(AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||
| BOS | 0 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 8 | 1 | |
| NYY | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | X | 13 | 18 | 0 |
WP - Joba Chamberlain (8-2)
LP - John Smoltz (2-5)
After dropping the first eight games of the '09 season to the Red Sox the Yankees have finally gotten in the win column. It wasn't pretty, that's for sure, but I'll take the win whatever way we can get it.
There were signs that this one could end up the like previous eight, especially when Jorge Posada single-handedly killed their first scoring opportunity. After singling with one out, and then moving to second on a walk to Robison Cano, Nick Swisher lined a single to center. Jorge, even with his lack of speed, could have easily scored, but for some reason he decided not to slide on a play at the plate and got himself tagged out. Maybe he got confused because Dustin Pedroia cut the ball off, but still, there's no reason he shouldn't have slid.
Pedroia then led off the next inning with a solo homer off Yanks starter Joba Chamberlain and the Sox had a 1-0 lead. Joba struggled with his command throughout his five innings of work. He allowed four runs on six hits, struck out five, and walked a career-high seven batters in just five innings pitched.
The Yanks would scored their first run in the bottom half of the inning on a Johnny Damon solo homer, his 20th of the season. But Boston came right back with two runs in the top of the fourth on a two-run homer by Casey Kotchman. It was his first hit as a Red Sox. Again those bad signs were piling up. Luckily those signs didn't matter because John Smoltz stinks.
Jorge led off the bottom of the fourth with a double. He then scored on a single off the bat of Cano to cut the Sox lead to one. This time there was no play at the plate. Swisher then walked and Melky Cabrera gave the Yanks the lead for good with a three-run homer. The Yanks then loaded the bases with one out and that would be it for the former great pitcher.
Former Yankee Billy Traber came out of the pen to face Hideki Matsui. Matsui hit a grounder to Kotchman who threw to second for the first out, but Matsui was able to beat the throw back to first and the Yanks scored their sixth run. Posada then stepped up and completely made up for his base running blunder by launching a three-run homer to center and the Yanks now led 9-3.
Things got a little dicey in the top of the fifth because Joba lost whatever little command he had in the first four. Victor Martinez and Kevin Youkilis started off the inning with back-to-back walks. Then, following a fly out by David Ortiz, Joba walked J.D. Drew to load the bases. Mike Lowell then drove in a run with an RBI single to cut the Yanks lead to 9-4, and put the tying run on deck. Joba would settle down enough to get the final two outs of the inning. First he struck out Kotchman, and then Nick Green. That would be it for Joba, who obviously didn't pitch well, but he got all the offense he needed and was able to pick up his eighth win of the year.
Matsui extended the Yanks lead to 11-4 with a two-run double in the fifth. They scored their 12th run in the bottom of the sixth on a Derek Jeter RBI single, and then Mark Teixeira added his league-leading 28th homer to make it 13-4.
Joe Girardi did a pretty good job handling the pen tonight. David Robertson got two outs in the sixth, though he did strike out three batters, but Jacoby Ellsbury reached because on a wild pitch on strike three. Then Phil Coke came in and got Ortiz for the final out of the inning. He stayed in for the first two outs of the seventh before giving way to Mark Melancon. who pitched 1.1 scoreless innings. Anthony Claggett finished off the game, but struggled a bit and gave up two runs on two hits and two walks. Still, he was able to lower his ERA to 33.75. Yes, he LOWERED his ERA to 33.75. Considering that Joba only gave the Yanks five, Girardi did a very good job keeping guys like Phil Hughes, Alfredo Aceves, and Mariano Rivera out of the game.
The major problem for the Yanks tonight was the base on balls, the five Yankees pitchers combined to walk 12 Red Sox which is obviously way too much. It's kind of amazing when you think about it; they walked 12 and still won by 7 runs. In fact, it was the first time the Yanks have walked 12 and won the game since August 29, 1967 when they beat Boston 4-3 at the old stadium. (hat-tip to Peter Abraham for that stat.)
With tonight's win the Yanks are now 3.5 games up on the Sox. Tomorrow's pitching matchup is a good one with A.J. Burnett going up against Sox ace Josh Beckett. Let's just hope it ends up differently than the first time they faced each other in Fenway.
Here are a couple signs that fans were holding up about David Ortiz that I thought you might like to see.
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG | |
| Jeter, SS | 5 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .316 |
| Damon, LF | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .287 |
| Teixeira, 1B | 4 | 2 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | .288 |
| Rodriguez, A, 3B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | .261 |
| Hinske, RF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .262 |
| Matsui, H, DH | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 3 | .261 |
| Posada, C | 5 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .278 |
| Cano, 2B | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .309 |
| Swisher, RF | 2 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | .248 |
| 1-Hairston, J, PR-RF-3B | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .257 |
| Cabrera, Me, CF | 5 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 5 | .286 |
| Totals | 39 | 13 | 18 | 13 | 6 | 4 | 13 | |
1-Ran for Swisher in the 6th. | ||||||||
BATTING 2B: Teixeira 2 (31, Smoltz, Smoltz), Posada (16, Smoltz), Matsui, H (19, Traber). HR: Damon (20, 3rd inning off Smoltz, 0 on, 1 out), Cabrera, Me (11, 4th inning off Smoltz, 2 on, 0 out), Posada (14, 4th inning off Traber, 2 on, 2 out), Teixeira (28, 7th inning off Traber, 0 on, 0 out). TB: Jeter; Damon 6; Teixeira 8; Rodriguez, A; Matsui, H 2; Posada 7; Cano 2; Swisher 2; Cabrera, Me 5. RBI: Damon (64), Cano (57), Cabrera, Me 3 (43), Matsui, H 3 (52), Posada 3 (50), Jeter (45), Teixeira (81). 2-out RBI: Posada 3; Matsui, H 2. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Cabrera, Me 2; Matsui, H; Posada; Damon. GIDP: Cabrera, Me. Team RISP: 6-for-13. Team LOB: 8. FIELDING DP: (Cano-Jeter-Teixeira). | ||||||||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |
| Chamberlain (W, 8-2) | 5.0 | 6 | 4 | 4 | 7 | 5 | 2 | 3.73 |
| Robertson, D | 0.2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 3.52 |
| Coke | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4.80 |
| Melancon | 1.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3.18 |
| Claggett | 1.0 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 33.75 |
Pitches-strikes: Chamberlain 108-62, Robertson, D 25-14, Coke 13-8, Melancon 28-16, Claggett 28-15.
