Phew! How do you create a heading that captures a game like the one just won by the New York Yankees over the Oakland Athletics? In today’s game thread, it was mentioned that C.C. Sabathia needed to come up with a big game. Did he ever. It was also mentioned that the A’s struck out a lot and hit homers. They struck out thirteen times. But they did hit that homer. And it came off of Rafael Soriano in the top of the ninth inning. The solo homer by Brandon Moss in a pinch hit situation tied the game at 1-1. But in the bottom of the tenth inning, Russell Martin hit a walk-off homer off of reliever Sean Doolittle (1-1) to win the game for the Yankees in dramatic fashion. David Robertson pitched a perfect top of the tenth to earn the victory.
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CC Sabathia had not looked good in his previous four starts coming into tonight’s start. Many people were wondering which CC would show up: CC the Ace or CC the guy who was pitching like he was hiding an injury? The answer: CC the Ace showed up tonight. Sabathia started off a little slowly, throwing [...]
After taking both games of the doubleheader on Wednesday behind the bat of Ichiro Suzuki, the Yankees sent Phil Hughes to the mound searching for the sweep. Hughes did not have his best stuff, but managed to keep the Toronto damage to a minimum. While the Bombers’ bats were silent early on, they woke up in a big way, which was refreshing after they failed to hit Henderson Alvarez or Ricky Romero very hard. The Yankees scored seven runs in the bottom of the fourth and held off a late inning run by the Blue Jays, taking the 10-7 victory as they get ready to host Oakland this weekend.
Hughes looked strong in the first, pitching a 1-2-3 inning, but had some trouble in the next couple innings. The Blue Jays drew first blood when Adam Lind started the second with a double to center and Kelly Johnson hit a one-out double to left for the 1-0 lead. He started to look very shaky in the third, walking Anthony Gose to start the inning. Brett Lawrie grounded out to Hughes and Russell Martin gunned down Gose trying to steal third, but Hughes’ trouble wouldn’t end there. He hit Colby Rasmus with a pitch and gave up a single to Edwin Encarnacion, whose grounder took a weird hop past Jayson Nix at third and into left. A walk to Lind loaded the bases. A fastball got away from Hughes, hitting Moises Sierra in the side and bringing Rasmus across the plate. At the end of three innings, the Yankees’ starter had already tossed 63 pitches.
Ichiro picked up the Yankees first hit of the day, driving a solo shot over the wall in right and cutting the Blue Jays’ lead in half. Aaron Laffey gave the Yankees a chance to take their first lead of the day in the bottom of the fourth. He walked Russell Martin, who stole second base. Curtis Granderson reached on an error by Kelly Johnson and Casey McGehee drew a walk to load the bases for the incredibly hot-hitting Ichiro. After fouling a couple pitches off (including one that was inches away from being caught by a sliding Lawrie), the veteran hitter smacked a double to right, plating two runs, knocking Laffey out of the game and giving the Bombers a 3-2 edge. Nix took a free pass, loading the bases again and Derek Jeter lined a single to right for another Yankee run with Toronto still searching for an out. Swisher then crushed a ball into the Bleachers, opening up the game with an 8-2 Yankee lead.
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It wasn’t the prettiest win of the season and it got a little scary late in the game but the Yankees were able to hold off the Blue Jays and complete a three-game sweep. Phil Hughes had an odd outing. He only lasted five innings – throwing 102 pitches, gave up four runs on four [...]
The New York Yankees’ oldest starting pitcher and their least experienced helped bookend a double-header of great pitching with solid bullpen work and the Yankees swept two games of a double-header over the Toronto Blue Jays. The Yankees won both games without the benefit of a home run and won the nightcap with a good old example of small ball. Ichiro Suzuki was the offensive star of the double header as he went four for four in the night game after going three for four in the first game. His single in the eighth inning of the second game was the game winner. Rafael Soriano capped a strong day of relief pitching (with one exception) and saved both ends of the two games. Derek Jeter recorded his two-hundredth hit of the season and played shortstop for the first time since injuring his ankle last week. The double-header brought the Yankees two games closer to their goal of winning the American League East.
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The New York Yankees walked six times in the first five innings, Eduardo Nunez stole three bases and scored two runs and Russell Martin had a three run homer to put the Yankees in the driver’s seat to help Hiroki Kuroda win his fourteenth decision against ten losses. Matt Moore (10-11) allowed more walks than hits and only lasted three innings and the Yankees also took advantage of some sloppy Rays’ defense to help build a five game lead on the Rays in the standings. The Rays, coming off a disastrous sweep at the hands of the Orioles, desperately needed to win this series and fired a dud in this one. The Rays made two errors, struck out thirteen times and lost two out of three to dig themselves a deep hole not only for the division but also for the second wild card spot. The Yankees, on the other hand, have put themselves in the driver’s seat again and no matter what happens in Oakland between the Orioles and the A’s, the Yankees will wake up tomorrow in sole possession of first place.
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This one wasn’t as close as the score suggests. The Yankees took a five to nothing lead in the bottom of the third inning, which would prove to be the ball game. Derek Jeter got the party started, knocking in Eduardo Nunez on a single after Nunez swiped second to put himself into scoring position. [...]
Ivan Nova tossed six strong innings, and the Yankee offense took down James Shields in a 5-3 win over the Rays Saturday afternoon. Nova, who has become a fixture in the rotation over the past year, made a strong impression on his return to starting after missing about a month with a shoulder injury: he gave up only two hits in his first five innings of work, mixing his strong fastball sitting in the low to mid 90′s with a devastating slider and curve. After Desmond Jenning’s first-pitch single, Nova didn’t allow a hit until the fifth inning. He struck out 8 on the afternoon, reminding Yankee fans of the poise he showed last year in important games.
Nova’s counterpart, Tampa Bay’s James Shields, didn’t fare as well–he gave up four earned runs in six and one-thirds innings, surrendering most of the damage on back-to-back home runs by Curtis Granderson (two runs) and Eduardo Nunez in the second inning. Ironically (at least for this writer, as I chose to mention this in my preview), Granderson came in batting .107 (6-for-56 with 14 K’s) against Shields.
The win lets the Yankees open up a half-game lead on the Baltimore Orioles atop the AL East; the O’s play later tonight (9:05 PM EST) against the Oakland Athletics.
Bullets and commentary after the jump.
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I apologize in advance for the not-so-clever Ivan Nova cliche but it must be said. Nova was super today. In his first outing since August 21, Nova pitched into the seventh inning surrendering only two earned runs – one was a Luke Scott single given up by Joba Chamberlain – and four hits while striking [...]
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