Despite the replay malfunction that the Boston Red Sox preferred to talk about after losing 7-4 to the New York Yankees, the deciding factor in the game was some awful pitching from John Lackey, helping Brian McCann, Alfonso Soriano, Kelly Johnson and Carlos Beltran practice on their home run hitting skills.

The Yankees hit Lackey 10 times and 14 overall in the game, scoring all their points off home runs. Lackey finished the game before the end of the sixth inning after allowing 10 hits, six runs and four homers. He is 1st Red Sox pitcher to allow 10 hits vs Yankees, including 4 HR since Mickey Harris in 1948, and it was the first time in his career batters were able to go deep on him so many times.

Beltran was the first with a two-run homer in the first inning, getting Jacboy Ellsbury to score as well, making it 360 career home runs for the DH on this occasion. The Red Sox matched that with A.J. Pierzynsk hitting a two run homer himself in the second inning, but then began the rough stretch for Lackey and the Red Sox which they couldn’t really shake off later on: Brian McCann with a solo homer in the 4th, Alfonso Soriano coming after him and adding one himself and McCann again in the sixth inning  with a two run homer that also scored Carlos Beltran.

The impressive hitting game was capped off by Kelly Johnson in the 8th inning with another solo home run, coming after Mike Carp hit a single that brought home both Jackie Bradley Jr. and Daniel Nava. These were the first home runs for McCann in Yankees uniform, while both Johnson and Soriano continue with their impressive power hitting this season, both hitting their third home runs in 2014.

Besides Lackey getting shelled and the Yankees going deep there was also the replay failure that John Farrell tried to divert the attention to. It didn’t cost him the game, but it’s always better to talk about something other than the loss. Dean Anna of the Yankees hit a double in the second inning, but after sliding for safety seemed to take his foot off the bag while shortstop Xander Bogaerts was still applying the tag.

Anna said he felt his foot on the bag the whole time; Farrell challenged the call, which was reviewed and upheld for some reason. The league later addressed the situation, saying the call should have been changed according to about five angles showing his foot was off the bag. League spokesman Michael Teevan said that the conclusive angle was not immediately available, which is worrying to think about going into future reviews.

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