The New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers have established themselves as the best two teams in the AL (perhaps even across MLB) up to this point in the season and the scheduling gods placed them in a mid-August four-game bout at the new Yankee Stadium in a very possible playoff preview. With CC Sabathia out of the fold for the opener, young David Phelps was asked by Girardi to grow up a little more against the big-boy Texas lineup.The only toy tossed Phelps' way was that the Rangers were without the power-hitting Mike Napoli, on the DL with a quad injury.
The Rangers acquired Ryan Dempster at the trading deadline and the long-time NL pitcher opposed Phelps in one of the most infamous AL homer-friendly ballparks. The Rangers struck first with an RBI single by Nelson Cruz in the 1st inning, and then a golfed David Murphy solo homer to right in the 2nd. Dempster must have thought this AL-hitting stuff was nothing but a myth when the yielded no hits in his first two inning of work. Then came the 3rd, Russell Martin lead off the inning with a single, followed by a Raul Ibanez single as well. Ichiro moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt which put runners of second and third with one out. The next hitter, Jeter, walked, and that set up a base loaded situation for Nick Swisher. With one swing Swisher brought them all home on a grand slam and gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead they would never look back from.
The Yankees added another run in the inning from a Curtis Granderson sacrifice fly that plated Cano, but the bases were loaded again and there was the possibility of a second grand slam in the 3rd. That was enough for David Phelps to get the win as he put in 5 solid innings with only giving up the 2 runs, and actually picking off two Ranger runners on the base pads. The newly acquired Derrick Lowe made his Yankee debut and took the pitching reigns from there. Chavez celebrated Lowe's entrance with a solo homer in the 6th that made it 6-2 Yankees, and two more runs were tacked on in the 7th from Jeter and Swisher RBI hits (Swisher's 5th of the night). Lowe went 4 innings of no run ball and technically qualified for a save which must have made the Indians just proud. The first round between the sluggers went to the Yankees 8-2.
There was another former Dodger to toss at the Rangers, that's Hiroki Kuroda, who has served as the Yanks' best pound-for-pound starting pitcher in 2012. Facing him was the 13-7 lefty Matt Harrison and both pitchers refused to give an inch over the first 6 innings. In fact, Kuroda flirted with a no-hitter and it wasn't until the top of the 7th until he finally surrendered one to Elvis Andrus. With Jeter given a half-day with being the DH, Andrus was able to leg out an infield single on a tough play Jayson Nix wasn't able to complete. It begs to wonder had Jeter been at short that night - would've the play been made?
Perhaps the Bombers couldn't score off of Harrison, but they certainly were able to run his pitch count up and had him out of the game after a one-out Derek Jeter single. Rangers manager Ted Washington selected hard-throwing Alexi Ogando to face the previous night's hero, Nick Swisher, and Mark Teixeira; both ended up in homeruns. Swisher's a 2-run shot with Jeter on that went deep to the Yankee bullpen, and Teixeira lined one that barely got over the right field wall. Now with a lead, Kuroda was able to get the final six outs on his own for a dominating two-hit complete game shutout that sealed the 3-0 victory for the Yanks.
Rain delayed the start of the third round of the fight, and this time Freddy Garcia's turn came up to keep the Rangers off the board. The Garcia resurgence, ever since he was inserted back into the rotation after Pettitte went down, and Kuroda, are two big reason the Yankees haven't lost their positioning on top of the AL East with their rash of injuries to big-named players. After being suppressed over the first two games, it would seem the Ranger bats would bust out against the junk-throwing Garcia, but the Ranger bats were just as impotent against the steady diet of splitters, sliders, sinkers, and curves. The only Ranger to show up was Josh Hamilton, who actually hit two solo homers, and it was his first two ever in regular season play at the new Yankee Stadium.
Luckily for Garcia, the Yankees were already up 3-0 and 3-1 when he gave up those shots to Hamilton. The Yankees took care of all their scoring in the 3rd inning from a bloop RBI double from Nick Swisher, yet again, hurting the Rangers with the first run of the game. A sacrifice fly by Granderson and a nice opposite field RBI single from Eric Chavez gave the Yanks all the 3 runs that they would need off of starter Scott Feldman. Garcia took the ball into the 7th and gave 6.2 innings, with Boone Logan entering the game to get the last out of the inning. It came down to the bottom of the 9th with Rafael Soriano on the mound and Josh Hamilton up again looking for his third homerun of the night. Soriano refused that to happen and struck out the Ranger slugger, then finished off the save for his jersey number 29th of the season. With the win, the Yankees guaranteed themselves the consideration of being the number one team in the AL since they would, at a minimum, have taken three out of four against the mighty defending AL champs.
