Mets fans were not happy to see Dickey go and not complete his game, but Francisco Rodriguez closed the game without any trepidation (Photo Bill Menzel)
New York - Starting pitcher R.A. Dickey went a season-high eight and one-thirds innings, giving up only four hits to help the New York Mets (52-50) blank the St. Louis Cardinals (56-46) by the score of 4-0 in afternoon baseball at Citi Field on Thursday.
LatinoSportsMVP Albert Pujols does it again -- another LSMVP and a winning hit (Photo: Bill Menzel)
New York- It was a game that looked as if it could be a season changing win for the New York Mets turned out to be another heartbreaking loss in their final at bat. Albert Pujols, who earlier received his LatinoSports MVP award, hit a game-winning RBI single in the 13th inning with two outs to give the Cardinals an 8-7 win. With the loss, the Mets fell to 7.5 games out of the division and 6.5 games out of the wild card spot.
And now: the moment you have all been waiting for – The Return home of Carlos Beltran (Photo Bill Menzel)
New York - After a 2-9 west coast road trip where they batted .181 as a team, the New York Mets were happy to see the friendly confines at home Tuesday evening. Citi Field is where they have achieved most of their success prior to the all-star break with a 30-16 mark.
FRIDAY JULY 30, 5PM RALLY OUTSIDE CITI FIELD 126TH & ROOSEVELT (7 TRAIN TO METS-WILLETS POINT STATION) OR MARCH 5PM FROM 83RD AND ROOSEVELT TO THE STADIUM
Endorsements: 1199 SEIU, 32BJ SEIU, Arizona Boycott Coalition, Boycott Arizona NYC Committee, Bail Out the People Movement, Hunter Campus Antiwar Network, International Socialist Organization, LatinoSports.com, Latino Sports Writers and Broadcasters Association (LSWBA)
Offensively, center fielder Curtis Granderson led the charge for New York, hitting his 8th and 9th homers off Sean O'Sullivan (L, 1-1) in the Yanks' 12-6 win. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
YANKEE STADIUM -- No home run for A-Rod? No problem. Center fielder Curtis Granderson's pair of homers, which were part of a 12-run, 14-hit effort by the Yankees' offense, and a decent outing from starter Phil Hughes (W, 12-3) - abbreviated by a 2-hour and 32-minute rain delay - propelled New York (62-35) past the lowly Kansas City Royals 42-56), 12-6.
The win punctuated a 9-game home stand in which New York went 6-3. They won 2 out of 3 games versus the Tampa Bay Rays last weekend, split a 2-game set with the L.A. Angels of Anaheim on Tuesday and Wednesday, and took their Thursday to Sunday, 4-game series against Kansas City, 3 games to 1.
But before putting yesterday's game away in the eighth inning with a 5-run rally, the Yanks, along with 47,890 fans hoping to witness the 600th home run of Alex Rodriguez's career, instead found themselves shocked and concerned for him when reliever Blake Wood's 95 mph fastball dropped him to the floor.
Down goes A-Rod! It looked a lot worse at first than it actually was. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
The impact produced a pop-like sound that was heard from the pressbox. Since the at-bat took place with the bases loaded, the hit-by-pitch forced in a run that doubled New York's lead over K.C.,10-5. However, the game momentarily took a backseat to the health status of Rodriguez, who was grimacing in pain from what most people initially thought was a blow to the head area.
Luckily for Rodriguez, though, that wasn't the case.
"It got me on the [forearm] pad," said Rodriguez. "I have pretty much full strength. No question, that was the most dangerous moment. But I'm okay."
"[Alex] said he's fine; he has a purple mark and could squeeze [his hand] fine," said a relieved Joe Girardi. "It was such a scary moment when [the ball] is up there, but it grazed him."
Minutes after being hit, Rodriguez got up, gingerly, and replays showed that he was, indeed, grazed in his left hand and arm.
Head athletic trainer Gene Monahan and Joe Girardi walk A-Rod off the field. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
Juan Miranda would come in to run for Rodriguez, who expects to be in the lineup tonight when his team takes on the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field.
Starter Phil Hughes pitched 5.1 innings and allowed 3 runs on 4 hits, 2 of which were home runs from Scott Podsednik and Rick Ankiel that accounted for every run K.C. scored off him.
