05/28: Yanks Defeat Struggling Red Sox for 5th Straight Victory
Posted by: Seamus
The Yankees won their 5th consecutive game last night after coming back from a rather early two-run defecit to beat the Red Sox 6-3. Randy Johnson still wasn't all that dominant but had more command than in recent starts as he gave up 3 runs in 6 innings. Robinson Cano launched his second career home run to tie the game at 3 in the 6th and Gary Sheffield launched a three run shot into the upper deck in left field to give the Yankees a 6-3 lead. That would be all they needed as the bullpen once again held the opposition scoreless. An odd decision to take note of was Joe Torre starting the 9th inning off with Tom Gordon and then using Mariano Rivera for only two outs. Rivera sruck out Bill Mueller to end the game and record his 12th save of the season.
I think everybody is now officially afraid of Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod was walked 3 times last night and hit by a pitch. He did not record an at-bat in the game. I think part of the reason why he's been so hot is because he isn't chasing after any bad pitches right now. If guys pitch around him, he won't swing the bat if the ball is out of the strike zone. He usually gets one or two good pitches to hit every game and he is consistently taking advantage of those pitches and hitting the ball hard. He was hovering around .300 for the majority of the season up until about two weeks ago. Now his batting average is up to .324 (6th in the American League).
On to another thing that I'm sure caught everybody's eye: How about that home run that Gary Sheffield launched off Alan Embree? Normally I wouldn't dwell so much on one hit, but Sheffield absolutely destroyed that ball. As far as I can remember, I can only recall three home runs going into the left field upper deck in Yankee Stadium in recent years including Sheffield's last night. One other was Jose Conseco's first home run as a Yankee and another was a shot hit by A-Rod last year against Tampa Bay.
I think everybody is now officially afraid of Alex Rodriguez. A-Rod was walked 3 times last night and hit by a pitch. He did not record an at-bat in the game. I think part of the reason why he's been so hot is because he isn't chasing after any bad pitches right now. If guys pitch around him, he won't swing the bat if the ball is out of the strike zone. He usually gets one or two good pitches to hit every game and he is consistently taking advantage of those pitches and hitting the ball hard. He was hovering around .300 for the majority of the season up until about two weeks ago. Now his batting average is up to .324 (6th in the American League).
On to another thing that I'm sure caught everybody's eye: How about that home run that Gary Sheffield launched off Alan Embree? Normally I wouldn't dwell so much on one hit, but Sheffield absolutely destroyed that ball. As far as I can remember, I can only recall three home runs going into the left field upper deck in Yankee Stadium in recent years including Sheffield's last night. One other was Jose Conseco's first home run as a Yankee and another was a shot hit by A-Rod last year against Tampa Bay.
Patrick wrote:
Good to see Mo take care of business there.