(AP Photo/Steve Nesius)| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||
| NYY | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 11 | 15 | 1 | |
| TB | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 6 | 1 |
WP - A.J. Burnett (10-4)
LP - James Shields (6-7)
SV - David Robertson (1)
With the game scoreless in the bottom of the first, A.J. Burnett walked Carl Crawford and then threw the ball away while trying to pick him off. The Rays had the speedy Crawford 90 feet away with just one out. Burnett struck out Evan Longoria and got Ben Zobrist to fly out to right to end the inning. That was about that last time this game was in doubt.
Hideki Matsui led off the top of the second with a single. Jorge Posada then gave the Yanks a 1-0 lead when he hit a ball that rolled all the way to the right-center field wall for an RBI double. Robinson Cano then tripled Posada home to extend the Yankees lead to 2-0. Nick Swisher then drove in Cano with an RBI ground out for the Yanks third run.
That's how the score would remain until the top of the sixth when the Yankees would tac on two more insurance runs against Rays starter James Shields. The runs coming on back-to-back home runs by Cano and Swisher.
Tampa scored one run, an unearned run, in the bottom half against Burnett, but besides that he was dominating all night. In 7 innings he allowed one unearned run on 2 hits, walked 2, and struck out 5. He threw 114 pitches, 69 for strikes. Burnett is now 6-1, with a 1.67 ERA over his last eight starts. Awesome.
The Yanks added two more in the eighth on a two-run double by Alex Rodriguez. Then, after the Rays cut the Yanks lead back to four with two runs of their own off Jonathan Albaladejo in the bottom half of the inning the Yanks officially put the game away with a four spot in the top of the ninth. The big hit of the inning was a three-run homer by Johnny Damon, his 200th of his career. Swisher had homered earlier in the inning, his second homer of the day.
After coming in for a huge out to end the bottom of the eighth, David Robertson stayed on for the ninth, and after allowing a solo homer to Pat Burrell, was able to close out the game for his first save. The big out in the eighth that I mentioned came with two on and two out and Carlos Pena at the plate. Tampa was down by just four runs at the time and one swing of the bat could have made it a one-run game. But Robertson was able to strike Pena out on a nasty curveball and get out of the jam.
Boston won tonight so the Yankees lead in the division remains at 2.5 games. The Bombers have now won 10 of their last 11 look to win their ninth series in their last ten with a win tomorrow at the Trop. It will be a battle of lefties as CC Sabathia takes on Scott Kazmir. First pitch is set for 7:10 p.m.
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG | |
| Jeter, SS | 5 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .325 |
| Damon, LF | 5 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 3 | .278 |
| Teixeira, 1B | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .282 |
| Rodriguez, A, 3B | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 5 | .248 |
| Matsui, H, DH | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4 | .252 |
| Posada, C | 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | .285 |
| Cano, 2B | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .311 |
| Swisher, RF | 5 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .237 |
| Cabrera, Me, CF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .290 |
| Totals | 41 | 11 | 15 | 11 | 7 | 2 | 23 | |
BATTING 2B: Posada (15, Shields, J), Rodriguez, A (9, Balfour), Cabrera, Me (17, Shouse). 3B: Cano (2, Shields, J). HR: Cano (15, 6th inning off Shields, J, 0 on, 0 out), Swisher 2 (16, 6th inning off Shields, J, 0 on, 0 out; 9th inning off Shouse, 0 on, 2 out), Damon (17, 9th inning off Shouse, 2 on, 2 out). TB: Jeter 3; Damon 4; Teixeira 2; Rodriguez, A 2; Matsui, H; Posada 2; Cano 7; Swisher 8; Cabrera, Me 3. RBI: Posada (46), Cano 2 (54), Swisher 3 (53), Rodriguez, A 2 (57), Damon 3 (57). 2-out RBI: Rodriguez, A 2; Swisher; Damon 3. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Posada; Rodriguez, A; Matsui, H. GIDP: Posada. Team RISP: 3-for-12. Team LOB: 10. BASERUNNING CS: Cano (5, 2nd base by Shields, J/Hernandez, M). FIELDING E: Burnett, A (3, pickoff). PB: Posada (4). DP: (Cano-Jeter-Teixeira). | ||||||||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |
| Burnett, A (W, 10-4) | 7.0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 0 | 3.53 |
| Albaladejo | 0.2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5.61 |
| Robertson, D (S, 1) | 1.1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 3.76 |
RAYS STATS
PLAYER OF THE GAME: A.J. Burnett (W, 7 IP, 2 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 5 K)
HONORABLE MENTION: Nick Swisher (2-for-5, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 2 R)
Tomorrow's Game
Yankees @ Rays
Game Time: 7:10 p.m. | TV/Radio: MY9, WCBS
LHP CC Sabathia (10-6, 3.67) vs. LHP Scott Kazmir (4-6, 6.69)
Game Time: 7:10 p.m. | TV/Radio: MY9, WCBS
LHP CC Sabathia (10-6, 3.67) vs. LHP Scott Kazmir (4-6, 6.69)
8 Comments:
Bruney, Hughes, Coke and Aceves were not available tonight. What a great win when half your bullpen was not available.
Burnett said he made an adjustment after the 3rd inning because of his pitch count. He started to throw a bunch of 2 seam fastballs and pitch to contact to get a bunch of groundball outs in order to go deep into the game. Great pitching by Burnett. He looked so dominant tonight it looked
effortless.
Congrats to David Robertson on his first career save. That curve he threw to strikout Pena in the 8th was nasty.
LOL Robertson threw the wrong pitch to Pena. Posada wanted a fastball. from King's column.
Robertson got ahead 0-2 before fanning Pena with an 80-mph hour breaking ball on the outer half that was supposed to be an inside fastball.
"Jorge came out and said, 'Let's go in,' " Robertson said. "I thought he wanted a curveball in and I threw it over the plate. He wanted a fastball."
Robertson recorded the final three outs for his first big league save.
I thought Girardi should of used Melancon instead of Albaledejo. I believe it was a 7-1 game at the point. That is the perfect spot in the 8th for Melancon to pitch 2 innings. The kid hasn't pitched since the angels series. Dont get mad if he doesn't have good command when he finally gets in there.
Melancon needs to get into a game, the kid is rotting away out there.
yeah what the purpose of melancon being up here if he is not going to pitch? Its like what they did with britton for. Now i can see why they were like that with britton because he was absolute garbage. Britton was a mop-up guy at best and was batting pratice for the opposition.
Whats the purpose of melancon being up here if he is not going to pitch? Its like what they did with britton for. Now i can see why they were like that with britton because he was absolute garbage. Britton was a mop-up guy at best and was batting pratice for the opposition.
Agreed Melancon is a high level prospect. The reason Albaledejo got sent down in the first place was because of performances like last night. It was a 7-1 game in the 8th and he forced Girardi to start warming up Rivera.
Bad job by Girardi not putting Melancon in the game he needs to get work. Then send him down to Scranton if you are not going to use him.
I agree with you guys. Melancon is rotting away in the pen.
Last night was a perfect time to use him. especially in the ninth with the game all but over. Robertson had gotten that big out and that was enough.
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