(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | ||
| NYY | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 1 | |
| OAK | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 0 |
WP - Alfredo Aceves (8-1)
LP - Brett Anderson (7-9)
SV - Mariano Rivera (36)
Mark Teixeira drove in all three Yankees runs in tonight's 3-2 win over the A's. The win makes it five series wins in a row for the Yanks, and improves their record to 75-44.
With Derek Jeter on third with one out in the first, Tex hit a ground ball to third, scoring Jeter and giving the Yanks a 1-0 lead. He would add two more to the Yankees total in the fourth with a long two-run homer off A's starter Brett Anderson.
Anderson would settle down, eventually completing seven innings of work. He allowed the three runs on six hits, walked one and struck out six. After him, Michael Wuertz and Craig Breslow pitched a scoreless eighth and ninth.
Chad Gaudin started for the Yankees and surprisingly wasn't too bad. His slider looked very good tonight, and in 4.1 innings he held the A's to no runs on just one hit. On the negative side, he did walk five, hit a batter, and threw 90 pitches.
Thanks to a Robinson Cano error (Jeter also deserves some blame) Gaudin got into some trouble in the fifth when the A's loaded the bases with one out. Eventhough Joe Girardi wanted to let Gaudin get a win, he was at his pitch limit and winning the game was much more important than trying to get Gaudin to get the win. So after 4.1 scoreless that would be it for Chad.
Alfredo Aceves game out of the pen, and on the second pitch he threw Kurt Suzuki grounded into a 1-2-3 inning-ending double play. Ace stayed on to pitch the sixth, and retired the first two batters he faced in the inning before allowing a solo homer to Jack Cust to cut the Yanks lead to 3-1. Then in the seventh, after once again retiring the first two batters of the inning, he allowed a single to Rajai Davis, who then stole second. The next batter was Mark Ellis and he drove in the A's second run with an RBI single. Suzuki then singled to put runners on first and second with two out and knock Aceves out of the game.
Phil Coke was the next Yankee out of the pen, and he retired the only batter he faced - Ryan Sweeney on a ground out to second to end the A's threat.
At this point I wasn't feeling too confident; the A's were chipping away and gaining momentum, while the Yankees batters seemed like they were already thinking about Boston. Phil Hughes' start to the eighth inning didn't make me feel much better.
Catcher Landon Powell lead off with a walk, that was followed by a Cust single and the A's had two on with nobody out. Now this is when a real team bunts the runners over and plays good smart baseball, but not the A's. Instead they had Tommy Everidge swing away and he banged into a 5-5-3 rally-killing double play. The next batter was Cliff Pennington and he flew out to Johnny Damon to end the inning. Hughes did a great job making his pitches and getting out of the jam.
While the bridge to Mariano Rivera was a little shaky tonight, Mo was not. He needed just seven pitches to put the A's away 1-2-3 in the ninth and pick up his 36th save of the season. Mo is now 36 of 37 in save opportunities and has converted his last 32 in a row. Awesome.
The Yankees now have a much-needed off day as they head to Boston to face the Sox in a three-game series. Boston plays tomorrow night in Toronto (hope the game goes 18 innings) so the Yanks will head into that series with either a 6.5 or 7.5 game lead.
