Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Yanks Comeback To Beat Jays 5-4 in Walk-Off Fashion

Very nice win for the Yanks in the Bronx tonight, as they came back from a 4-1 8th inning deficit to win 5-4. The Yankees haven't had many of these this year, so it was good to see. By the looks of the players reactions after the winning run crossed home it looked like they all needed a game like this. With the win the Yankees are now 26-21, and alone in first thanks to Tampa's loss in Motown.

CC Sabathia went the whole way for the Yanks, allowing the four runs on eight hits and a walk, and struck out three. He struggled a bit in the 3rd and 4th leading to all four Jays runs, but was dominant from their and would eventually retire the last 16 batters he faced.

After Russell Martin gave the Yanks a 1-0 lead with a solo shot in the 2nd, the Jays responded with a run on three singles led to the Jays. Corey Patterson's RBI single to right drove home the run for Toronto.

In the 4th things got a little ugly for the CC. Juan Rivera started the inning with a double. He came around when the next batter, J. P. Arencibia, singled to center. to give the Jays their first lead of the game. A couple batters later, Rajai Davis made it 3-1 with an RBI single, and then Jason McDonald finished off the rally with a squeeze bunt. The inning could have gotten much worse, but with two out and the bases loaded CC got the dangerous Jose Bautista to ground into a force to end the threat. Like I said before, he cruised from there.

Ricky Romero pitched very well for the Jays. He held the Yanks to just the one run on seven scattered hits and three walks over seven. The Jays would then turn things over to their bullpen and the Yankees took over from there.

Curtis Granderson, who had four hits on the night, started the bottom of the 8th with a double off Jays reliever Casey Janssen. After Janssen retired Tex and A-Rod, the Jays brought in Marc Rzepczynski to face Cano. Cano responded by lining a double into right-center to score Granderson and cut the lead to two. Russell Martin followed with an RBI single to shave one more off the deficit.

In the 9th, Jorge Posada came up as a pinch-hitter with nobody on and one out. It's no secret how badly he needed a hit, and luckily for him and the Yankees he came through by lining a ball to right. The ball took a funny hop off Bautista's glove in right which allowed Posada to get to second with a double. As you might expect, that extra base turned out to be huge. Derek Jeter was next and he moved the runner (now Chris Dickerson who pinch ran for Posada) over to third on a ground out to leave things up to Granderson.

Last night, Jays closer Frank Francisco struck out Granderson to end the game, tonight it was time for a little payback. With a 2-1 count, Granderson lined a hanging curveball ball just out of the reach of first baseman Juan Rivera's outstretched glove and the game was tied. With Granderson now at second after stealing the base, Teixeira took a 3-1 offering from Francisco and hit a similar ball to Granderson-a liner towards first--this time a little closer to Rivera, which actually helped the Yankees. Instead of going into right and setting up a play at the plate with Bautista's rocket arm, the ball trickled off Rivera's glove, rolling slowing into right and allowing Granderson to score without a throw.


PIE!

I keep hoping that one of these wins is the win that lights a spark under this team and gets them going, maybe this will be it. Taking the rubber game in this series would be a nice start. It's an afternoon affair in the Bronx tomorrow with a 1:05 PM start. Freddy Garcia will go for the Yanks, with Jo-Jo Reyes starting for the Jays.

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Curtis Granderson
HONORABLE MENTION: CC Sabathia


(BOX SCORE)

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