RED SOX STATS
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Jorge Posada (despite his base running blunder Jorge still had a great game. He went 3-for-5, with a double, a homer, 3 RBI and two runs scored.)
HONORABLE MENTION: Take your pick; Mark Teixeira, Johnny Damon, and Melky Cabrera all had good games and picked up big hits.
Tomorrow's Game
Yankees vs. Red Sox
Game Time: 7:05 p.m. | TV/Radio: YES, WCBS
RHP A.J. Burnett (10-5, 3.89) vs. RHP Josh Beckett (13-4, 3.27)
Game Time: 7:05 p.m. | TV/Radio: YES, WCBS
RHP A.J. Burnett (10-5, 3.89) vs. RHP Josh Beckett (13-4, 3.27)
13 Comments:
Great win by the yanks. They did walk a lot of hitters but Cousins has a very small strikezone it is borderline ridiculous. Joba battled wasn't very impressive but he got out of jams and did a nice job limiting the damage. Robertson, Coke and Melancon did a very nice job. Also another plus was you won the game and didn't use Mo, Hughes and Aceves.
The one thing that concerns me is that how do the yanks expect Joba to keep a good rhythm when they are going to start skipping some of his starts. His command will not be very sharp.
Hopefully AJ can finally wake up the beast that's in him and pitch a hell of a game tomorrow.
Too many yankee fans I hear complaining on wfan and on other message boards about it being a sloppy win. The yankees were 0-8 against the red sox I dont care how they won.
Bottom line is the yanks have been the best team in baseball since May and now have a 3.5 game lead over the sox. Way too much complaining from yankee fans.
I'm not complaining, just stating a fact that this game was ugly. I couldn't care less how they win as long as they win.
I’m very happy with the win, but the Yankee pitching against Boston concerns me. Scoring 13 runs is nice, but the Yanks are lucky because Boston could have scored 10 runs easy with all the walks. Burnett has to pitch a good game on Friday because having the kind of control problems he had against the Chi Sox isn’t going to cut it if Beckett is on top of his game.
I was at the game and had a great time. Hung out with my buddy in the much maligned Mohegan Sun bar before the game. I have to say, I liked it and the bartender had a surprisingly heavy hand with the vodka drinks. Very nice. Plus I got to watch Ali drive right in front of us on the golf cart.
Then I went up to my season ticket package seats in section 333 for the game.
About the game...
I haven't seen the replay yet but WTF was Posada thinking??? I was pissed after that.
Plus Joba looked like crap. Couldn't throw first pitch strikes and constantly in trouble. But you have to give him some credit, he certainly limited the damage. It wasn't a quality start but the way he was pitching, he certainly could have given up more than 4 runs in 5 innings.
Of course the offensive explosion in the 4th cured all. We had a bunch of great people in our section and we were all whoopin' it up.
It certainly was an ugly win but any win was nice and now the Yanks are up 3 1/2.
On a side not, it was the 30th anniversary of Thurman Munson's funeral and the game after when Murcer drove in all five Yankee runs to win the game. I wore my Munson jersey in honor of it.
Posada wore a No. 15 decal on his mask in honor of Munson. A very classy move by Posada.
Since he did that plus his deep 3-run jack to center, I'll give him a pass for not sliding into home.
But it better not happen again.
There can't be any let up in the Yanks. They have to go out and win this series.
A sweep would be nice.
Can't understand some Yanks fans. I know that last night's game was not one for the purists but I was as psyched as Joba. My wife went upstairs to make a phone call at the start of the fourth inning (bottom). She came down 40 minutes later and asked: "is the game over yet?" I replied, "No, honey. The Yanks are still batting in the fourth!" I LOVED it. Let's rejoice that we've finally managed to beat the Sox and hope that we can now go on to even bigger and better things.
Game sounded like it was getting pretty loud in the stadium...Heard some great Boston Sucks chants on TV
-G
Pedroia is really proving to be the asshole we all suspected him to be. I can understand being frustrated with a blowout game, and then getting hit being the straw that breaks the camel's back, but after the game he told reporters that he didn't know if the HBP was intentional.
There's no way the yanks were going after him. The pitch "over his head" wasn't close to hitting him, and in addition, it was an 0-2 count, and Melancon has every right to go high and in out of the zone. Then the ball grazed Pedroia's arm. Do you know what I think Pedroia is actually pissed about? Everyone knows he can't hit the pitch up and in...and he knows it too.
Then, when a reporter asked what he was saying to Posada, he said, That's none of your business. Classic douche.
A slugfest at the Stadium, yet A-Rod and Big Pappy are virtual spectators. Is that a sign of the times?
That 0-2 pitch wasn't close to Pedroia head. He needs to stop crying like a baby.
This whole Melancon-Pedroia things has been blown totally out of proportion.
Its totally out of proportion is it..
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