Fortunately for Phil Hughes (W, 12-3), there was only one guy named Scott Podsednik playing for Kansas City. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
Podsednik, who led off the game with a single up the middle, gave Kansas City a 2-0 lead in the third inning with the 1st of his 2 long balls, a 2-run home run (4) off the left field foul pole.
Curtis Granderson started the Yankees' half of the inning with a leadoff, solo homer (8) to right off Royals starter Sean O'Sullivan (L, 1-1) (5.0 IP, 7H, 5R), who actually beat New York earlier this week as a member of the Angels before he was traded to Kansas City.
Later that inning, the Yankees rallied for 3 more runs to take a 4-2 lead on Derek Jeter's RBI double, Mark Teixeira's RBI, infield single to third, and Alex Rodriguez's RBI double to left that scored Teixeira from first.
Rick Ankiel cut the Yankees' lead to 4-3 in the fourth, when he hit a monstrous, solo home run (4) off the facade of the third tier in right.
Said Hughes of the blast, "That definitely made up for the distance that [Podsednik's first home run] didn't have."
In the bottom of the fourth, Granderson homered (9) for the second time in the game, which marked his 5th career multi-home run game, and his first since July 29, 2009, when he hit two against the Rangers at Texas as a member of the Detroit Tigers.
In addition to marking the 9th time a Yankee has homered twice in the same game this season, the blast made Granderson the 6th Yankee - after Teixeira, Jeter, Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher - to have a multi-homer game.
"It's always good to get things started," Granderson told Latino Sports. "I was trying to go out there and get a feel for things. I got good pitches to hit and I put good swings on them."
After fouling a 2-1 pitch off his left foot in the fifth inning, Alex Rodriguez went down in pain. Rodriguez's discomfort was temporary, and Joe Girardi and assistant trainer Steve Donahue, after a brief word with the 3-time AL MVP, jogged back into the dugout. Rodriguez eventually grounded out to short (6-3) in that at-bat.
As heavy rainfall forced the exposed portion of the sellout crowd to run for cover, Phil Hughes struck Wilson Betemit out looking for the 1st out of the sixth. Then, the Stadium grounds crew, at 2:59 p.m., raced onto the field and covered the infield with the tarp.
For the 2nd time this week, the rain forced the YMCA Boys to earn their money. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
Play would resume at 5:31 p.m. (after 2 hours and 32 minutes), at which time lefty reliever Boone Logan took over pitching duties for Hughes.
Brett Gardner's sixth-inning, RBI double to left made it 7-3, and in the seventh, Rodriguez, facing reliever Kanekoa Texeira with two on and 1 out in his 4th at-bat of the day, smashed a one-hopper second baseman Mike Aviles couldn't handle that brought in Swisher.
Down 7-3 entering the eighth, the game seemed to have shut on the lowly Royals, but Joba Chamberlain kicked it back open in the eighth by yielding Scott Podsednik's 2nd homer (5) of the afternoon - a 2-run blast to right - that got his team back in it at 7-5.
Podsednik, who hadn't hit multiple home runs in the same game since April 17, 2004, vs. the Houston Astros as a member of the Milwaukee Brewers, now has 3 career multi-homer games.
In the New York eighth, Nick Swisher kicked off a 5-run rally with a 2-run single off reliever Blake Wood that provided the Yanks with more breathing room at 9-5. The next batter, Teixeira, singled through the right side to load the bases for Rodriguez.
Every fan still around after the delay stood up cheering at that point, knowing it would be Rodriguez's last chance to hit number 600 at home. Rodriguez took Wood's first pitch, a 95 mph fastball, for a called strike; laid off another heater for a ball; and came out of his shoes to swing at a 96 mph fastball he missed for strike 2.
On his follow-through, Rodriguez dropped to one knee a la Reggie Jackson. Wood's next pitch was the one that knocked the Yankee third baseman out of the game. A-Rod would be redeemed by his close friend and teammate, Robinson Cano, who, like Posada on Saturday, reached a personal milestone of his own that involved the number 1,000, only his was for hits.
In his 3, 232nd at-bat, Robinson Cano got his 1,000th career hit, making him the 3rd quickest homegrown Yankee - behind Derek Jeter (3,112) and Don Mattingly (3,042) - to reach the mark. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
Cano's 1,000th hit was a 2-run, ground-rule double to right that wrapped up the Yankees' scoring at a dozen runs.
