The teams combined to score 19 runs Thursday -- eight of them by the Yankees in one inning -- but it took them almost six hours to produce a single run Friday.
Rodriguez, who had been mired in his longest home run drought as a Yankee, came up with Derek Jeter on first and Junichi Tazawa on the mound, making his major league debut.
Tazawa, called up from Class AAA when Boston released John Smoltz Friday, gave Rodriguez a pitch to hit on a 2-1 count, and Rodriguez slammed it over the wall in left field. He had not had a home run in 71 at bats.
New York, after losing its first eight games against Boston this year, defeated the Red Sox for the second straight night. The Yankees expanded their lead over Boston in the American League East to 4 1/2 games.
Boston managed only four hits against six New York pitchers. Jacoby Ellsbury opened the game with a single, and Boston did not come up with another hit until the ninth.
Phil Coke (3-3) worked the top of the 15th to get the win. Boston sent eight pitchers to the mound.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International.
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