BOSTON — For Derek Jeter, it has always been about the team, with individual accomplishments something to think back on when he’s done with his Hall of Fame career.
But Thursday night, the New York Yankees shortstop caught Willie Mays for 10th place on baseball’s all-time hit list.
Willie Mays!
“(To be equal with Mays) in anything, it’s pretty special if you think about it,” Jeter said after his RBI single, his 3,283rd hit, helped the Yankees to an important 2-0 victory over the hapless Boston Red Sox. New York remained tied with the Baltimore Orioles for first place in the American League East.
“It’s kind of hard to think about it now because we’re trying to win games, especially this time of the year, but I’d be lying to you if I didn’t think it was special.”
Jeter, playing one night after being removed from the game with an ankle bruise he aggravated running to first base, went 1-for-5 in the game. His bloop single (his major league-leading 195th hit of the season) in the seventh inning gave the Yankees the insurance run they needed for their first two-game winning streak in almost a month.
Phil Hughes pitched 7 1/3 shutout innings for his 15th win (three against Boston), and the Yankees won the series despite going 2-for-34 with runners in scoring position. Hughes (15-12) was great, but he was overshadowed by Jeter’s milestone.
“It’s amazing. I mean it really is; it’s amazing what he’s done,” manager Joe Girardi said of Jeter. “I mean, that’s some kind of name (Mays).”
The Yankees, who haven’t been out of first place since June 10, took the field knowing they needed a win to remain tied with Baltimore, which beat Tampa Bay in 14 innings earlier in the day. They rode Hughes to the key victory and now host the Rays over the weekend.
“We knew (the Orioles) won, but you can’t put any more importance on this game than the next,” Hughes said. “We just have to go out and worry about ourselves and not worry about what they’re doing or anything like that; just go out and win every game we can control.”
Jeter agreed, saying, “We have to win our games. That’s the bottom line. It doesn’t really make a difference what they do because we can’t control it. All we can do is control how we play, and we had a good game tonight.”
The Yankees won three straight from Aug. 13-15, then hadn’t won two in a row since before Thursday.
“We’re in first place for a reason,” Jeter said. “We’ve played pretty well for a majority of the season. You’re going to go through ups and downs, and obviously we would have loved to have won all of the series up to this point, but that wasn’t the case. All we can do is control how we’re playing now, and we played well here.”
Jeter served as the designated hitter Thursday but said he could have played shortstop, a spot manned by Eduardo Nunez, who had two hits.
Andrew Jones hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning, and Jeter delivered in the seventh.
Hughes, making his 100th career start, yielded five hits in outpitching Felix Doubront (10-9 and winless since July 18).
Hughes left with a man on second and one out in the eighth before Boone Logan and David Robertson got out of that inning. Rafael Soriano pitched the ninth for his 38th save.
Doubront, 0-4 with an 8.27 ERA in his last seven starts coming in, pitched into the seventh inning and threw well enough to win. However, the pitcher who gets the most run support in the majors got none on this night.
He walked two to load the bases before the Jones sac fly.
“I thought Felix was excellent,” manager Bobby Valentine said. “Good competitiveness. He just missed on some pitches the inning he walked a few guys, and it cost him.”
The last-place Red Sox suffered their 80th loss. They have lost six of their last seven, 13 of their last 15 and 18 of their last 23.
NOTES: The Yankees have won four straight road series finales and 14 of their last 17. … The Red Sox played without Dustin Pedroia. He left Wednesday night’s game to be with his wife, who gave birth to the couple’s second child, a boy, Thursday morning. … Boston owner John Henry denied a Fox Business Network report that stated the owners were talking sale. “A sale of any kind is so far from our thinking it hasn’t even come up apart from technical planning issues involving death or liability,” Henry told the Boston Globe. “This report is completely without foundation.” Henry also said CEO Larry Lucchino, seen as involved in much of the club’s off-field turmoil, will return next season. … The Yankees won Wednesday night despite going 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position. According to the Elias Sports Bureau (through the YES Network), it marked the team’s first win recorded while going 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position since May 31, 1961. That was a 7-6 victory over the Red Sox, with Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris both homering, Maris en route to a 61-homer season. … The Red Sox didn’t discipline reliever Alfredo Aceves for showing Valentine up on the mound Wednesday night. … Andy Pettitte will come off the disabled list to pitch for the Yankees against the Blue Jays on Tuesday night. … Bill Cosby threw out the first pitch, while Larry David and Jon Hamm sat near the Red Sox dugout.