With reliever Chan Ho Park on the mound, Ankiel, standing at third, scored a meaningless run for Kansas City in the ninth that made it 12-6 on a catching error Posada (E, 6) made at home plate. Three batters later, Park brought yesterday's protracted game to a merciful end by getting Podsednik to fly out to left for the last out.
Tonight, Javier Vazquez (8-7, 4.68 ERA) takes the hill for New York opposite the Cleveland Indians' Jake Westbrook (6-6, 4.74 ERA) at 7:05 p.m. (ET).
Jose Guillen's homer (16) played an important role in Kansas City's 7-4 win in The Bronx. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
YANKEE STADIUM - Jose Guillen, who is a native of San Cristobal, Dominican Republic, hit a home run in the top of the fifth inning to help lead the Kansas City Royals (42-55) to a 7-4 victory over the New York Yankees (61-35) in a sweltering Saturday afternoon game in the Bronx.
Kansas City starter Kyle Davies (5-6) pitched well in the win today going five and one-thirds innings giving up seven hits, four runs, three walks and three home runs while striking out three batters. Davies earned a win for the first time since May 28, 2010 in Boston.
“I felt fine earlier in the game; I made some really good pitches in the first three innings. Then I was just throwing in the fourth, fifth and sixth.” Kyle Davies said after the game. “I don’t know if it was because of the heat or excitement, but I just lost command of the fastball and there were some bad results.”
Manager Ned Yost agreed saying, “Well, Kyle was cruising up until he game up those two home runs and then he started to labor. He just got to a spot where he was trying to do too much instead of relaxing and pitch like he did over the first four innings.”
Catcher Jorge Posada believes rookie Dustin Mosley can be a factor in the second half. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
The sellout crowd of 41,138 anxiously awaited the 600th home run of Alex Rodriguez career instead sat through a rough first inning where starter Sergio Mitre (0-2) ran into trouble. Scott Podsednik laced a single to center field to get the Royals offense going. Jason Kendall was hit in the hand to set up runners on first and second for Billy Butler.
“My pitches today were up; I was falling behind the count too much.” Mitre said of his outing. “I didn’t feel rusty; I was fine it was just the location of my pitches today was up.”
Butler would hit into a fielder’s choice, which was played by Alex Rodriguez who tried to throw a bullet to Jorge Posada. Unfortunately the ball left the catcher’s glove to plate the first run of the game, as Butler advanced to second on that throw. Jose Guillen lifted a sacrifice fly to center field to make the score 2-0 in favor of the Royals. Both of the runs in that inning were unearned, due to the fielding error by Posada.
Catcher Jason Kendall who had two stolen bases (9) in the game hit a single to left field in the top of the third inning. Butler laced a single to left field to score the third Royals run. In the top of the fourth inning was when the Royals really broke the game open.
Alex Gordon started the top of the fourth with a walk to get the rally going. Wilson Betemit, native of Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, ripped a double (8) to center field to have runners on second and third for Rick Ankiel who placed a double (6) to right field, which made the score 5-0 Royals. Scott Podsednik hit a single to left field to plate Ankiel to give the Royals the 6-0 lead.
“It was nice to get to get some good pitches with the runners on base today,” Ankiel said of his big hit in the game. “I was able to put it in the gap and it helped us score some runs and get the win.”
In the bottom of that inning the Yankees finally broke through with two runs as Mark Teixeira started the inning off with a home run (19) to right field. Two batters later Jorge Posada laced a home run (12) to the same spot cutting the Royal lead to 6-2.
The top of the fifth inning Guillen would give the Royals the 7-2 lead by lifting a long home run (16) to left field above the Poland Spring sign. That was when manager Joe Girardi called for relief pitcher Dustin Moseley to stop the bleeding. Moseley did well for the Yankees going four and two-thirds innings and giving up one hit and one walk, while striking out one batter.
Alex Rodriguez went homerless today, going 1 for 4 in the current, unforgiving heat-wave that has overwhelmed New York City. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
“Moseley did great for us today,” Jorge Posada said after the game. “He has a good idea of what he wants to do and I think he will be a guy who is going to help us.”
Joe Girardi agreed with his catcher saying, “That is the best Moseley has thrown for us all year.”
