07/21: Yankees vs. The A's; 7/20/08
Posted by: James
Well, the Yankees offense was not very useful yesterday...but I guess when you are facing the guy with the best ERA in the league, you can claim that as an excuse. Also, they were facing the A's who are the third worst offense in the league (1-Seattle, 2-Toronto) so maybe they thought they could leave the lumber in the clubhouse.
In any case, they scored just enough runs to win as Andy Pettitte backed up his call for the Yankees to play better by pitching a great game. Andy went eight innings and only gave up four hits with no walks (with 6 "1-2-3 innings"). His lone earned run came in the sixth when Jack Hannahan (who did not bring in his animals...) doubled to start off the inning and came around to score on a Ryan Sweeney single.
The Yankees score their first run in the third when Derek Jeter doubled with one out, took third on a Abreu single and came around to score on a A-Rod sac fly. They scored the go-ahead (and only other) run in the bottom of the sixth when Jason Giambi got enough of an inside fastball to get it over the RF wall.
With a 2-1 lead going into the ninth, Mo came in...and things got a little wacky. With one out, Ryan Sweeney singled and was on first when Bobby Crosby hit what looked to be a routine fly ball to right. Unfortunately, Bobby Abreu lost the ball in the sun and flubbed it. However, Sweeney was already heading back to first and say what you will about Bobby's defense, he still has a strong arm...though not an accurate one as his throw overshot 2nd (and a leaping Jeter). However, A-Rod was backing up Jeter and snared the errant throw underhanded it over to Derek who JUST beat Sweeney to the bag. 2 outs. At that point, the A's put in Rajai Davis as a pinch runner for Bobby Crosby and after waiting out a pickoff and one pitch, Davis took off for second. Clearly, Davis didn't know who was behind the plate (and picked the wrong pitch to run on, a 93 mph fastball that got to home plate very quickly) as Jose Molina nailed him for the last out of the game (and upped his CS rate to 49% in the process).
Great win for the Yankees as they swept the A's while the Red Sox were getting swept and TB was losing 2 of 3. They've put themselves back into the conversation for major contenders for a playoff spot...and now they just have to keep it up. They've got a very important 3 game set with Minnesota, who leads them in the Wild Card race, coming up. 2 out of 3 against Minny would be very helpful (and impressive as the Ponson/Rasner combo has been far more lucky than good) as Boston takes on Seattle (who are putting up their best pitchers so it could be tougher than you think).
In any case, they scored just enough runs to win as Andy Pettitte backed up his call for the Yankees to play better by pitching a great game. Andy went eight innings and only gave up four hits with no walks (with 6 "1-2-3 innings"). His lone earned run came in the sixth when Jack Hannahan (who did not bring in his animals...) doubled to start off the inning and came around to score on a Ryan Sweeney single.
The Yankees score their first run in the third when Derek Jeter doubled with one out, took third on a Abreu single and came around to score on a A-Rod sac fly. They scored the go-ahead (and only other) run in the bottom of the sixth when Jason Giambi got enough of an inside fastball to get it over the RF wall.
With a 2-1 lead going into the ninth, Mo came in...and things got a little wacky. With one out, Ryan Sweeney singled and was on first when Bobby Crosby hit what looked to be a routine fly ball to right. Unfortunately, Bobby Abreu lost the ball in the sun and flubbed it. However, Sweeney was already heading back to first and say what you will about Bobby's defense, he still has a strong arm...though not an accurate one as his throw overshot 2nd (and a leaping Jeter). However, A-Rod was backing up Jeter and snared the errant throw underhanded it over to Derek who JUST beat Sweeney to the bag. 2 outs. At that point, the A's put in Rajai Davis as a pinch runner for Bobby Crosby and after waiting out a pickoff and one pitch, Davis took off for second. Clearly, Davis didn't know who was behind the plate (and picked the wrong pitch to run on, a 93 mph fastball that got to home plate very quickly) as Jose Molina nailed him for the last out of the game (and upped his CS rate to 49% in the process).
Great win for the Yankees as they swept the A's while the Red Sox were getting swept and TB was losing 2 of 3. They've put themselves back into the conversation for major contenders for a playoff spot...and now they just have to keep it up. They've got a very important 3 game set with Minnesota, who leads them in the Wild Card race, coming up. 2 out of 3 against Minny would be very helpful (and impressive as the Ponson/Rasner combo has been far more lucky than good) as Boston takes on Seattle (who are putting up their best pitchers so it could be tougher than you think).
