It was the singular showdown of a classic Red Sox-Yankees game at Fenway Park.

With the Red Sox leading, 2-0, they managed to get the bases loaded with two outs against Bartolo Colon. The Yankee starter was pulled by manager Joe Girardi in favor of Boone Logan, a long man in the Yankees pen who is one of the unsung heroes of a surprisingly dominant bullpen.

Into the batter’s box stepped the most dangerous and consistent hitter in the American League this season, Adrian Gonzalez. One would figure the advantage would be in favor of the batter. But Logan wasn’t concerned about the star quality of the batter just getting his team out of a big jam.

“A lefty is a lefty and that’s a big situation, no matter who’s at the plate. You can’t think of it like it’s Gonzalez is at the dish. If you do, that’s when you can probably get in trouble. Just stay confident and go to work.”

And work in this case required just three pitches. Fastball, slider and slider, with the final two coming on uncharacteristically ugly swings from Gonzalez.

“First pitch, coming in figuring he’s looking off-speed,” Logan said. “That’s typically what lefties do, coming in, especially with the bases loaded. I came in there, instead of throwing slider, I went fastball first pitch. He was definitely looking off-speed and then my next [pitch] a slider, which wasn’t one of my better ones, he didn’t look very good on it. I said, ‘If I throw this next slider in the dirt he’ll swing over it.’ And he did.”

Gonzo’s take?

“If I would have been looking slider, I wouldn’t have swung,” Gonzalez said. “Last time we faced him in New York I had a pretty similar situation, bases loaded, and I don’t know if he came in to face me or if he was already in the game, but I worked the count and I was able to get a walk. He usually attacks me with sinkers in, sliders away. So I wanted to see how he was going to attack me early. And he went with a four-seamer down in the zone – good pitch, just at the knees. And I told myself to look fastball, middle-away. And he threw a good slider to put me 0-2 and then I just tried to battle. He dropped down a little bit and I wasn’t able to pull back.

Logan said he was as proud of the relievers behind him as he was to strike out the American League’s best hitter on three pitches, giving his team the chance for the go-ahead rally in the next half-inning.

“It’s awesome when the whole bullpen goes in there and puts up zeros, especially against Boston, keeping a one-run lead from the sixth inning, on,” Logan said of the trio of Rafael Soriano, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera after him. “It’s a great feeling. I’m proud of the guys.”

The Red Sox made their move to add rotation depth when they acquired John Lackey last week. This morning, the Yankees appear ready to make a comparably significant splash, adding a strikeout-an-inning starter to a rotation that already includes CC Sabathia, A.J. Burnett and Andy Pettitte.

According to several reports, the New York has acquired starter Javier Vazquez and reliever Boone Logan from the Braves in exchange for outfielder Melky Cabrera, prospect Mike Dunn and a player to be named, reportedly Arodys Vizcaino. News of the Yankees’ pursuit of Vazquez was first reported by Joel Sherman of the New York Post.

Vazquez went 15-10 with a career-low 2.87 ERA and 238 strikeouts in 219.1 innings in 2009. He’s thrown at least 198 innings in each of the last 10 years, reaching double digits in wins in each of those seasons. While he finished fourth in the NL Cy Young voting in 2009, he has been more dominant in the NL than in two separate stints in the American League.

Vazquez, ,33, has spent eight seasons in the NL, going 90-93 with a 4.02 ERA. In four seasons in the AL (one with the Yankees in 2004, and three more with the White Sox from 2006-08), he had a 52-46 record and 4.52 ERA. As a member of the Yankees in 2004, he went 14-10 with a 4.91 ERA, and he gave up a grand slam to Johnny Damon in Game 7 of the ALCS against the Red Sox.

That said, Vazquez has virtually identical numbers in the two leagues in hits per nine innings (8.9 in both leagues), homers (1.1 per nine innings in the NL, 1.2 per nine innings in the AL), walks (2.3 in NL, 2.5 in AL) and strikeouts (8.1 per nine innings in both leagues).

Logan, 24, had a 5.19 ERA in 20 games for the Braves last year. He held lefties to a .231 average and .626 OPS.

The switch-hitting Cabrera, 25, hit .274 with a .752 OPS and 13 homers for the Yankees as their everyday centerfielder in 2009. He became expendable when the Yankees acquired Curtis Granderson, though the Yankees will now be in the market for a starting left-fielder.

Dunn, a 24-year-old southpaw, pitched in four games for the Yankees last year after forging a 3.31 ERA in 38 minor-league games at two levels last year. Dunn punched out 99 in 73.1 innings while walking 46.

Vizcaino, 19, went 2-4 with a 2.13 ERA in the short-season New York Penn League last year, punching out 11.1 batters per nine innings.