NEW YORK — Fortunately for the Boston Red Sox, starting pitcher Clay Buchholz was much better at his job Sunday night than those tasked with evaluating the weather around Yankee Stadium were at theirs.
Buchholz got credit for a shutout after throwing five innings of two-hit ball in the Red Sox’s 3-0 win over the New York Yankees. The game was called at 12:10 a.m. EDT after the third rain delay of the evening.
It actually rained during only two of the delays. The game’s start was pushed back 45 minutes, to 8:50 p.m., because of a foreboding forecast, but that predicted rain never actually arrived.
“Probably one of the strangest things I’ve ever been a part of,” Buchholz said with a laugh.
The rain didn’t begin until just after the game became official after the Yankees’ half of the fifth inning. The skies opened up minutes later in the top of the sixth, during which David Ortiz homered, Mike Napoli singled and Stephen Drew flied out before the umpires pulled the teams off the field at 10:44 p.m.
The game resumed 37 minutes later, but it began pouring again in the four minutes it took for Napoli to get thrown out stealing and for Jarrod Saltalamacchia to strike out to end the inning.
Andrew Miller was standing on the mound to begin the bottom of the sixth for the Red Sox when play was suspended again and the grounds crew put the tarp back on while the Garbage song “I’m Only Happy When It Rains” blared from the loudspeakers.
“It’s frustrating, but I think (umpires) were playing the percentages,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “It looked like we were going to get pretty hard around 8:15, and we didn’t. Then it looked like we’d be OK until 11:30, 11:35. (The rain) came earlier than we would have liked.”
Eleven minutes after the third delay began, a giant thunderbolt shook Yankee Stadium, jarring anyone in the building out of his or her seat, and from then on it was a matter of when and not if the game would be called.
“Seemed like every storm cell that was out to the west gained in strength and size as it got closer to the coast,” Red Sox manager John Farrell said. “We’ve got as much technology available to us as anybody. There’s no issues the way this turned out here tonight.”
Nor were there issues with Buchholz, who was making his first start since May 22. Buchholz missed his previous turn in the rotation due to a sore collarbone but showed little rust as he improved to 8-0 and lowered his major-league-best ERA to 1.62. That’s the lowest ERA by a Red Sox pitcher through 11 starts since Pedro Martinez had a 1.44 mark in 2001.
“Looked like after the first inning, he started to get better touch and feel,” Farrell said. “And the last couple, three innings that he did pitch was as sharp as he’s been all season.”
Of the 71 pitches Buchholz threw, 22 came in the first inning, when he worked around a one-out walk to Robinson Cano. Buchholz allowed a single apiece in the second and third but retired the final eight batters he faced.
“Coming off a little layoff in between starts, I’ll take it for what it is,” Buchholz said. “Felt like I got back out there, I got most of the work in that I felt like I needed to do to help this team win. And the guys (on) offense seemed to do the rest.”
Rookie infielder Jose Iglesias also had a solo homer for the Red Sox, while Napoli had two hits and an RBI.
By winning the final two games of the three-game series, the Red Sox (35-23) extended their AL East lead to 2 1/2 games over the Yankees (31-25), who fell into a tie for third place with the Tampa Bay Rays, a half-game behind the Baltimore Orioles.
The Yankees, who were swept by the cross-town Mets earlier in the week, have lost seven of their last eight. They have scored four runs or fewer in each of those eight games.
“It’s kind of a team-wide thing that we’re going through, but we ran into a pretty good pitcher tonight, that’s the bottom line,” Girardi said.
Hiroki Kuroda (6-4) allowed three runs on eight hits over 5 1/3 innings. Kuroda, who walked none and struck out five, gave up more than two runs in a start for just the fourth time in 12 outings.
Ichiro Suzuki and Austin Romine had singles for the Yankees.
NOTES: Yankees C Chris Stewart was a late scratch from the lineup due to the lightheadedness that forced him from Saturday’s game. The Yankees believed he was dehydrated Saturday, but they sent Stewart to a hospital for tests shortly before the scheduled first pitch Sunday. … Stewart’s replacement in the lineup, Romine, snapped an 0-for-19 skid with a third-inning single. … Iglesias’ homer extended his career-high hitting streak to seven games. … Red Sox CF Jacoby Ellsbury missed his third consecutive game due to left groin tightness. Ellsbury was hurt while recording his single-game-team-record fifth stolen base in the Red Sox’ 9-2 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday night. Farrell said he hoped Ellsbury would be back for Tuesday’s series opener against the Texas Rangers at Fenway Park. … Boston RF Shane Victorino, who hasn’t played since May 20 due to a strained left hamstring, has yet to resume running at 100 percent and isn’t likely to return from the disabled list when eligible on Wednesday.