The Yankees haven’t played many see-saw games this year, but Friday night’s homestand-opening tilt against the Twins teetered back and forth repeatedly before the final blow was struck in the seventh.
A.J. Burnett struggled early on, working around a single and a walk in the first, then getting into a bases-loaded, no-outs jam in the second after Jason Kubel singled, Delmon Young walked, and Alex Rodriguez flubbed an Alexi Casilla bunt. Feeling the pinch from home plate umpire Alfonso Marquez, Burnett walked Nick Punto on four pitches to force in the first run of the game, but then wrangled a Denard Span comebacker in his baggy jersey to start a 1-2-3 double play and struck out Orlando Hudson to strand all three remaining runners.
Burnett settled down from there, which allowed the Yankees to return serve against Twins starter Scott Baker in the fourth. Brett Gardner led off that frame with a no-doubter home run into the right field bleachers, his second roundtripper of the season. Mark Teixeira followed with a single, moved to second on a walk to Alex Rodriguez, and came around to score on a double by Robinson Cano. Baker, who bears a resemblance to actor Joseph Gordon Levitt, then struck out the weak underbelly of the Yankee order (Randy Winn, a mid-game replacement for Nick Swisher whose bicep tightened up again in his first at-bat though a subsequent MRI was negative and Swisher said he was fine, Marcus Thames, and Juan Miranda) to hold the score at 2-1.
The Twins tied things right back up in the top of the fifth when, with two outs, Joe Mauer connected for an opposite-field solo homer. The Yanks then got that run back in the bottom of the fifth when, again with two outs, when Gardner singled and Teixeira doubled him home. In what initially seemed like a big play, Rodriguez followed with a single to left, but third base coach Rob Thomson sent Teixeira home from second against the strong arm of Delmon Young, who threw Tex out by about 20 feet, ending the inning and keeping the Yankee lead at 3-2.
That score held until the seventh, when with Span on second via a single and a productive out, Joe Girardi hooked Burnett at exactly 100 pitches (just 51 of which were strikes) and brought in Damaso Marte to face the left-handed Mauer and Justin Morneau. Marte, who hadn’t pitched since the previous Saturday, entered without much command or much break on his slider and promptly gave up a game-tying opposite-field single to Mauer.
With the speedy Span sprinting home, Brett Gardner made an ill-advised and wild throw home allowing Mauer to go to second, but with first base open and Joba Chamberlain heating it up in the bullpen, Girardi opted not to walk Morneau, who has been among the hottest players in the league in the early going, and have Chamberlain pitch to the vastly inferior right-hander Michael Cuddyer. Instead, Marte threw his rusty slop at Morneau, and Morneau smacked a double, which with Mauer on second thanks to Gardner’s bad throw, plated the go-ahead run for Minnesota. Only then did Girardi hold up four fingers, instructing Marte to walk the righty and stay in to pitch to the lefty Kubel, who flew out to end the rally.
Between Thomson’s send of Teixeira, Gardner’s throw, and Girardi’s excessive faith in a rusty Marte, it looked like the Yankees were in the process of kicking away a close game, but in the bottom of the seventh, team sparkplug Francisco Cervelli led off by beating out an infield single to Orlando Hudson’s right and Derek Jeter followed by ricochetting a ball off Baker’s knee and into shallow right field for an unusual double. That bounced Baker at exactly 100 pitches (72 of which were strikes). Twins manager Ron Gardenhire called on lefty Brian Duensing, last year’s ALDS Game 1 starter, who got Gardner to fly out for the first out. Gardenhire then had Duensing intentionally walk Mark Teixeira to set up a force at every base and brought in groundballing ace setup man Matt Guerrier to face Alex Rodriguez.
The catch is that Rodriguez had three home runs in six prior at-bats against Guerrier. Rodriguez hit Guerrier’s first offering just foul over third base and grimaced at the loss of what he thought was a go-ahead double. Guerrier’s next pitch was a hanging sinker up in the zone and Rodriguez crushed it into the left-field box seats for a game-breaking grand slam.
The Yanks added an extra run in the eighth when Juan Miranda doubled and Francisco Cervelli shot a ball into the right-field corner that kicked past Cuddyer and allowed Cervelli to cruise into third with an RBI stand-up triple. Around that, Joba Chamberlain struck out the side in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera worked a 1-2-3 ninth, getting ahead 0-2 on every batter. Yankees win 8-4.
Nice way to kick off a homestand.
In other news, Sergio Mitre was officially named Sunday’s starter, and the Yankees released perpetually injured pitching prospect Christian Garcia to make room for minor league pitcher Shane Lindsay, who was claimed off waivers from the Rockies. Lindsay throws hard, but is a 25-year-old right-hander who has walked 6.1 men per nine innings in his minor league career. Brian Cashman actually called him “a lesser version of Brian Bruney” and seemed to mean it as a compliment. Meanwhile David Winfree remains a non-roster player and Greg Golson remains a largely pointless member of the 25-man roster.
That'll teach you to pitch to ARod.
Cliff, wasn't Golson picked off in the 8th or am I misremembering?
