Joba Shows Improvement As Yanks Beat Angels

(AP Photo/Bill Kostroun)

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
LAA	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	1	0		3	8	1
NYY	0	0	1	0	2	0	0	2	X		5	9	0

WP - Phil Hughes (7-3)
LP - Jered Weaver (15-6)
SV - Mariano Rivera (40)
Coming into this game I didn't feel that it was all that important, at least not in terms of what happens if these two teams meet again in a month or so. I still feel that way now, but one thing I will say is that this game certainly had a playoff feeling to it. Both teams battled, both managers consistently tried to make the move that would propel his team to victory, and in the bottom of the 8th Joe Girardi made that move.

With one out in the inning Mark Teixeira hit a ground-rule double, which was followed by an Alex Rodriguez walk to knock Jered Weaver out of the game. Taking some people by surprise, Girardi sent in Brett Gardner to pinch-run for Teixeira, and as we learned in the postgame, told him to take third base. On the 1-1 pitch, Gardner went for it. Catcher Mike Napoli caught the fastball and fired a fastball of his own to third, ahead of the sliding Gardner, but the throw was just out of the reach of third baseman Chone Figgins and went into left field. Gardner scampered home to give the Yankees a 4-3 lead. A-Rod, who made it to third on the play, would later score the Yankees fifth run on a Robinson Cano RBI single.

The two runs in the bottom of the 8th gave Mariano Rivera all the runs he would need to pick up his 40th save of the season. He now has not allowed a run in 32 innings.

Joba Chamberlain started this one for the Yanks, and was surprisingly good. In four innings the right-hander allowed one run on four hits, he did not walk a batter, and struck out two. Of his 67 pitches, 41 were strikes. The only run came on a Vladimir Guerrero solo homer in the top of the second. It was clearly his best start since the end of July. He threw mostly fastballs tonight (42 according to Brooks Baseball), mixed in the slider, which was pretty sharp tonight, and also threw in a few curves and changeups. David Cone has been saying for weeks that he wanted to see Joba to get back to throwing more fastballs, and it seems that he has and that it's helping.

Trailing 1-0 in the bottom of the third, Nick Swisher tied the game with a solo shot to right, his 27th homer of the season.

Then, after the Angels scored a run off reliever Alfredo Aceves in the 5th to take a two-run lead, the Yankees came back with two of their own in the bottom half. Swisher led off the inning with a double, and then Melky Cabrera walked to put runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out. Derek Jeter then moved the runners into scoring position with a sac bunt. Johnny Damon then hit a slow roller in between 2nd and 3rd and it looked like the Yanks would tie the game. But Cabrera ran into Figgins before he could field the ball, was called out for interference, and Swisher had to return to third. The rally looked like it might have been killed, but Teixeira then stepped up and launched a ball off the wall in center for a two-run triple, and the Yanks led 3-2.

Alfredo Aceves held the Angels scoreless in the sixth, but left the game with two on and one out in the seventh. Ace wasn't great tonight, but he only allowed the one run and with Joba only going four the most important thing was that he gave the Yankees 2.1 innings in relief.

Phil Coke replaced Aceves and struck out Figgins for the second out of the inning. Then, Maicer Izturis hit a grounder up the middle that looked like it was ticketed for centerfield, but Jeter and his new range, fielded the ball, did one of his pirouettes, and fired to first. The ball short-hopped Teixeira, but he made a great backhand scoop to save an error and end the inning.

For the second time in three outings Phil Hughes blew a lead. Bobby Abreu and Guerrero started off the top of the 8th with back-to-back singles. Then Torii Hunter walked to load the bases with nobody out. The game looked like it was slipping away. But Hughes composed himself, got Kendry Morales to bang into a double play - a run scored to tie it up, but it was a big pitch for Hughes. Then Howie Kendrick lined out to end the inning.

I'm impressed that while Hughes has struggled two out of the last three times out, both times he didn't allow things to totally get out of hand. He looked terrible for those first three batters, then straighten himself out and made some big pitches. If only A.J. Burnett could do that before giving up six runs.

Thanks to the two runs in the bottom of the 8th Hughes picked up the win to improve his record to 7-3 on the year.

The win increases the Yankees lead for best record in baseball to six games over the Angels.

With the magic number down to 12 the Yankees will start a three-game series with the Blue Jays starting tomorrow night. Sergio Mitre will get the start for the Yankees, and he will face Jays ace Roy Halladay.

	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Jeter, SS	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	.330
Damon, LF	4	1	0	0	0	1	3	.284
Teixeira, 1B	4	0	3	2	0	0	1	.285
1-Gardner, PR-CF	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	.272
Rodriguez, A, 3B	2	1	0	0	2	0	2	.286
Matsui, H, DH	3	0	1	0	1	1	1	.275
Posada, C	3	0	0	0	1	0	3	.280
2-Guzman, F, PR	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
Molina, J, C	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.243
Cano, 2B	4	0	2	1	0	0	2	.319
Swisher, RF-1B	4	2	2	1	0	2	2	.254
Cabrera, Me, CF-RF	2	0	1	0	1	0	0	.280
Totals	29	5	9	4	5	4	15
1-Ran for Teixeira in the 8th. 2-Ran for Posada in the 8th.
BATTING 2B: Swisher (30, Weaver, Jr), Teixeira (39, Weaver, Jr). 3B: Teixeira (1, Weaver, Jr). HR: Swisher (27, 3rd inning off Weaver, Jr, 0 on, 0 out). TB: Teixeira 6; Matsui, H; Cano 2; Swisher 6; Cabrera, Me. RBI: Swisher (79), Teixeira 2 (111), Cano (77). 2-out RBI: Teixeira 2; Cano. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Rodriguez, A; Swisher. S: Jeter. GIDP: Posada; Cano. Team RISP: 2-for-8. Team LOB: 6. BASERUNNING SB: Rodriguez, A (11, 2nd base off Oliver/Napoli), Gardner (21, 3rd base off Oliver/Napoli). FIELDING DP: (Jeter-Cano-Teixeira).

	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Chamberlain	4.0	4	1	1	0	2	1	4.39
Aceves, A	2.1	2	1	1	2	2	0	3.72
Coke (H, 19)	0.2	0	0	0	0	1	0	4.91
Hughes, P (BS, 2)(W, 7-3)	1.0	2	1	1	1	0	0	3.18
Rivera, Ma (S, 40)	1.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	1.69

Pitches-strikes: Chamberlain 67-41, Aceves, A 44-26, Coke 12-7, Hughes, P 20-11, Rivera, Ma 26-16.

ANGELS STATS

PLAYER OF THE GAME: Mark Teixeira (3-for-4, 2B, 3B, 2 RBI)

HONORABLE MENTION: Nick Swisher (2-for-4, 2B, HR, RBI, 2 R)

Tomorrow's Game

Yankees vs. Blue Jays
Game Time: 7:05 p.m. TV/Radio: My9, WCBS
RHP Sergio Mitre (3-2, 7.02) vs. RHP Roy Halladay (14-9, 3.03)