CC Sabathia worked into and out of trouble all night, especially in the seventh inning. With runners on first and third with one out and the game tied at 2, Sabathia struck out John McDonald and eventually induced a fielder’s choice groundout to end the threat.
Hideki Matsui rewarded Sabathia with a leadoff solo home run in the top of the eighth to give the Yankees a 3-2 lead. Sabathia improves to 3-3 on the season and Mariano Rivera recorded his seventh save.
Sabathia struck out five and walked four, but he gave the Yankees eight innings when he didn’t exactly have his best stuff. He threw 111 pitches.
The Yankees struck first when Nick Swisher walked with the bases loaded in the top of the first inning. The Yankees held that lead until the bottom of the fourth when Alex Rios hit a solo home run off Sabathia. They would score again in the next inning on a Rod Barajas double to take a 2-1 lead.
The bottom of the fifth inning could have been worse for Sabathia and the Yankees. After Barajas’ RBI double, McDonald singled to center. However, Brett Gardner fired a one-hopper home that nabbed Barajas. Sabathia was then able to record the third and final out to escape further trouble.
The young players on the Yankees started the team’s rally in the top of the seventh. Gardner led off with a single and advanced to third on Francisco Cervelli’s single. That ended Jays’ starter Brian Tallet’s night. Jason Frasor entered and promptly gave up a game-tying single to Derek Jeter. Matsui homered in the next inning.
The Yankees are now 17-17 and have won two series in a row after the five-game losing streak. They will begin a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins at Yankee Stadium tomorrow night. This begins a 10-game homestand.
AP Photo
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Sabathia, Matsui lead Yankees to victory
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
I was half-expecting C.C. to be the hard luck loser a la Johan Santana, but fortunately the Yanks got just enough runs in. Just barely! Tex seems to be slowly warming up, but with guys like Swisher and Cano (nice how he ended a rally with the bases loaded) cooling off, they're going to need to get their act together for the homestand.
All I ask is not even a sweep, but something like an 8-2 or 7-3 homestand and I'll be placated for the time being.
Leaving runners on is still a concern on mine. However, it was nice to see CC bend but not break like Pettitte did last night. At this point, I think something like 7-3 is still too much to ask for. Hopefully I'm wrong, but I'll take 6-4.
Post a Comment