BTW, I love the words "No doubt HR by Gardner". I just wonder if he can keep it up for the rest of the season. So far he's been insane. Anyone know how he compares to other AL CFs?
[2] oh crap, yes, I'll fix that (though Golson was actually safe, the tag was late, no one will argue when a guy gets picked off having broken for second)
[4] Done. I also added a note at the end on other news.
So BP has him still listed as a LFer, but Gardner currently ranks ahead of these people in VORP:
Manny Ramirez
Johnny Damon
Josh Hamilton
Matt Holliday
wowza.
Instead of "lesser Brian Bruney" how about "greater Kyle Farnsworth"? Oh wait, I guess that's not really a compliment either.
[7] Well, I'll give you that. He's allowed just six homers in six mL seasons and struck out 12.5 per 9IP, but a 25yo RHP with that walk rate when your major league team could use a more viable bench outfielder? C'mon.
Was there tonight. Awesome game.
Why was the official scorer allowed to give the win to Chamberlain?
If I was described as a lesser Brian Bruney, I might look for different work.
[10] {sad trombone}
[8] Oh, I completely agree with your analysis. I was really hoping to see Winfree, if only because his name sounds like Winfield. Watching Winn and Thames (especially against RHers) is becoming painful. At the very least, watching them hit reminds me that it is actually hard to get ML pitching.
[9] Must be scorer's discretion. He must have a "no vultures " policy. While I don't understand it myself, it's good karma. Marte threw an a$$ sandwich tonite (did you see AJ walk down the clubhouse runway in a bit of a huff when Mauer tied the game and Joba was just lights out.
Anybody else want pie? And no, I don't mean Felix....
Gardenhire IBBd Tex to pitch to A-Rod? How does anyone defend this guy as a good manager??
Seems like a great win!
[9] [13] It is scorer's discretion. If the relief pitcher of record when the winning run scores is "ineffective" (which, if I'm not mistaken, is Marte's middle name), then the scorer can award the W to someone else. I posted the text of the rule here last night.
[14] And I presaged your sentiments a little earlier in the evening. Gardenhire is the most overrated manager in the game.
Via RAB, Gardenhire's record in the Bronx: 3-24. So at least we are feasting off the fat of his stupidity.
[15] I honestly don't recall ever seeing that before.
Ciao a tutti. Italy is great, but not as enjoyable as a no doubt HR by Brett Gardner! I've only been checking the odd box score, but it looks like Jeter has been really slumping. What's the scoop.
Also, Mitre has been named the starter in place of whom, Javy or Andy?
I see that Sir Phil has been awesome...in fact, so awesome that he is almost as valuable as a reliable eighth inning guy. With injuries to other starters and his effectiveness at going deep into games, I wonder how they handle his innings limit. Or maybe they'll just turn him loose.
18) How long are you there for? Dude, I'm so envious!
[18] hi mp. hope you are enjoying your month in italy.
i did a quick check on jeter's numbers last night - in a small sample he is really struggling against righties. no real scoop - just being too hacky and offering up weak hacks that leads to bullshit choppers to the short stop.
gritner has really been the brightest spot of the yanks the last few series. and frankie b too.
the luckiness of mitre is the result of a rainout earlier in the week in detroit - they played a day/night double header and girardi doesn't want to bring anyone back on short rest.
supposedly skipping andy was just precautionary and he is supposed to go today.
javy had a much, much better start this week.
let's hope they do a sensible job with phil. he has been masterful.
Mmm, rusty slop.
(hi, i'm back!)
21) Yo! Nice to have you back!
[22] Thanks! A month-long field trip started in Indianapolis in the Duke student section, followed by many tick, chigger, and poison ivy filled days collecting moss all across the eastern US. Haven't caught much baseball, but it seems the Yankees are carrying on well without me!
[23] Wait, you were a rolling stone all over the east, and yet you gathered moss???
This is big, mehmattski. You have done what is widely believed to be impossible.
Also, [21] Rusty Slop: Le Grande Orange!
[23] what's the moss for? what do you do?
[26] I'm a PhD student, and I'm studying mating patterns in mosses (specifically, peat mosses)-- I'm investigating who mates with whom, and relating it to various moss characteristics. Kind of like how we know that the moose with the biggest antlers or the cardinal with the brightest feathers tends to get the most mates-- I'm trying to find the analogy in mosses. Mosses can be male or female, and I'd like to know if there are some males or females getting more than their fair share of the offspring-- and then I'd like to figure out why. I'm also interested in more general descriptive genetics of mosses: for example, how inbred are the offspring, and does the inbreeding come at a cost?
It involves a lot of paternity testing (almost exactly like how it's done with humans) and statistical analysis, but the field work is also really fun-- lots of pretty places (minus the annoying insects).
[27] that's awesome stuff. There is so much to learn about mosses and the like. And yeah, mosses are found in some awesome spots. So that's real cool. Thanks for sharing.
[27]
geeky! (and sounds like fun)
I just daydreamed an entire Monte Python skit involving the interrogation of moss.