An afternoon matinee in the sunny Bronx was the stage for the final game as the Rangers looked to leave town with some shred of dignity while the wide-eyed Yankees targeted for the sweep. The struggling Ivan Nova took the start for the Yankees and was looking to improve on his good start last Sunday up in Toronto. Adrian Beltre but the Rangers up 2-0 in the 1st inning with a bloop RBI single that dunked in in front of Granderson in short center. In the top of the 3rd, the Rangers threatened to score more with the bases loaded and no out!! But Nova kept his composure by striking out Josh Hamilton, and then getting the next two outs and keep the game at 2-0 Rangers only. By the 6th Nova was challenged again by a lead off double from Hamilton. He would score, along with Beltre later on in the inning, and the Yanks were now down 4-0. This was the inning the Yanks turned it on as well and put a big five-spot on the board, highlighted by a 2-run homer from Andruw Jones that tied the game at 4. After Derek Holland was chased from the inning, Tanner Scheppers was inserted into the game and Russell Martin greeting him with a RBI single that actually put the Yanks ahead 5-4 after being behind for most the afternoon.
With a mega sweep on the tips of their fingers, the Yankees gave it right back in top of the 7th. The usually reliable bullpen was cuffed up for three runs. Still looking to work his way into the mix, Joba Chamberlain failed to make a case for himself as the go-to 7th inning guy as a walk and a 2 RBI single to Craig Gentry helped put the Rangers ahead 7-5. The Yankees inched back with a run in the bottom of the 7th to make it 7-6, but Texas kept put runs on the board; two in the 8th and another in the 9th. Long-time Twins closer and now member of the Rangers' pen, Joe Nathan came on in the bottom of the 9th to finish off Texas' only win in New York.
A sweep against Texas would've been cool, but taking three games out of four puts the Yankees at the 70-win plateau with a 70-48 record, and after being mired in a funk for a few weeks, one could fully say the Yankees are the team to beat in the AL and MLB with a little more than a month of baseball left....
The Rangers acquired Ryan Dempster at the trading deadline and the long-time NL pitcher opposed Phelps in one of the most infamous AL homer-friendly ballparks. The Rangers struck first with an RBI single by Nelson Cruz in the 1st inning, and then a golfed David Murphy solo homer to right in the 2nd. Dempster must have thought this AL-hitting stuff was nothing but a myth when the yielded no hits in his first two inning of work. Then came the 3rd, Russell Martin lead off the inning with a single, followed by a Raul Ibanez single as well. Ichiro moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt which put runners of second and third with one out. The next hitter, Jeter, walked, and that set up a base loaded situation for Nick Swisher. With one swing Swisher brought them all home on a grand slam and gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead they would never look back from.
The Yankees added another run in the inning from a Curtis Granderson sacrifice fly that plated Cano, but the bases were loaded again and there was the possibility of a second grand slam in the 3rd. That was enough for David Phelps to get the win as he put in 5 solid innings with only giving up the 2 runs, and actually picking off two Ranger runners on the base pads. The newly acquired Derrick Lowe made his Yankee debut and took the pitching reigns from there. Chavez celebrated Lowe's entrance with a solo homer in the 6th that made it 6-2 Yankees, and two more runs were tacked on in the 7th from Jeter and Swisher RBI hits (Swisher's 5th of the night). Lowe went 4 innings of no run ball and technically qualified for a save which must have made the Indians just proud. The first round between the sluggers went to the Yankees 8-2.
There was another former Dodger to toss at the Rangers, that's Hiroki Kuroda, who has served as the Yanks' best pound-for-pound starting pitcher in 2012. Facing him was the 13-7 lefty Matt Harrison and both pitchers refused to give an inch over the first 6 innings. In fact, Kuroda flirted with a no-hitter and it wasn't until the top of the 7th until he finally surrendered one to Elvis Andrus. With Jeter given a half-day with being the DH, Andrus was able to leg out an infield single on a tough play Jayson Nix wasn't able to complete. It begs to wonder had Jeter been at short that night - would've the play been made?