| AB | R | H | RBI | BB | SO | LOB | AVG | |
| Jeter, SS | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .331 |
| Damon, LF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | .285 |
| Teixeira, 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | .283 |
| Rodriguez, A, 3B | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | .254 |
| Matsui, H, DH | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | .265 |
| Swisher, RF | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | .245 |
| Cano, 2B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 1 | .313 |
| Cabrera, Me, CF | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | .267 |
| Molina, J, C | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | .244 |
| Totals | 32 | 3 | 6 | 3 | 1 | 9 | 5 | |
BATTING HR: Teixeira (31, 4th inning off Anderson, B, 1 on, 0 out). TB: Jeter 2; Damon 2; Teixeira 4; Swisher. RBI: Teixeira 3 (89). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Teixeira. GIDP: Molina, J. Team RISP: 0-for-3. Team LOB: 3. BASERUNNING SB: Jeter (21, 2nd base off Anderson, B/Powell). FIELDING E: Cano (6, missed catch). DP: 2 (Aceves, A-Molina, J-Teixeira, Rodriguez, A-Teixeira). | ||||||||
| IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | HR | ERA | |
| Gaudin | 4.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 | 0 | 4.94 |
| Aceves, A (W, 8-1) | 2.1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 3.82 |
| Coke (H, 15) | 0.1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4.68 |
| Hughes, P (H, 13) | 1.0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3.39 |
| Rivera, Ma (S, 36) | 1.0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1.90 |
Pitches-strikes: Gaudin 90-51, Aceves, A 32-25, Coke 3-2, Hughes, P 18-12, Rivera, Ma 7-5.
ATHLETICS STATS
PLAYER OF THE GAME: Mark Teixeira (1-for-4, HR, 3 RBI, R)
HONORABLE MENTION: Chad Gaudin (4.1 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 5 BB, 5 K)
Tomorrow's Game
Off day
Off day
8 Comments:
Girardi bullpen management has been a little strange lately. I thought he stayed with Aceves too long tonight. After Ace gave up the the homerun in the 6th, I thought he would of went to Bruney in the 7th. Then in the 7th he kept Aceves in to face Suzuki after Ellis hit that rbi single.
Now Bruney will not have pitched in the last 6 days going into the boston series. He is probably going to get used against the red sox. You hope he has good command of his pitches. Girardi did the same thing with Aceves. Ace went 5 days without pitching before the mariners series and he did not have a feel for his curveball on sunday. Hughes just went four days without pitching and he walked the first batter he faced.
Its a little odd I understand resting your bullpen arms but they do need work in order to stay sharp.
Melky is down to 267. Wow he was hitting 290 a couple of weeks ago. The platoon with Gardner was good for both of them.
Gaudin was not bad last night. He got screwed by the error in the fifth or else he may have gotten the win.
Cano looked horrible at the plate last night and I think he is now 0 for his last 27 in Oakland.
As for Melky, he seems to be tiring. I have always thought he was a very good 4th outfielder and I agree that the platoon with Gardy was good for him.
Jeter is on fire lately and Teix has been Teix.
I have waited for ARod to go on a tear all year and it just doesn't look like its going to happen.
In the 88 games since he has been back, he only has fourteen games with two or more hits. And of those fourteen, only five of those games did he have three or more hits. (Four games with 3 hits and one with 5.)
I know he's hurt and I'm not bitching about it. I think the injury is much more painful and hard to play with than people realize.
He is still hitting for power and getting his walks but he hasn't had that one great run that I thought he would.
Can you imagine how good this team could be if he went on a tear?
Excellent West Coast trip. 5-2 was one game better than I had expected or hoped for. My one big concern going into Fenway is the lack of offense at the moment and the over-reliance on Tex to come up with the big hit. You can get away with it against the weaker teams but you won't against the Sox, who are back firing on all cylinders now.
i HATE girardi's use of hughes - when you don't get consistent work you lose control, it's that simple. instead of letting him pitch once every 3-4 days it's like 5-6 and he loses his swagger.
Awesome!!!!
So great to read this. *big grins*
God Bless the Yanks!!!
GO GO GO!!!
It was definitely a great trip. Anytime you can go out west and play well it's a good thing.
Melky needs Gardner back.
Although it was a pretty good west coast swing, I am still a bit worried about their lack of offense the past few days. Although the pitching match ups heading into Boston somewhat favor the Yankees (Pettitte vs. Penny, Burnett vs. Tazawa, Sabathia vs. Beckett), their offense needs to play better. I must say however that the fact that the Yankees won last night is a testament to how much better the Yankees are overall compared with recent years. Although Ace and Hughes didn’t have their best outings, the Yankees still won a close low-scoring affair. Last year the Yankees lose this ballgame handedly.
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