Curtis Granderson started the bottom of the fifth with a walk to set the stage for Mark Teixeira, who would lift a two-run home run (20) to center field into the bleacher creatures to cut the Royals lead to 7-4. Kansas City kept the Yankees off the board with great relief pitching from former Yankee Kyle Farnsworth, who was greeted with a loud chorus of boos. Along with Farnsworth the pitching of Robinson Tejeda and Joakim Soria, who is a native of Moncloa, Mexico kept the score at 7-4.
Mark Teixeira hit 2 HRs (20) today, but his contributions weren't enough to keep New York from dropping the 3rd game of the 4-game, weekend series vs. Kansas City. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
“When you are in a good streak you put good swings on good pitches, “ Teixeira said of his big two-home run day. “When you feel good you make good contact.”
Bani, Dominican Republic native Robinson Tejada had some of his best stuff today going two strong innings giving up one hit and striking out two batters. The reliever who had been struggling for most of the season was sensational in the bottom of the seventh inning.
“You just have to believe,” Tejada said of bouncing back. “When you have the opportunity to do something good you just have to believe in yourself. I believe in doing something good every day. I am going to go out and be aggressive and try to help the team win some games.”
The game wasn’t without drama as in the bottom of the ninth inning it seemed as if New York may mount a comeback. Derek Jeter hit a ground-rule double (18) which bounced into the right field stands. Curtis Granderson walked to start to stir the sellout crowd. Runners were on first and second for Mark Teixeira who looked like he beat out a ground ball at first, but was called as the final out in the game.
“It was a really close play (of Teixeria being called out in the bottom of the ninth) our guys thought he was safe. But he was called out and that is the end of it.” Girardi said after the game.
Teixeira said this of the close game, “There are no moral victories, when you are trying to win the division and lose a game you just need to make sure you come back and try to win tomorrow.”
Girardi was also upset with the close loss saying “Giving up those first three unearned runs really hurt us today.” He continued by saying, “We didn’t make the play at the plate and that helped them score two runs. Then Jason Kendall gets a walking lead to steal second and Butler gets the base hit before we get the next out, so we really gave them those three runs.”
Alex Rodriguez has one last opportunity to hit his historic 600th career home run in the Bronx tomorrow, as the Yankees try to take three-games out of this four-game set. Righty Phil Hughes (11-3, 3.99 ERA) takes on Sean O’Sullivan (1-0, 2.08 ERA) in the 1:05 p.m. game on Sunday.
Javy Vazquez (8-7, 4.68 ERA) sat down with the Latin press at Yankee Stadium this Wednesday. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
Yankee Stadium—The Yankees continued its monthly Spanish Language press conferences on Friday afternoon, July 23, with Javier Vazquez responding to reporters’ queries. The veteran hurler, who returned to the Bronx this season in a trade with Atlanta, was a member of the club in 2004.
The first questioner asked Vazquez for his opinion regarding his poor start in pinstripes this season, Vazquez replied, “I think the principal error I made was putting too much pressure on myself by trying too hard to impress.” He said the pressure came because of the problems he had with the Yankees in 2004. Vazquez went 14-10 in 2004, but compiled his highest ERA, 4.91, since his sophomre season in the majors with Montreal in 1999.
Another reporter asked him to compare his 15-10 mark and 2.87 ERA with Atlanta last year to his current 8-7 record and 4. 68 ERA. He responded, “The difference between last year and this was in the beginning. Little by little, I’ve improved. Last year was a good year for me. This year, I would like to win the World Series with the Yankees.”
The veteran hurler, who has pitched eight seasons in the National League and is currently in his fifth season in the American League, was asked to compare the two leagues. Vazquez said, “The American League is more difficult because of the designated hitter. It is a tremendous difference in the National League where the pitcher bats and it is much easier to get out of trouble.”
He compared the ballparks in the respective leagues by saying, “I don’t pay much attention to the parks. I’m a fastball pitcher, so I know some parks are larger. I don’t see much difference [even though] there is a big difference between the leagues.”
The native of Ponce, “La Perla del Sur”, in Puerto Rico, was asked to a assess what was called a decline in Puerto Rican baseball. He replied in a thoughtful and lengthy assessment to a question, “I have answered many times.” The major league pitcher who will reach 34 years of age on July 25, explained, “I think you can’t compare the eras. When I was child we played ball outside all the time. Now, there are computers and video games for children. They don’t go out as much to play ball.”
