on and two out in the top of the eighth, and Boston holding a 4-3 lead, Jonathan Papelbon was called upon to face Alex Rodriguez. Then play was delayed, leaving fans of both teams perched on the edge of their seats biting their nails. At one point, action was set to resume within two minutes, but another steady rain downfall arrived, and the tarp returned.

When the pivotal matchup between Papelbon and Rodriguez took place two hours and 10 minutes after originally planned, the Sox closer overpowered A-Rod on three pitches. Though he was facing a warmup session for the fourth time today (and this evening), Papelbon took the mound in the ninth as well, dismissing Jason Giambi and Jorge Posada on strikes, and retiring Robinson Cano on a weak grounder to Dustin Pedroia, who tossed the ball to Sean Casey for the final out.

Of course, there was one more moment of suspense. The Cano at-bat reached a full count when Fox switched from the game to the NASCAR event in Phoenix, leaving everyone watching on television scrambling for their remotes in an attempt to find FX (Fox's cable channel) and witness the Papelbon-Cano battle. Fortunately, the good guys won.

Papelbon's impressive save allowed Josh Beckett to earn the win and the Sox to even the series at 1-1. The Sox and Yankees are both 6-6. The finale will be televised on ESPN Sunday Night Baseball.

Beckett looked like he would duplicate or even top Friday's night's two-hitter by Chien-Ming Wang. Through five innings, the Boston ace's lone blemish was an infield single by Cano that should have been ruled an error on Pedroia, who bobbled the routine grounder. The Sox owned a 1-0 lead in the sixth when the Yankees reached Beckett for two runs courtesy of singles by Jose Molina and Alberto Gonzalez, a sacrifice bunt from Johnny Damon, a sacrifice fly by Melky Cabrera and a wild pitch that plated Gonzalez.

The Yankees lead was short-lived. Boston had hit bullets off Mike Mussina through the first five innings but had only a solo home run by Manny Ramirez as proof in the box score. Mussina's luck ended in the bottom of the sixth, when Ramirez clubbed a clutch two-out, two-run double. Brian Bruney relieved Mussina and surrendered an RBI single to Youkilis giving the Sox a 4-2 advantage.

In the seventh, the Yankees plated a two-out run when Cano's double scored Posada, chasing Beckett. Manny Delcarmen was summoned to extinguish the threat, and that he did be striking out Molina. It was an encouraging sign for Delcarmen, who has struggled in the last week.

In the eighth, Hideki Okajima retired the first two batters he faced before walking Cabrera and allowing a line drive single to Bobby Abreu, placing runners on first and second. That's when Papelbon was brought in, and the downpour led to the substantial rain delay.

Though Beckett encountered trouble in the sixth and seventh, his pitching line was solid. He allowed three runs and five hits in 6.2 innings, striking out five and walking one. Beckett looks recovered from the backs spasms and hip injury that prevented him from building innings in spring training.

Beckett's start and Papelbon's save were not the lone impressive performances. Delcarmen's key strikeout of Molina in a high-pressure situation was important, especially for a bullpen that has been shaky in the young season.

Tomorrow night, Daisuke Matsuzaka will oppose Phil Hughes in another prime-time pitching matchup. Likely, Papelbon will not be available. Okajima, Delcarmen or Mike Timlin will probably serve as the closer.