A COMEBACK AT FENWAY

FIRST EVER NIGHT OPENER AT FENWAY YIELDS BIG COMEBACK AS RED SOX DEFEAT YANKEES

Just think, there are 17 more of these games. The Yankees play the Red Sox 17 more times, which means 17 more chances to witness baseball played at its most exhilarating, frustrating or downright maddening. The Yankees cruised into Fenway Park on Sunday night as the defending World Series champions. They left on Monday morning thankful for a day off. They may need it to unwind after an exhausting opening night loss to the Boston Red Sox, who overcame three deficits of at least two runs and scored the eventual winning run in their 9-7 victory on — of course — a passed ball. That came after C. C. Sabathia unraveled and after Chan Ho Park imploded, after the newcomer Curtis Granderson homered in his first at-bat and after the Yankees reclaimed the lead in the seventh inning. What followed was symbolic of how the last decade, a turbulent one within the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, unfolded. Each team won two World Series titles, but for all of the upheaval and the playoff heartbreak and ecstasy, they began a new one Sunday night right back where they started 10 years ago: with the Yankees defending their championship and the Red Sox playing catch-up. “They won the World Series last year; everybody’s going after them,” said Dustin Pedroia, whose two-run homer in the seventh off Park evened the score at 7-7. “We’re just first on their schedule.” To dethrone the Yankees, the Red Sox spent the off-season focused on improving their pitching staff and their defense. Questions abounded about their offense, but Boston battered 12 hits over all and scored four runs against the Yankees’ bullpen. The Yankees consider their bullpen a strength, but each of the four relievers surrendered a run or allowed an inherited runner to score. Dave Robertson, a postseason dynamo, gave up a game-tying single on his first pitch. Park, who did not give up a homer in 50 relief innings last season with Philadelphia, allowed one to his third batter as a Yankee. Joba Chamberlain, beat out for a starting job, struggled with his fastball and gave up a two-out insurance run in the eighth. “It’s one game,” Manager Joe Girardi said of his bullpen. “You don’t make too much out of it either way.” But for fans at Fenway Park sunday night, this one was one to remember.