Results tagged ‘ Carlos Santana ’
Ichiro named AL Player of the Week
Ichiro Suzuki was named the American League Player of the Week for the period ending Sept. 23. It marked Ichiro’s fourth career weekly honor and his first with the Yankees. The previous time he won the award was for the period ending Sept. 26, 2010 with the Mariners.
Suzuki batted .600 with three doubles, two home runs, five RBI, seven runs and six stolen bases in six games and 25 at-bats. For the week, he led all players in batting average, hits, steals and on-base percentage (.630), was tied for second in total bases (24) and ranked third in slugging percentage (.960) and tied for fourth in runs.
The center piece of the week for Ichiro was Wednesday’s split-admission doubleheader sweep of the Blue Jays. In the day game, Suzuki had a double among three hits and scored two runs as the Yanks beat Toronto. In the night game, Ichiro had 4-for-4 at the plate and on the base paths. His double in the eighth inning knocked in the deciding run of a 2-1 victory.
It was the second time in his career in which Suzuki collected at least four hits and four stolen bases in a single game (previously accomplished July 20, 2004 against Boston). Ichiro was the first player in the majors to do it since the Rangers’ Julio Borbon Aug. 15, 2009 and the first Yankees player since Rickey Henderson had five hits and four steals April 11, 1988.
It marked the first time that Ichiro recorded at least three hits in each game of a doubleheader and he became just the seventh Yankees player to do so since 1969 (last by Derek Jeter in 2008). After going 2-for-4 with a double, a home run, three RBI and two runs in a 10-7 victory over the Jays Thursday to complete a three-game sweep, Ichiro helped lead the Yankees to their seventh straight victory Saturday, going 3-for-5 with two walks, a homer and three runs in the 10-9, 14-inning triumph over the Athletics.
Other noteworthy performances last week included the Tigers’ Miguel Cabrera (.346, 4 2B, 4 HR, 10 RBI), the Rays’ Jeff Keppinger (.440, 11 H, 1 HR, 3 RBI), the Indians’ Carlos Santana (.308, 3 HR, 8 RBI) and the Tigers’ Doug Fister (shutout over the White Sox Sept. 22).
Tribe opens door for Yanks and CC
After two straight games in which fielding miscues were major parts of losses, the Yankees had the tables turn in their favor Tuesday night at Cleveland. The Indians’ failure to turn what looked like a sure double play opened the doors for the Yanks to put up a five-spot in the second inning.
Cleveland starter Carlos Carrasco, who had not walked a batter in his previous two starts, got himself in trouble with back-to-back walks to Jorge Posada and Brett Gardner that loaded the bases in the second inning with one out. The rally seemed dead when Francisco Cervelli hit a bouncing ball to shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera.
Here is where Gardner’s speed comes in. Second baseman Cord Phelps took the toss from Cabrera for the out at second, but Gardner got close enough to the bag to make a takeout slide that forced Phelps to hurry his throw. It bounced in front of Carlos Santana, a catcher by trade who was playing first base. Mark Teixeira would have handled that throw easily, but Santana, essentially out of position, couldn’t make the play.
Nick Swisher scored on the play, which of course he would not have if the third out had been made at first base. Next came the floodgates for Carrasco, who gave up a two-run double to Derek Jeter and a two-run home run to Curtis Granderson that gave the Yankee a sudden 5-0 lead that appeared enormous considering CC Sabathia was on the hill for them.
The Yankees have blessed Sabathia with the most run support (7.5 runs per game) of any starter in the American League this year. After Granderson homered a second time in the fourth inning to make the score 6-0, it marked the 10th time in Sabathia’s 19 starts that the Yankees scored six or more runs.
The score got to 9-0 while CC was in the game, which was for seven innings in which he did not allow a run, scattered five hits and two walks with 11 strikeouts to run his record to 12-4 with a 2.90 ERA. Sabathia’s 12 victories before the All-Star break two years in a row makes him the first Yankees pitcher to do that since Tommy John in 1979-80. Sabathia has won five straight starts and nine of 10.
CC will have one more start before the All-Star break Sunday at Yankee Stadium, which is said to be the reason he was not put on the AL All-Star roster because he would not be able to pitch. But how dumb will it look Tuesday night in Phoenix when the AL squad is announced before the game and Sabathia isn’t standing there with them?
Robinson Cano was named one of the four AL representatives in the Home Run Dereby (with David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez of the Red Sox and Juan Bautista of the Blue Jays against the National League’s Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks of the Brewers, Matt Kemp of the Dodgers and Matt Holliday of the Cardinals).
Meanwhile, Granderson is having a Home Run Derby of his own in the regular season. Two more bombs giving him three in four at-bats raised his season total to 25 to tie Teixeira for the club lead. Grandy is only five jacks short of his career high, and there are 78 more games to go.
