Red Sox Vs. Yankees: Kevin Youkilis, David Ortiz Help Boston Complete Three-Game Sweep

On the one hand, it took the loaded and heavily favored Boston Red Sox 40 games just to get their record up to .500. On the other hand, even though it took so long, their timing for reaching the mark was nothing short of superb. Sunday night, the Red Sox pulled themselves to 20-20 by completing a three-game sweep of the Yankees in New York, winning 7-5.

With Jon Lester going up against Freddy Garcia, Boston came in with the pitching advantage, but it was Lester who got off to a rough start. He drilled Derek Jeter leading off the game, and Jeter would ultimately score on a single by Mark Teixeira for an early 1-0 Yankees lead.

After the Red Sox tied it in the second on Jed Lowrie's sac fly, the Yankees came back for more in the bottom half. Andruw Jones led off by taking a Lester cutter deep and out to left-center field. Later in the inning, with a runner on, Curtis Granderson rode another cutter out to right. It was Granderson's 13th home run of the season -- and almost as surprisingly, his sixth off a left-handed pitcher -- and put the Yankees up 4-1.

But the game would turn. With two on and one out in the top of the third, Kevin Youkilis worked the count full against Garcia and knocked a fastball a few rows deep in left field to tie things up. And after Jon Lester settled down on the mound, the Red Sox struck for the lead in the top of the fifth when David Ortiz pulled a broken-bat pop fly down the right-field line that just escaped the yard for a solo homer.

The Red Sox added an insurance run in the seventh when Alex Rodriguez allowed a soft Youkilis groundball to get through his legs with Dustin Pedroia rounding third and heading home. And though the Yankees got the run back in the bottom half on an RBI double by Rodriguez, Daniel Bard struck out Nick Swisher with two on and two out to preserve Boston's 6-5 lead.

The final run of the game scored in the top of the eighth, when Jarrod Saltalamacchia took Joba Chamberlain a row or two out of the park in right field. It wasn't the most impressive home run Yankee Stadium has ever seen, but it was the first hit by a Red Sox catcher all season and restored the two-run margin.

Bard and Jonathan Papelbon had little trouble slamming the door, with Papelbon working a perfect ninth for his seventh save of the year.

The Red Sox swept a three-game series in New York for the first time since April 2004. At 20-20, they're now three games out of the AL East lead and just one game behind the 20-18 Yankees, who have now lost five games in a row, all at home. The Red Sox return to Boston to take on the Orioles, while the Yankees hit the road for a big showdown with the first-place Rays.