Thursday, May 8, 2008

Yanks Avoid Sweep With 6-3 Win Over Tribe


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
R H E
Cleveland 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0
3 6 0
N.Y. Yankees 0 0 0 3 1 0 2 0 X
6 9 0

The Yanks were able to avoid being swept for the second time this homestand with a 6-3 win over Paul Byrd and the Cleveland Indians today at The Stadium. Mike Mussina started for the Yankees and pitched well enough to get his 5th win of the year. In 5 innings he allowed 3 runs on 4 hits while striking out 3 and walking none.

The bullpen did the job today, and has been surprisingly good lately. Ross Ohlendorf threw two scoreless innings allowing just one hit. Joba Chamberlain got a little revenge for Tuesday night, retiring the side in order in the 8th and striking out David Dellucci on a nasty slider to end the inning.

Mariano Rivera pitched the 9th and continued his masterful start to the season picking up his 9th save of the year. His line for the season is now 14 IP, 5 H, 0 R, 0 BB, 12 K - absolutely dominating.


IP H R ER BB SO HR ERA
Mussina (W, 5-3) 5.0 4 3 3 0 3 0 4.36
Ohlendorf (H, 1) 2.0 1 0 0 0 1 0 4.70
Chamberlain (H, 8) 1.0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3.14
Rivera (S, 9) 1.0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0.00


The Yankees kicked off the scoring in the 4th when Johnny Damon led off the inning with a solo HR into the seats in right field. The Yankees added two more runs later in the inning when following a Hideki Matsui single, Jason Giambi hit a 2-run homer into the upper deck to make it 3-0 Yanks. The homer was Giambi's 6th of the year, and 3rd off Paul Byrd.

After the Indians tied the game at 3 the Yankees came right back in the bottom of the 5th and took the lead on a Johnny Damon RBI double with 2 outs scoring Robinson Cano, who had doubled to leadoff the inning.

The Yanks added two very important insurance runs in the 7th on back-to-back homers by Robinson Cano and Wilson Betemit. This was Cano's first multi-hit game since April 12th and he's hit safely in four straight game so maybe, hopefully, he is coming out of his slump.


AB R H RBI BB SO LOB AVG
Damon, LF 4 1 2 2 0 0 0 .280
Jeter, SS 4 0 1 0 0 1 1 .298
Abreu, RF 3 0 0 0 1 0 1 .299
Matsui, DH 4 1 2 0 0 0 1 .345
Giambi, 1B 3 1 1 2 0 0 1 .163
Cabrera, CF 3 0 0 0 0 0 1 .272
Cano, 2B 3 2 2 1 0 0 0 .172
Betemit, 3B 3 1 1 1 0 0 1 .200
Molina, C 3 0 0 0 0 1 1 .209
Totals 30 6 9 6 1 2 7

BATTING
2B: Cano (4, Byrd), Damon (13, Byrd).
HR: Damon (5, 4th inning off Byrd, 0 on, 0 out), Giambi (6, 4th inning off Byrd, 1 on, 2 out), Cano (4, 7th inning off Byrd, 0 on, 1 out), Betemit (1, 7th inning off Kobayashi, 0 on, 1 out).
TB: Damon 6; Jeter; Matsui 2; Giambi 4; Cano 6; Betemit 4.
RBI: Damon 2 (16), Giambi 2 (18), Cano (10), Betemit (2).
2-out RBI: Giambi 2; Damon.
Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Jeter.
GIDP: Cabrera; Abreu.
Team LOB: 1.

INDIANS OFFENSE

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Johnny Damon (2-for-4, HR, 2 RBI)

HONORABLE MENTION: Robinson Cano (2-for-3, HR, RBI, 2 R)

(Damon drove in the lead run twice, which is the only reason he got my POTG nod.)

The Yankees start a 7 game road trip tomorrow in Detroit, and hopefully they can do better than they did when these two teams met at the Stadium last week. Kei Igawa makes his first start of the season for the Yanks, and will face 73 year old left hander Kenny Rogers. First pitch is set for 7:05 p.m., and the game can be seen on MY9 and heard on WCBS 880.

Be sure to check out my Yanks-Tigers series preview tomorrow afternoon.

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...

big win, nice to see Cano has a pulse

Greg Cohen said...

If he could start hitting it would be a huge boost for this team.

Anonymous said...

There's no way Rogers is that young.