05/22: Yankees overcome depleted numbers to win clincher vs. Mets
Posted by: David
In a game that looked hopeless for the Yankees, they scored three in the eighth and added an insurance run in the ninth to beat the Mets and win the first round of the Subway Series at Shea Stadium. Yesterday's loss was bad enough with a frustrating performance from Randy Johnson, but the Yankees lost Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada to add to Gary Sheffield being temporarily sidelined. This appeared somewhat ominous considering the fact that they had to face Pedro Martinez.
The game did not start out well at all for the Yankees. With two outs and runners on second and third in the second inning all Pavano had to do was retire pitcher Pedro Martinez and the Yankees were out of the inning. Martinez hit a soft boucer to A-Rod which he booted and allowed the first run to score. Jose Reyes followed with a line single to right to increase the lead to 2-0. Later Cliff Floyd homered to make it 3-0. Pedro Martinez threw thirty-one pitches in the first inning but escaped a bases loaded jam when Mets third baseman David Wright reached into the stands on a foul popup off the bat of Jason Giambi. Pedro turned in a great performance, throwing seven innings and left having thrown ninety-nine pitches. Yesteday's hero Koo entered but the Yankees battled. The Bombers got the tieing runs on second and third with the aid of errors by Wright and Reyes and Mets manager Wille Randolph changed pitchers and brought in Roberto Hernandez. Hernandez got A-Rod to pop up for the second out and then Hideki Matsui stepped to the plate. With first base open, the Mets Randolph elected to pitch to Matsui who lined a single over the head of Wright to tie the game. Bernie Williams followed with a double off the wall in right to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. Mike Stanton entered to face Cliff Floyd as the first batter of the eighth inning. He got Floyd to fly deep to center for the first out. Tom Gordon then relieved and retired Piazza and Mientkiewicz to end the inning. The Yankees added an insurance run in the top of the ninth to make it 5-3 and Rivera worked a 1-2-3 ninth to end the game.
This was a very gutty performance for the Yankees. Derek Jeter entered in the eighth as a pinch runner and did score but could not stay in to play defense. Tino came in for defense late along with Russ Johnson and the Yankees used the entire team to squeak out a win. We now have an off day tomorrow before facing the Detroit Tigers at the stadium for three night games on Tuesday through Thursday. After that its the hated Red Sox for the Memorial Day weekend rumble.
A-Rod has to sharpen his defense. He is hitting much better than last year but had made seven errors already this season. Jeter had already made five. The Mets have some very good young exciting players but Wright, Reyes and especially Matsui make too many errors.
The game did not start out well at all for the Yankees. With two outs and runners on second and third in the second inning all Pavano had to do was retire pitcher Pedro Martinez and the Yankees were out of the inning. Martinez hit a soft boucer to A-Rod which he booted and allowed the first run to score. Jose Reyes followed with a line single to right to increase the lead to 2-0. Later Cliff Floyd homered to make it 3-0. Pedro Martinez threw thirty-one pitches in the first inning but escaped a bases loaded jam when Mets third baseman David Wright reached into the stands on a foul popup off the bat of Jason Giambi. Pedro turned in a great performance, throwing seven innings and left having thrown ninety-nine pitches. Yesteday's hero Koo entered but the Yankees battled. The Bombers got the tieing runs on second and third with the aid of errors by Wright and Reyes and Mets manager Wille Randolph changed pitchers and brought in Roberto Hernandez. Hernandez got A-Rod to pop up for the second out and then Hideki Matsui stepped to the plate. With first base open, the Mets Randolph elected to pitch to Matsui who lined a single over the head of Wright to tie the game. Bernie Williams followed with a double off the wall in right to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. Mike Stanton entered to face Cliff Floyd as the first batter of the eighth inning. He got Floyd to fly deep to center for the first out. Tom Gordon then relieved and retired Piazza and Mientkiewicz to end the inning. The Yankees added an insurance run in the top of the ninth to make it 5-3 and Rivera worked a 1-2-3 ninth to end the game.
This was a very gutty performance for the Yankees. Derek Jeter entered in the eighth as a pinch runner and did score but could not stay in to play defense. Tino came in for defense late along with Russ Johnson and the Yankees used the entire team to squeak out a win. We now have an off day tomorrow before facing the Detroit Tigers at the stadium for three night games on Tuesday through Thursday. After that its the hated Red Sox for the Memorial Day weekend rumble.
A-Rod has to sharpen his defense. He is hitting much better than last year but had made seven errors already this season. Jeter had already made five. The Mets have some very good young exciting players but Wright, Reyes and especially Matsui make too many errors.
Patrick wrote:
Womack added another 2 SB's to his total.