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At 7:09 p.m. on Friday, Jacoby Ellsbury stepped to the plate for the Boston Red Sox at Yankee Stadium. He singled, stole second and made it to third base. By Saturday morning, the game was still going, and none of Ellsbury’s teammates ever got as far as he did.

The Yankees at least dropped by third base more often — four times, actually, through the 14th-inning stretch. But they did not score until Alex Rodriguez ended the longest single-season home run drought of his career.

With two outs in the bottom of the 15th inning, Rodriguez connected for a two-run homer into the left-field bullpen to give the Yankees a 2-0 victory in five hours 33 minutes. He had gone 72 at-bats without a homer before lining an off-speed pitch with a 2-1 count off Junichi Tazawa, who lost his major league debut.

“I’m ready to go home,” Rodriguez said on the scoreboard, just seconds before A. J. Burnett slammed him in the face with a pie. It was the 20th homer of the season for Rodriguez, who tied Harmon Killebrew for ninth on the career list with 573 home runs.

The Yankees’ fifth victory in a row lifted them to four and a half games ahead of Boston in the American League East, their largest margin of the season.

They put the winning run on base in six of their last seven innings, and they could have ended things an inning sooner, but right fielder J. D. Drew speared a drive by Eric Hinske on the run in midair with two runners on. That was the second out, and the next batter, Melky Cabrera, lashed a liner inches foul down the right-field line before striking out.

Phil Coke earned the victory by retiring the side in the 15th. He was the fifth pitcher in relief of Burnett, who allowed only Ellsbury’s single over seven and two-thirds innings. Alfredo Aceves worked three innings and Brian Bruney two.

The Yankees left runners on second and third in the ninth, when Daniel Bard struck out Jorge Posada on a late-breaking slider in the dirt. Ramon Ramirez came in for the 10th, and walked the pinch-hitter Eric Hinske with one out.

Hinske raced to second on a wild pitch, and took third on a ground out by Melky Cabrera. With Derek Jeter coming up, Boston Manager Terry Francona called for Jonathan Papelbon.

After two fouls with a 1-2 count, Jeter whiffed on a 97 mile-an-hour fastball. Rodriguez ended the next inning the same way, striking out on 95 m.p.h. heat, and Cabrera popped out off Manny Delcarmen with two on to end the 12th.

The Yankees, who had lost their first eight games against the Red Sox this season, won in much more stylish fashion than they had on Thursday, a 13-6 victory in which they issued 12 walks.

But Thursday’s slipshod play gave way to the kind of crisp duel Burnett and Beckett had not yet produced. In April, Beckett fell behind, 6-0, but Burnett squandered the lead. In June, Beckett sparkled, but Burnett could not survive three innings.

Three of Beckett’s first four innings were perfect. The exception was the third, when Robinson Cano led off with a double and Nick Swisher followed with a 10-pitch walk.

It was a tough spot for Beckett, but Cabrera grounded into a double play. Jeter then rapped a grounder to the right of first baseman Victor Martinez, who dropped to his knees to field it and flip to Beckett covering the bag. Two innings later, Jeter left the bases loaded on a first-pitch groundout to third.

The Yankees put only one more runner on base against Beckett, when Matsui singled to lead off the seventh. Manager Joe Girardi did not substitute a faster runner, and it cost him when Matsui ran on a 3-2 pitch to Cano with one out. Cano swung and missed and Matsui was thrown out at second, ending the inning.

It also ended Beckett’s night at 115 pitches, five shy of his season high. He might have come out for another inning, but he used 20 pitches in two at-bats — the walk to Swisher in the third and Matsui’s single in the seventh.

Burnett was even stingier than Beckett, his teammate for five seasons with Florida. The Red Sox left Ellsbury on third in the first inning when David Ortiz grounded to Cano, who bobbled the ball but recovered in time. Burnett allowed only one other runner into scoring position, and even that was not all his fault; after Nick Green walked in the sixth, he took second on catcher’s interference.

Burnett stayed in for three batters in the eighth. A long fly by Josh Reddick hooked foul down the right-field line, and Reddick grounded out. Burnett froze Casey Kotchman with a tailing 95 m.p.h. fastball for strike three, and left to a standing ovation after a walk.

He did not receive a victory for his effort, but Burnett soaked in the fans’ cheers, lifting his cap to the crowd as Phil Hughes came in to get an inning-ending fly out.

Burnett’s was a rare performance — wild enough to walk six, but dominant enough to allow just one hit over seven and two-thirds innings. The last Yankee to throw as many innings with so few hits and so many walks was Dwight Gooden in his 1996 no-hitter.

Courtesy-NY times.