BOSTON — Chants of “Pedro, Pedro,” echoed through Fenway Park.
Pretty flattering for a newcomer unknown to many fans before the best game of his career.
Pedro Ciriaco had four hits and four RBIs one day after being called up from Triple-A Pawtucket and the Boston Red Sox gained a split of a doubleheader with the New York Yankees with a 9-5 win Saturday after a 6-1 loss.
“It’s amazing. It’s a good feeling,” Ciriaco said of hearing those chants as he came to the plate in the seventh inning. “I was very surprised, but it’s fun.”
Before his promotion, the infielder had 39 at-bats in 31 games with the Pittsburgh Pirates the past two seasons. Hardly enough to make him a familiar name in a different city.
“I can guarantee you most people in the ballpark weren’t carrying his baseball card with them,” Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine said, “but he had a super performance.”
So did rookie Mauro Gomez, who had three hits in the nightcap and is 8 for 17 in five games since being promoted from Pawtucket on Tuesday.
“I believe in him as a hitter,” Valentine said. “He can use the whole field and hit a lot of different pitches.”
Injuries to second baseman Dustin Pedroia and third baseman Will Middlebrooks led the Red Sox to call up Gomez to fill in at third and Ciriaco to play second and shortstop. They played key roles in the sixth, when the Red Sox scored three runs, and in the seventh, when they added four to build their 9-4 lead.
Ciriaco hit a three-run double in the sixth, then reached on a hard shot past third that was ruled a two-base error before being changed to an RBI double. He stole third and continued home on a wild throw by catcher Russell Martin in the seventh. Gomez singled in the sixth, doubled in a run in the seventh and scored both times.
The Red Sox broke a five-game losing streak with their first win in five games against the Yankees. New York is a major league-best 51-33 after its three-game winning streak ended as it made a season-high four errors.
“You can’t give a good team extra outs and they capitalized on the extra outs,” Derek Jeter said.
Andruw Jones hit three homers in the doubleheader, including two of the Yankees’ four in the opener in which Freddy Garcia pitched 6 2-3 solid innings in muggy conditions. They added three homers in the nightcap, running their baseball-high total to 133. They’re on a pace for a club-record 255. The 1997 Seattle Mariners hold the major league record with 264.
For the third straight game, the Yankees had a big first inning, scoring three runs in the nightcap. They had five in that inning in Friday night’s 10-8 win and four in Saturday’s opener.
The three runs came with no outs on Mark Teixeira’s 15th homer. But Felix Doubront (9-4) allowed just one more hit before Jones led off the seventh with a solo homer, his 10th, cutting the lead to 5-4.
The Red Sox had made it 3-1 in the third when Gomez doubled, took third on Ciriaco’s single and scored on Daniel Nava’s double-play grounder. Nick Punto’s sacrifice fly made it 3-2 in the fifth.
Boston knocked Phil Hughes (9-7) out of the game in the sixth, loading the bases on a single by Adrian Gonzalez, an error by Jeter and a single by Gomez. Ciriaco cleared the bases with his double.
Gonzalez doubled in the seventh, one of his three hits as he extended his hitting streak to a career-best 18 games.
He scored on a triple by Ryan Sweeney, who came in on Gomez’s double. Gomez scored the double by Ciriaco, who came around on his steal and a bad throw. The Yankees ended the scoring on a solo homer in the ninth by Eric Chavez, his seventh.
In the opener, Nick Swisher belted a three-run homer in the first and Jayson Nix added a solo drive in the fourth. Swisher snapped an 0-for-17 slide with his 13th homer. The next batter, Jones, followed with a drive to nearly the same spot.
“It’s crazy, man. Like I’ve always said, this team’s designed to hit home runs,” Swisher said. “That’s kind of our thing.”
Each of the four homers in Game 1 came against Franklin Morales (1-2).
All-Star slugger Robinson Cano went 1 for 4 and scored a run for New York, but his streak of games with at least one RBI was snapped at nine. He equaled Jeter’s 2004 surge as the longest by a Yankee since Reggie Jackson went 11 in a row in 1979.
Morales lasted just 3 1-3 innings, yielding six runs and six hits.
“I missed with my fastball and they hit homers,” he said.
Garcia (3-2) gave up one run and six hits.
“He did an amazing job. He used all his pitches,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
The Yankees hit consecutive homers again in the fourth when Jones and Nix each sent one into the Green Monster seats.
“It’s nice. Get a lead early, four or five runs, just got out go out there and shut it down,” Garcia said. “And that’s what I did.”
NOTES: New York has 32 homers in its last 17 games. … Martin broke an 0-for-30 slump with a double in the second. … The Red Sox activated Sweeney from the disabled list before the second game and optioned OF Ryan Kalish to Pawtucket. … Valentine said LF Carl Crawford’s rehabilitation assignment was halted briefly because he suffered a mild strained groin on Thursday. … Cano was hit on the right hand by Morales in the first, had his pinkie taped, but stayed in the game and also played the second game. … The opener was to make up an April 22 rainout. … Ivan Nova (9-3) faces Jon Lester (5-5) on Sunday.
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