Granderson had three hits and was joined by seven teammates with two apiece, including Jeter, who raised his career total to 2,996. With only one more game left on the trip, it is looking good that DJ will get to 3,000 at Yankee Stadium where the Yankees return Thursday night for a four-game series against the Rays.
2 ex-Yanks beat former mates
A couple of former Yankees combined to beat their old team Monday night at Cleveland in a 6-3 Indians victory that was a scoreless pitching duel for six innings between A.J. Burnett and the Tribe’s Josh Tomlin.
The key hits in Cleveland’s four-run seventh inning were an RBI single by Shelley Duncan and a three-run home run by Austin Kearns.
Duncan, son of Cardinals pitching coach Dave Duncan, played in 68 games over the 2007, ’08 and ’09 seasons with the Yankees and batted .219 with 8 home runs and 24 RBI in 146 at-bats. Kearns was a mid-season acquisition by the Yankees last year and hit .235 with 2 home runs and 7 RBI in 36 games and 102 at-bats. The second of those homers came Aug. 22, and was the last one he hit before Monday night.
An irony is that neither Duncan nor Kearns might have batted that inning had Alex Rodriguez or Brett Gardner been able to catch a foul ball near the left field line by Lonnie Chisenhill. There were two outs and a runner on second base with Burnett holding a 2-0 lead when Chisenhill hit the foul ball.
A-Rod, running with his back to the infield, seemed to have a beat on the ball, so Gardner sort of backed off, but the ball fell free. Chisenhill eventually walked, Burnett’s second base on balls of the inning. That brought up Duncan, who won a seven-pitch at-bat with a flare single to right that made the score 2-1. Burnett lost the lead when he grooved a 1-0 fastball to Kearns, who crushed the pitch and drove it through the wind blowing in from right field at Progressive Field.
It marked the second straight game when a fielding miscue factored in a Yankees loss. An error by shortstop Ramiro Pena proved costly in the Yankees’ 3-2, 10-inning loss to the Mets Sunday at Citi Field.
Curtis Granderson made it a one-run game in the eighth with his 23rd home run, but Corey Wade gave up his first runs as a Yankee in eight games in the bottom half when he gave up a single to Travis Hafner and a home run to Carlos Santana.
It was a whole different game over the first six innings. Tomlin, who improved his record to 10-4, had a no-hitter through six that was broken up by Mark Teixeira’s leadoff single in the seventh. Nick Swisher followed a one-out, infield single by Robinson Cano with a double to left-center for two runs. The Yankees failed to get Swisher home as Jorge Posada and Russell Martin both grounded out.
Burnett entered the seventh working on a two-hit shutout with both hits by All Star Game-bound shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera. A.J. seemed more upset after the game about the two walks in the seventh rather than the two hits. He was right, too. Those hits became productive for the Indians because of the walks.
It was a disappointing return for Derek Jeter, who was hitless in four at-bats and remains at 2,994 for his career.
Potential big inning defused
Fresh off an 18-hit attack Sunday, the Yankees came out swinging in the first inning Monday night with the first two hitters, Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson, getting singles. Jeter’s hit was career No. 2,994. A walk to Mark Teixeira loaded the bases with none out, and it appeared that the Yankees were headed for a big inning.
Then something strange happened. Alex Rodriguez hit a high fly to medium center field where Michael Brantley positioned himself to make a throw to the plate after catching the ball. Jeter got in position to tag up after the catch, but after taking a couple of steps toward the plate he stopped and apparently was unaware that Brantley doubled-clutched and never did throw the ball as Jeter returned to third base.
Why Brantley held on to the ball is anyone’s guess, but it seemed as if he just decided not to throw because Jeter did not run for the plate. The Yankees still had a chance to do some damage, but Robinson Cano struck out and Nick Swisher grounded out to shortstop. So with a bases-full, no-outs situation the Yankees came up empty.
Indians manager Manny Acta shook up his lineup in an attempt to turn fortunes around for the Indians, who were on a four-game losing streak and had been beaten 14 times in the past 18 games – five by shutout scores. Acta dropped Brantley from leadoff to third with designated hitter Grady Sizemore going in the other direction and also flip-flopped catcher Carlos Santana and shortstop Asdrubal Cabrera from second to cleanup.
Cabrera, who is running a close second to Jeter in American League All-Star balloting, batted fourth for the first time this season and knocked in the Tribe’s first run off A.J. Burnett with a single through the hole between third and short in the fourth inning to score Brantley, who had led off with a triple off Swisher’s glove in right-center.
Burnett was pitching to Francisco Cervelli subbing for Russell Martin, who was a late scratch from the starting lineup due to a reoccurrence of back stiffness, which had kept him on the bench for four games before Sunday. That proved a brutal game for Martin, who made six out by going 0-for-4 with two double plays and watched the Indians steal five bases.
Jack O'Connell
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