BOSTON -- Well, we knew there couldn't possibly be an encore to approach Derek Jeter's final game in Yankee Stadium on Thursday night, and this proved it.
After a one-night absence, Jeter returned to the Yankees lineup Saturday as the team's designated hitter. But despite the presence of retiring commissioner Bud Selig (making a farewell tour of his own) and national TV cameras, that stint lasted just two at-bats.
Jeter, who struck out on a 99 mile-an-hour fastball from Joe Kelly in the first inning and beat out an infield hit in the third inning, was lifted from the lineup by Yankees manager Joe Girardi when his turn came around again in the fifth inning. Why the early removal?
Well, there was the score to consider: The Red Sox, who sent 14 batters to the plate in an eight-run second inning, were leading 9-0 in a game they would eventually win 10-4.
And the 40-year-old Jeter also seemed a bit unsteady on his feet after beating out the infield hit, a high chopper that third baseman Garin Cecchini gloved but left Cecchini with no shot at throwing out the Yankee captain.
Stripped of its main attraction, who was serenaded by DER-ek JE-ter chants and a loud ovation while it lasted, the game turned into a pleasant exercise for the Sox, Kelly breezing to his third consecutive win and fourth in five starts.
Kelly held the Yankees scoreless until the seventh, when they scored once, and was touched for three more runs before being lifted in the eighth.
Yankees starter Masahiro Tanaka, making his second start since missing 65 games with elbow inflammation, retired just five batters before being dismissed. He was charged with five runs on seven hits and two walks.
The Sox scored all of their runs in the second inning after two were out, collecting seven hits and benefiting from two errors, the most egregious by Yankees center fielder Eury Perez, who dropped Allen Craig's liner for a two-run error. Cecchini, who struck out to start the inning, had the inning's only extra-base hit, an RBI double off the base of the wall, on his second go-round.
Yoenis Cespedes had run-scoring singles in each of his first two at-bats, giving him 100 RBIs in a season for the first time in his career.
Daniel Nava and Rusney Castillo had three hits apiece, with Castillo stealing a base for the third straight game. Xander Bogaerts and Cecchini had two apiece for the Sox, who were 10-for-19 with runners in scoring position.