Vazquez was also asked to state his opinion regarding the inclusion of players from Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela in the annual MLB Draft. Vazquez responded artuclately and honestly to the complex query, “I don’t know what effect it will have. It’s very complicated.” Regardless of the situation, he believes, “If you’re good, you will be signed after the draft or as a free agent.”
The final and quite interesting question asked Vazquez to name his favorite athlete and his least favorite batter to face. Vazquez quickly named a basketball icon, Michael Jordan, as his favorite. “He’s a winner”, said Vazquez. Minnesota’s Justin Morneau is someone Vazquez does not enjoy seeing come to the plate. The hurler explained, “He’s a tremendous hitter who I don’t want to face him.”
The conference, as the ones that preceded it this season, provided an interesting and informative insight into one of the Latino Yankees.
Alex Rodriguez got 2 hits last night, but none of them were his 600th career home run. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
YANKEE STADIUM -- Alex Rodriguez (2 for 4, RBI) didn't hit his 600th career home run last night, but the Yankees (61-34), after a relentless downpour that caused a 1-hour, 25-minute rain delay, still managed to be a royal pain for Kansas City (41-55) behind A.J. Burnett's 58-pitch, 5 scoreless innings and an 11-hit attack in a dominant, 7-1 win.
Burnett (W, 8-8), who was making his first start since "Plexiglass-gate" - an incident in which the Yankee starter cut his hand on a lineup card-holder made of plexiglass on a clubhouse door that he pushed in frustration of his poor outing vs. Tampa Bay last week - worked his curve over effectively, getting inning-ending double plays in both the first and fourth inning.
"He had very good command of his curve ball and got a lot of ground ball outs," said New York manager Joe Girardi. "He did really well for us tonight."
He did, but strangely enough, Yankee Stadium, where Burnett has a 5-4 record this season, isn't a place he's been at his best lately, as the win he earned over the Royals was his first at home since May 30.
It took A.J. Burnett (W, 8-8) 58 pitches to get through 5 innings of shutout ball. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
"I love pitching here; the crowd is always in a good mood, unless you give them a reason not to be," said Burnett, speaking from his experience of being viciously booed off the field in The Bronx last month. "Things happen for a reason.
"It was great all around," Burnett continued, "and that's the thing [pitching coach Dave Eiland] kept reminding me about - the little things."
Burnett's counterpart, Royals starter Brian Bannister (L, 7-9) (4.2 IP, 6H, 4R), struggled out of the gate and got knocked around for 4 runs in the first.
Brett Gardner (2 for 4, 2 RBI), batting leadoff, led off the inning with a double to right and advanced to third when right fielder Alex Gordon bobbled the ball (E, 5). Mark Teixeira was plunked by the next pitch, and Alex Rodriguez, sitting on 599 career home runs, came to the plate.
But much to the chagrin of the 46,801 Yankee faithful at the Stadium, the at-bat ended with a walk that loaded the bases for Robinson Cano (2 for 4, 3 RBI), who lined Bannister's 3-2, 89 mph fastball to left-center for a bases-clearing double that gave New York an early 3-0 lead.
The only Yankee to reach a personal milestone was catcher Jorge Posada (2 for 3, 2 RBI), who got his 1000th career RBI when Cano scored on his double into the right field corner to make it 4-0.
"It means a lot to me," said Posada of reaching the mark. "The RBIs are really special."
In his postgame interview, Joe Girardi, who was the primary catcher for New York while a young Jorge Posada was waiting in the wings during the late-1990s dynasty, took time to acknowledge the feat.
Jorge Posada knocked in his 1000th RBI in New York's 7-1 win over Kansas City. He later started working on reaching 2000 with an RBI single later in the game. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
"That was great," said Girardi. "1000 RBIs from behind the plate, knowing how grueling the position is - it's quite an accomplishment."
In the third inning, Rodriguez reached on an infield single to third, and with 1 out in the rain-drenched fifth, Bannister struck him out looking with a 2-2, 89 mph fastball.
As Rodriguez started walking off the field, the rain grew in intensity; by 8:26 p.m., the Stadium grounds crew immediately began covering the infield with the tarp.
The rain delay, which featured thunder, lightning and heavy, wind-spun rain so thick that the field was barely visible, lasted an 1 hour and 25 minutes.
