Major League Baseball

Red Sox 9, Yankees 6

Published Apr. 8, 2011 7:20 p.m. ET

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Phil Hughes' second start was even worse than his first: He lasted fewer innings, gave up more runs, and allowed the desperate Boston Red Sox their first win of the season.

''It seemed like everything I threw up there was getting hit around,'' he said after the Red Sox beat the New York Yankees 9-6 on Friday for their first win of the season. ''And when they didn't hit it hard, it found its way through anyway.''

Hughes allowed six runs - five of them in the second inning, giving up seven hits and two walks while striking out two. He left the mound trailing 6-3; the Yankees came back to tie it 6-all before Boston went ahead for good in the bottom of the fifth against Bartolo Colon (0-1).

''It's not how you want to start, but we've got a long way to go,'' Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. ''I believe he'll right the ship.''

Girardi said he did not think there was anything physically wrong with Hughes, who allowed five runs in four innings in his other start. The manager said he was not considering replacing Hughes in the rotation.

''It's way too early to consider that,'' he said. ''Phil Hughes is a guy who won 18 games for us last year. He's a talented kid. Two starts don't make a season.''

Dustin Pedroia homered and drove in three runs in the 100th home opener at Fenway Park as the Red Sox ended their worst season-opening losing streak since they started 0-8 in 1945. The 2008 MVP had three of the 12 hits by Boston, a popular preseason choice to win the World Series.

''They've got a great team,'' Yankees catcher Russell Martin said. ''(Going) 0-6 is not a good indication of how they're playing. Going into the season, there was a lot of talk about them being the team to beat in the (AL) East. ... You're not playing the record.''

John Lackey (1-1) gave up six runs in five innings for Boston but still got the win when Jarrod Saltalamacchia's run-scoring double broke a 6-6 tie in the fifth. Jonathan Papelbon, coming off his worst season, got the save with a perfect ninth inning as Boston won its seventh straight home opener.

J.D. Drew had given him a three-run cushion with a two-run single in the seventh.

The game started poorly for the Red Sox as Lackey walked the first batter, Brett Gardner, who stole second. After a walk to Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano drove a two-run double to deep center field.

Boston also showed some pop early as Pedroia hit his first homer in the first, a solo shot just inside the left field foul pole.

The Yankees went ahead 3-1 in the second on doubles by Curtis Granderson and Gardner before the Red Sox scored five runs in the bottom of the inning. They hadn't score more than five in a game in any of their first six losses.

Boston loaded the bases in the second on singles by Drew, Saltalamacchia and Jacoby Ellsbury and scored when Marco Scutaro grounded into a forceout at third. Then Pedroia drove in two runs with a single and Adrian Gonzalez and David Ortiz singled in a run apiece for a 6-3 lead.

Lackey kept struggling, giving up an RBI double to Cano in the third, a run-scoring single to Derek Jeter in the fourth and a homer to Rodriguez, his third of the season, in the fifth.

That tied the game at 6, but Boston went ahead in the bottom of the fifth against Bartolo Colon (0-1) on a double by Saltalamacchia that scored Kevin Youkilis, who had drawn his third walk.

The Red Sox won despite another terrible performance by Lackey.

In his first start, he allowed nine runs and 10 hits in 3 2-3 innings of a 12-5 loss at Texas. So far this season, he has allowed runs in eight of the nine innings in which he's appeared with 13 of the 17 hits he's allowed going for extra bases.

Notes: When asked before the game about Boston's 0-6 start, Yankees manager Joe Girardi noted he was with the 1998 Yankees who opened 1-4 and went on to a 114-48 record in the regular season and a World Series title. ... Rodriguez's homer was his 616th and gave him 1,836 RBIs, passing Rafael Palmeiro and tying Ken Griffey Jr. for 13th place. ... Carl Yastrzemski, who made his major league debut 50 years ago in a Red Sox uniform and went on to the Hall of Fame, threw out the ceremonial first pitch. ... A pregame moment of silence was observed for Lou Gorman, Boston's general manager from 1984 to 1993 who died on April 1 at the age of 82. ... Another moment of silence was held in honor of victims of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

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