Perhaps the Bombers couldn't score off of Harrison, but they certainly were able to run his pitch count up and had him out of the game after a one-out Derek Jeter single. Rangers manager Ted Washington selected hard-throwing Alexi Ogando to face the previous night's hero, Nick Swisher, and Mark Teixeira; both ended up in homeruns. Swisher's a 2-run shot with Jeter on that went deep to the Yankee bullpen, and Teixeira lined one that barely got over the right field wall. Now with a lead, Kuroda was able to get the final six outs on his own for a dominating two-hit complete game shutout that sealed the 3-0 victory for the Yanks.
Rain delayed the start of the third round of the fight, and this time Freddy Garcia's turn came up to keep the Rangers off the board. The Garcia resurgence, ever since he was inserted back into the rotation after Pettitte went down, and Kuroda, are two big reason the Yankees haven't lost their positioning on top of the AL East with their rash of injuries to big-named players. After being suppressed over the first two games, it would seem the Ranger bats would bust out against the junk-throwing Garcia, but the Ranger bats were just as impotent against the steady diet of splitters, sliders, sinkers, and curves. The only Ranger to show up was Josh Hamilton, who actually hit two solo homers, and it was his first two ever in regular season play at the new Yankee Stadium.
Luckily for Garcia, the Yankees were already up 3-0 and 3-1 when he gave up those shots to Hamilton. The Yankees took care of all their scoring in the 3rd inning from a bloop RBI double from Nick Swisher, yet again, hurting the Rangers with the first run of the game. A sacrifice fly by Granderson and a nice opposite field RBI single from Eric Chavez gave the Yanks all the 3 runs that they would need off of starter Scott Feldman. Garcia took the ball into the 7th and gave 6.2 innings, with Boone Logan entering the game to get the last out of the inning. It came down to the bottom of the 9th with Rafael Soriano on the mound and Josh Hamilton up again looking for his third homerun of the night. Soriano refused that to happen and struck out the Ranger slugger, then finished off the save for his jersey number 29th of the season. With the win, the Yankees guaranteed themselves the consideration of being the number one team in the AL since they would, at a minimum, have taken three out of four against the mighty defending AL champs.
An afternoon matinee in the sunny Bronx was the stage for the final game as the Rangers looked to leave town with some shred of dignity while the wide-eyed Yankees targeted for the sweep. The struggling Ivan Nova took the start for the Yankees and was looking to improve on his good start last Sunday up in Toronto. Adrian Beltre but the Rangers up 2-0 in the 1st inning with a bloop RBI single that dunked in in front of Granderson in short center. In the top of the 3rd, the Rangers threatened to score more with the bases loaded and no out!! But Nova kept his composure by striking out Josh Hamilton, and then getting the next two outs and keep the game at 2-0 Rangers only. By the 6th Nova was challenged again by a lead off double from Hamilton. He would score, along with Beltre later on in the inning, and the Yanks were now down 4-0. This was the inning the Yanks turned it on as well and put a big five-spot on the board, highlighted by a 2-run homer from Andruw Jones that tied the game at 4. After Derek Holland was chased from the inning, Tanner Scheppers was inserted into the game and Russell Martin greeting him with a RBI single that actually put the Yanks ahead 5-4 after being behind for most the afternoon.
With a mega sweep on the tips of their fingers, the Yankees gave it right back in top of the 7th. The usually reliable bullpen was cuffed up for three runs. Still looking to work his way into the mix, Joba Chamberlain failed to make a case for himself as the go-to 7th inning guy as a walk and a 2 RBI single to Craig Gentry helped put the Rangers ahead 7-5. The Yankees inched back with a run in the bottom of the 7th to make it 7-6, but Texas kept put runs on the board; two in the 8th and another in the 9th. Long-time Twins closer and now member of the Rangers' pen, Joe Nathan came on in the bottom of the 9th to finish off Texas' only win in New York.
A sweep against Texas would've been cool, but taking three games out of four puts the Yankees at the 70-win plateau with a 70-48 record, and after being mired in a funk for a few weeks, one could fully say the Yankees are the team to beat in the AL and MLB with a little more than a month of baseball left....
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