One night after winning in very workmanlike fashion, the Bronx Bombers stayed true to their name on Tuesday and beat Oakland with the long ball. Alex Rodriguez led the charge, launching a pair of homers and driving in five of the team’s six runs. That was plenty given the effort CC Sabathia put forth, and the Yankees clinched the series win. Tampa Bay topped the Red Sox for the second straight night, so the Yanks division lead remained at two.
Biggest Hit: No One Loads The Bases For A-Rod And Lives To Tell About It, No One
This grand slam stuff is getting to be pretty fun, eh? The Yankees hit eight salamis in the first half of the season, and showed no signs of diverging from that path in the season half in this one. After the A’s took an early one run lead lead on a walk, stolen base, passed ball, and a double, it took the Yanks all of two innings to respond. Jorge Posada, in his first game back from his sprained left ring finger, singled back up the box to lead off the 3rd, though he was forced out at second on Curtis Granderson’s ground ball to second. Colin Curtis walked and Brett Gardner singled to center to load them up with just the one out.
Derek Jeter, hitting in the second spot of the lineup for the second straight day, did something that was sadly predictable: he grounded the ball to second and appeared to hit into a rally killing double play. Oakland got the out a second but Jeter just barely beat the relay to first, tying the game at one when Granderson crossed the plate. The molten hot Mark Teixeira stepped up with a chance to give the Yanks the lead, but he had the bat taken out of his hands when he took an errant sinker to the ribs. He went down in pain, but ultimately stayed in the game. I knew everything would be fine when I saw Gene Monahan smile.
So up comes Alex Rodriguez, already with two grand slams to his credit on the season. The first pitch was a curveball that he fouled off, the second a sinker out of the zone. A changeup in the dirt followed, and a 2-2 count became a 3-1 count when the first base ump ruled that Alex checked his swing on a curve off the plate. Trevor Cahill made a mistake with the next pitch that showed his youth more than his All Star form: he threw an 89 mph fastball in a 3-1 count. It was a no-doubter right off the bat, a shot deep into the left-center seats that put the Yanks up by four.
It was A-Rod’s 21st career grand slam, tying him with Manny Ramirez for second most all-time. He tacked on a solo shot in the 6th, and he’s now just three away from 600 career dingers. Make sure you get your tickets for that first post-All Star break homestand, folks.
Biggest Out: Barton Goes Down Looking
Even with the first inning run, CC Sabathia cruised threw the first few innings of this one and started the 5th inning with a nice four run lead. The first out was a harmless fly ball to center, but Adam Rosales and former RAB Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Matt Carson singled to put two on with one out. Rajai Davis popped out into (way) foul territory, but Sabathia uncharacteristically walked the bases loaded when his former teammate Coco Crisp took four wide ones.
So here he is, with a four run lead and the tying run at the plate. Calm and collected, Sabathia dropped a first pitch curve in on Daric Burton for a called strike one. The next pitch missed wide for a ball, but the two pitches after that were called balls when they really weren’t. In danger of walking in a run for just the third time in his Yankee career, CC got Barton to foul off a 96 mph heater to run the count full, then finished him off with another 96 mph piece of cheese on the outer black. Barton slammed his bat on home plate and got in the umpire’s face, but the Yanks walked off their field with their lead intact.
More CC? Si Si!
It started in June, and it just hasn’t stopped. Sabathia’s surge continued not far from his hometown, as he held the A’s to just the one run over 7.2 innings, striking out a season high ten batters and throwing 74 of his 118 pitches in the strike zone. We’re officially into Beast Mode, people. The American League has been forewarned.
Some Other Stuff
How about those two plays in foul territory for Tex? In any other parks, those pop ups are rows deep. Rows, as in plural.
Granderson picked up a base hit off a lefty. Believe it or not, that’s just his sixth hit to leftfield of the season. Sixth! I guess he doesn’t really have an inside-out swing though. He also stole a base. Hopefully this series is the start of something big for the Yanks’ centerfielder.
Posada looked fine behind the plate, no obvious issues with the injured finger. The wild pitch in the 1st was on CC, it almost went over everyone’s heads and to the backstop. Jorge even picked up a hit, so everything seems a-okay. That said, I wouldn’t be surprised if Frankie Cervelli was behind the plate tomorrow, just to take it easy on Posada.
Robbie Cano, oh so great in the first half, is now just 11 for his last 59 (.186) dating back to June 20th. Maybe the Homerun Derby will help get him back on track.
Brett Gardner this series: 1-for-8, two strikeouts. It’s still hella, hella early, but the early returns on the leadoff hitter experiment are not what we hoped for.
WPA Graph & Box Score
It’s not as cool as Tuesday night’s Rockies-Cardinals graph, but I’ll definitely take it. Here’s the box score, and then the nerd score.
Up Next
The Yankees will go for the sweep tomorrow, hoping that A.J. Burnett continues to rebound from his awful June. His opponent? Well, still the A’s, but the opposing starterisĀ Gio Gonzalez, who the Yanks’ pounded back in May.
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