Yankees 4 - Cubs 3
Curtis Granderson hit a tie breaking sacrifice fly in the sixth inning, and Brett Gardner made a terrific play in the outfield to highlight the Yankees 4-3 victory over the Cubs on Saturday Chicago.
Yankees starting pitcher, A.J Burnett, went 5.1 innings, allowing 2 runs, 3 walks, and striking out 8. As you can see, he had his better stuff today, and besides one long ball that accounted for the two runs he pitched a pretty good game. One the day, he threw 104 pitches with 59 of them being strikes.
The Yankees relievers, with the exception of Mariano were solid. In fact, besides Mo, the Yankees other three relievers -- Cory Wade, Hector Noesi and David Robertson -- all had perfect outings. As for Mo, we'll get to him later.
(Top 3rd: Yankees 2 - Cubs 0)
Grandy ripped a single into right center to leadoff the inning. Teixeira followed by grounded out to first and moving Granderson over to second base. A-Rod then ripped a single to left to advance Granderson to third. Robby Cano, don’t cha know? came up a shot a ball deep and into the ivy for a double, scoring Granderson and moving Arod to third. The Yanks were in business with a 1-0 lead and men on 2nd and 3rd. Swisher drove the ball to deep center, giving A-Rod plenty of time to scurry home with the Yanks 2nd run.
(Bottom 4th: Yankees 2 - Cubs 2)
Blake DeWitt walked to start the inning, Ramirez followed by striking out swinging, then former Ray, Carlos Pena launched a 386-foot shot to right to tie the game. That was Burnett's only mistake of the day.
(Top 6th: Yankees 3 - Cubs 2)
Nunez singled to center to begin the inning, then, following a Burnett sacrifice, Gardner tapped an infield hit to short stop to put runners on the corners with one out. Granderson then gave the Yankees the lead for good wit ha sac fly to right.
(Bottom 6th: Yankees 3 - Cubs 2)
After loading the bases with one out on a walk and two errors, the Cubs looked like they were about to take control of this game. Following the first of two errors Burnett, who had clearly run out of gas, was replaced by Cory Wade. Luckily Brett Gardner turned Geovany Soto's sinking liner into an inning-ending doubleplay. Russell Martin also came up big on the play, holding his ground and taking a nice hit from Carlos Pena at the plate.
The Yankees added what turned out to be a huge insurance run in the top half of the 9th. With one out, Cano doubled and then Swisher walked to put two on with one out. After Russell Martin popped out to foul territory, Nunez came up and ripped a clutch doubled to scored Cano. Swisher, who tried to score all the way from first, was thrown out at home to end the inning.
(Bottom 9th - Yankees 4 Cubs 3)
Mariano Riviera came in for the ninth and you could tell from his first few pitches that he didn't have his best location. One of his first offerings actually crossed up Russell Martin behind the plate, nailing the homeplate umpire in the arm. One of his early misplaced pitches to Reed Johnson ended up in the seats and cut the Yanks lead to 4-3. Alfonso Soriano followed the homer with a single up the middle and the Cubbies had the tying run on base. But like he does, Mo would eventually settle down. The next batter, Geovany Soto, grounded into a 4-4-3 double play, and Jeff Baker struck out to end the game. Ballgame over, Yankees win! Thaaaaaaaaaaaaa Yankees Win!
(BOX SCORE)
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