Jeter saves the day for the Yankees

April 5, 2005 After a blowout win for the New York Yankees on Sunday, their ancient rivalry with the 2004 World Series champion Boston Red Sox resumed with a close game on Tuesday that went down to the wire. Yankees closer Mariano Rivera had a blown save in the top of the ninth when he surrendered a solo home run to Red Sox catcher Jason Varitek that tied the score at 3-3. Yankee Derek Jeter saved the day in his lead-off at bat in the bottom of the ninth, hitting a walk-off home run off Keith Foulke to win the game for the Yankees. Yankees manager Joe Torre said, "We escaped today. Mariano is still the best in the game as far as I'm concerned. That doesn't mean that clubs aren't going to get to him once in a while. These guys we're playing are the world champs."

Rivera and the Yankees won't soon forget the glory snatched from them by the Red Sox in last year's American League Championship Series. The Red Sox were within three outs of being defeated in a sweep when they rallied against Mariano Rivera at Fenway Park in Game 4. They went on to win in 12 innings, and won the next three games to take the Series, and went on to win the World Series.

Other spotlights included starting pitcher Carl Pavano's debut for the Yankees and Hideki Matsui, who hit his second home run in two games.

Today's game was played in front of 54,690 at Yankee Stadium.

Box score

 * WP: Mariano Rivera (1-0)
 * LP: Keith Foulke (0-1)