When play resumed at 9:50 p.m., Cano, facing righty reliever Victor Marte (pitching for Bannister), flew out to deep center to end the fifth.
The Yankees' 4-0 lead would shoot to 6-0 on Brett Gardner's 2-run single in the sixth inning.
Mark Teixeira led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk, and Rodriguez came to bat for the 3rd time. The camera flashes were going off throughout the entire stadium with Marte's every pitch.
Unfortunately for the fans, they'd be disappointed again, as Rodriguez lined a single to right. Teixeira advanced to third on the play, and the Yankees' lead became 7-0 when he scored on Posada's RBI single to left.
Later in the game, in what appeared to be a direct challenge, right-handed reliever Kanekoa Texeira all but intentionally walked the Yankee with whom he nearly shares an indentical surname, Mark Teixeira, with 2 outs in the eighth. Rodriguez let it rip on Texeira's first pitch, a 91 mph fastball, but the pitch jammed the Yankee third baseman, who hit a soft, shattered-bat grounder down the third base line to Wilson Betemit, who completed the 5-3 putout to end the inning.
Once again, the moment, the home run Yankees Universe has been waiting for won't take place for at least another day. Rodriguez himself wasn't available for comment.
The Royals' lone run came on Yuniesky Betancourt's RBI double in the eighth inning off reliever Chad Gaudin (3.0 IP, 4H 1R), who came in to pitch for Burnett in the top of the sixth. New York reliever Jonathan Albaladejo concluded the night with a 1-2-3 ninth, picking up 2 strikeouts in the process.
Asked by Latino Sports if he would've felt extra pressure trying to make Alex Rodriguez's 600th home run hold up had he hit it, A.J. Burnett joked, "I was hoping for a home run and a no-hitter. That would've been a storybook ending."
With his 7th-inning home run (16) last night, Alex Rodriguez is now one away from career HR #600. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
YANKEE STADIUM -- Last night the Yankees got a gutsy outing from ace C.C. Sabathia (W, 13-3), home runs from Derek Jeter (9) and Alex Rodriguez (16), a scoreless effort from the bullpen and a 4-run, eighth-inning rally that blew the game wide open en route to handing Kansas City (41-54) a royal, 10-4 beating.
Jeter's third-inning homer was of the exciting, inside-the-park variety, while Rodriguez hit one of his vintage, opposite-field drives in the seventh that upped his career total in home runs to 599.
The contrast between how he felt in 2007, when he was sitting on 499 homers, said Rodriguez, compared to pursuing number 600, is "like night and day."
"I'm having fun with it; back then I was pressing a little bit," said Rodriguez, who cited his personal growth and winning a championship last year as the primary reasons for his new outlook. "I'm at a much better place now ... a much different place. I'm looking at it from a different perspective, and I have much more of a respect for it now.
"I'm gonna hit it," he added, "and hopefully when I hit it, it's for a win like tonight."
Before erupting for 10 runs and 14 hits, the Yankee offense had to fight an uphill battle, which started when Sabathia (6.1 IP, 11H, 4R, 3 ER, 9 SO) gave up 2 runs in the first inning.
Royals DH Jose Guillen put K.C. up 1-0 with an RBI double to left, and Wilson Betemit, with men on second and third, drove in Bill Butler from third with a hard-hit grounder past a diving Alex Rodriguez. On the play, left fielder Brett Gardner's throw to second beat Betemit, who was tagged out by Robinson Cano, before the trail runner, Guillen, could score from second.
Garder's alert play kept the deficit at 2 runs, which the Yankees (60-34) erased in their half of the inning on Alex Rodriguez's 2-run, ground-rule double to right off K.C. starter Bruce Chen (L, 5-4) (6.0 IP, 9H, 5R, 6 SO, 1 HR).
In the second, the Royals recaptured the lead, 3-2, on Scott Podsednik's RBI single up the middle.
When Bruce Chen unleashed his first pitch of the bottom of the third, Derek Jeter drove the ball to the wall in right-center, with which de Jesus collided attempting to make the catch. The collision forced the ball loose, and as it rolled away along the warning track, it was clear that Jeter, rounding second in that instance, had made up his mind.
As the relay throw came in to home, Jeter was already sliding across the plate. It was El Capitan's first inside-the-park home run since August 2nd, 1996, off then Royals pitcher Jeff Montgomery.
