Perfect comeback by Sox

Perfect comeback by Sox The motion came from Red Sox pitching coach John Farrell on the mound. Needle Felt As Josh Beckett stood there, looking on, it was indicated to plate umpire Angel Campos that the starter would not continue. He had felt tightness in his lower back on a pitch to Alex Rodriguez, and was done for the night. It was only then, as the call was made for reliever Manny Delcarmen, that manager Terry Francona and a trainer started to jog toward the mound.

It was a strange scene, one that clearly didn’t sit well with the Yankees. Moments later, it was announced the Yankees were playing the game under protest, as they believed there had been no indication that Beckett was injured before his removal and Delcarmen shouldn’t have gotten unlimited warmups.

Just another day in the rivalry.

And yet, even with Beckett leaving before the end of the fifth, Needle Felt even with the Yankees rushing to a second straight five-run lead behind CC Sabathia, the Sox showed a bit of resiliency. As Francona said, “There was a lot that happened. I think that’s probably the understatement. You can start wherever you want. The finish is that we won.’’

Yes, they came back, winning, 7-6. For the second straight night, the Sox roared back to take the lead in the late innings. But last night, unlike Monday night, they were able to hold onto that lead — barely — pushing themselves up to .500 with a a split of the two-game series in the Bronx.

They escaped, as Jonathan Papelbon stranded the tying run on third and the winning run on second, striking out Randy Winn to end the game. It was four hours and nine minutes after it had started, and the Sox took a breath and kept themselves from falling to 10 back in the loss column in the division.