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.
Puerto Rico celebrates 10th inning victory over Venezuela (Photo courtesy of Jorge A. Ramírez Portela/META)
Mayagüez, PR: It reminded me of a World Baseball Classic Game between two countries that are baseball driven, Venezuela & Puerto Rico. This was also the first game in the new multi-million dollar stadium that replaced the old Los Indios (Indians) stadium. Thus, every Mayagüez baseball lover was out in force to attend this game. The stadium was full to capacity of 10,000 fans and there must have been another 2,000 outside that the fire department and police was literally holding off from storming the gates to enter.
The excitement was there as the majority of the fans were all Puerto Rico and in a baseball frenzy when their team went ahead in this tight game by a score of 2-0 in the bottom of the third. Venezuela chipped away and tied the score at 2-2 until the bottom of the 10th when an erratic throw to third by Venezuela's pitcher, Edgar Martínez to third allowed Puerto Rico's lead runner, Irving Falú to score and gave Puerto Rico and the island a very exciting victory of 3-0
With the death of George Steinbrenner, we will undoubtedly hear endless stories about the imperious nature of the man who called himself The Boss. He was in the words of one writer, "every worker's nightmare, the satanic CEO, a fanatically controlling overlord who borrows his warmed-over rhetoric from Vince Lombardi and his managerial style from Stalin." One of Steinbrenner's favorite lines was, "I don't get heart attacks. I give them."
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.