The last time Derek Jeter hit an inside-the-park HR, then President Clinton was campaigning for a 2nd term. (Photo by Bill Menzel)
"When I hit it, I hit it well; then I saw [de Jesus] timing his jump," said Jeter. "He made a great play on the ball, but fortunately for us, the ball came back out."
De Jesus was injured on the play and replaced by Rick Ankiel. He was later found to have a sprained right thumb.
New York took a 5-3 lead when Posada hit an RBI double to left, moved to third on Chen's wild pitch and scored on Marcus Thames' sac fly to left.
With Yuniesky Betancourt at the plate and Willie Bloomquist on third base in the sixth, Sabathia threw a nasty breaking ball low and away, which the Royals' shortstop swung at for a 3rd strike; the ball skipped away from Posada, who quickly grabbed it and made a throw to third, where Bloomquist had strayed off.
Posada's throw went wide right of Alex Rodriguez and ended up by the left field tarp, allowing Bloomquist to score and Betancourt to reach second. The run was unearned due to Posada's throwing error (4), and Sabathia was charged with a wild pitch (7).
After walking Guillen and Betemit with 1 out in the seventh, Sabathia's pitch count was at 120, and Joe Girardi summoned reliever David Robertson from the bullpen, hoping he could get the Yanks out of a cliffhanger for the 3rd time in less than a week.
Robertson quickly got ahead of MIke Aviles, 1-2, and Aviles fouled off 3 straight pitches before Robertson got him to hit a soft popup to Mark Teixeira for the 2nd out. Robertson then struck Bloomquist out with a breaking pitch in the dirt for the 3rd out.
Once again, Robertson delivered in a big spot.
David Robertson has strikeout stuff, and it's no wonder why Joe Girardi keeps calling his number every time the Yanks are in a pinch. (AP)
"I'd keep bringing me in, too," Robertson told Latino Sports of being relied upon in tough situations. "You got to go with who's hot. If I can get ahead of a guy [in the count], I'm going to try to put him away."
Alex Rodriguez's homer to right in the bottom of the seventh off K.C. reliever Robinson Tejada gave New York some breathing room at 7-5.
Joba Chamberlain entered the game in the eighth to a mixed reaction, which, compared to Wednesday's cynical reception, was an upgrade. After two infield singles, the Royals loaded the bases on Chamberlain when Billy Butler drew a hard-fought walk.
Chamberlain, though, would retire Jose Guillen on a 6-4 groundout to end the threat.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Yankee offense blew the game wide open.
Swisher hit a 2-run double off reliever Blake Wood to make it 8-4, and Teixeira singled Swisher in to make it 9-5. This sent the 47,484 fans on hand into a frenzy - not merely because of the scoring, but because Alex Rodriguez would get one last shot at 600.
Rodriguez, hitting with a 3-2 count, lined a shot to right-center that fell in for an RBI double, marking the start of a precipitous exodus by the near-capacity crowd hoping to witness a historic moment that'll have to wait.
Rodriguez will have at least 3 more opportunities tonight against Royals starter Brian Bannister (7-8, 5.65 ERA), who'll take the mound against A.J. Burnett (7-8, 4.99 ERA) in game 2 of the 4-game set.
Javier becomes the 4th Yankee hurler with the most wins with his 8th and the 150th of his career (Photo LSV file)
El Bronx – NY: Joel Piñero and Javier Vazquez have played in the same team before – Team Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. Both had a rough 2010 early goings as they faced each other at Yankees Stadium for the second time this year. The first one was on April 14 and Piñero went 7 innings allowing just one run and got the win over Vazquez with the final score 5-3. It was the beginning of a Vazquez tough return to The Bronx, posting a 1-4 record and an 8.10 ERA in his first six starts (He would lose to the L.A. Angels again on April 25th but to a different Angels’ pitcher). But in 10 starts since, he’s been 6-3 with a 2.77 ERA, 53 strikeouts, and 21 walks over 65 innings. In his last start he pitched 7 scoreless innings against the Mariners in Seattle leading 1-0, but Joba Chamberlain in his role as a bridge to Mariano, coughed up a grand slam home run to deny Vazuez his 8th victory. Joel Piñero, on the other hand, after dropping four of his first six starts has cruised through the past few months, winning seven consecutive decisions.
