Results tagged ‘ Jarrod Saltalamacchia ’
Yanks’ homers make up for lack of clutch
If the Yankees weren’t going to hit in the clutch – and once again they did not – they might as well hit the ball over the fence – and once again they did. The Yankees failed to get a hit with runners in scoring position Wednesday night but used three long balls to get a one-run victory over the Red Sox that was needed to keep their share of first place in the American League East.
When Boston kept biting off portions of the 5-1 lead the Yankees had by the seventh inning, a look back into the game showed the importance of David Phelps’ start. Yankees manager Joe Girardi used six relievers to navigate through the final 3 1/3 innings, but Phelps’ work was a major factor in a must-win situation for the Yankees.
Let’s face it; the rookie righthander had a pretty short leash at Fenway Park. With an 11-man bullpen, Girardi had plenty of arms at his disposal if Phelps faltered, except he didn’t. The key inning was the fifth. The Yankees were up, 3-1, when Jarrod Saltalmacchia, whom the Yankees could not get out, led off with a triple into the Fenway right-center triangle. He also homered, doubled and walked on a perfect night.
Phelps stiffened and got through the fifth without suffering any damage. He struck out Daniel Nava, retired Scott Podsednik on an infield pop and got Jose Iglesias looking at a third strike. In a game that eventually came down to one run, that inning loomed large. Girardi made the first move to pen with two out in the sixth, but Phelps had done his job by yielding one run, five hits and one walk with five strikeouts in 5 2/3 innings in evening his record at 4-4.
Curtis Granderson showed more signs that he is coming out of a prolonged slump over a period of almost 50 at-bats. He got the Yankees started with a solo home run in the fourth and pushed the Yankees’ lead to 5-1 with a two-run homer in the seventh. Granderson has five hits in his past 11 at-bats (.455) with a double, three homers and eight RBI. He also raised his team-leading totals in home runs to 37 and RBI to 89.
With Mark Teixeira (left calf strain) out of the lineup, the Yankees need some firepower. They also got it from Robinson Cano with a two-run homer in the fourth. That was Cano’s 30th home run of the season, a career high.
That would be the Yankees’ offense as they went 0-for-13 with runners in scoring position. They are 1-for-25 in those situations in the series so are fortunate to have split the first two games.
Nick Swisher, who had also been slumping on the trip before arriving at Fenway, is getting back on track as well. Swish had two doubles and a single and is 6-for-11 (.545) since going hitless in 28 at-bats. Coming to Boston was just what Swisher needed. He is batting .452 with six doubles, three home runs and 12 RBI in 31 at-bats this year at Fenway.
A scare went up in the eighth when Derek Jeter came up lame trying to beat out a double-play grounder and was removed from the game. The Captain has played for a week with a bone bruise in his left ankle. He had two more hits – his 59th multi-hit game – which boosted his big-league leading total to 194 and career figure to 3,282, one behind 10th-place Willie Mays. DJ went past another Giants legend, Mel Ott, into 12th place on the all-time runs list with his 1,860th.
Jeet downplayed his sore ankle and vowed he would be back in the lineup Thursday night. That will be Girardi’s call, of course, but no Yankees fan wants to imagine how the team would fare without Jeter.
Yanks-Bosox weekend off to wild start
The Yankees-Red Sox weekend at Fenway Park got off to a wild and woolly start Friday night as both clubs batted around in the first inning and put up five spots. If that set a tone for the series, it could be a very long weekend.
The Yanks struck against Josh Beckett, who has had his way with the Yankees over the years (14-7 record) despite an unsightly ERA (5.36). Beckett has had problems with his thumb this year and by the time he got his first out of the game the Yankees had scored four runs.
Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson started the rally with singles before Beckett got unglued and hit Alex Rodriguez with a pitch and walked Robinson Cano to force in a run. That made it nine straight games with at least one RBI for Cano, the most since Jeter had a nine-game streak May 23 to June 2, 2004.
Mark Teixeira smoked a single to center field for two runs. A fly ball to right by Nick Swisher was the first out Beckett got, but it was a sacrifice fly that made the score 4-0. After Raul Ibanez singled Teixeira to third, the Yankees got another sac fly, from Eric Chavez.
Hiroki Kuroda could not have asked for a better way to start a game at Fenway, but he let the Red Sox come all the way back and tie the score. A throwing error by Chavez at third base prolonged the inning, but the big blow was a three-run home run by Jarrod Saltalamacchia. The five runs Kuroda allowed in that one inning matched the total he yielded in his three previous starts combined over 21 innings.
It marked the first time in the history of the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry that both teams scored at least five runs in the first inning of a game.
The teams duplicated themselves again with one-run second innings. Granderson tripled and scored on an infield out by Rodriguez. Cano doubled but was stranded at second as Beckett caught Teixeira staring at a called third strike. Again, Kuroda failed to come up with a shutdown inning. He hit Daniel Nava to start the inning and gave up singles to Ryan Kalish and David Ortiz, the latter driving in the tying run.
As some of the names suggest, this was not your typical Boston lineup. Ortiz, Saltalamacchia and first baseman Adrian Gonzalez were surrounded by back-ups as Dustin Pedroia, Jacoby Ellsbury, Carl Crawford and Ryan Sweeney are all on the disabled list and Kevin Youkilis was traded to the White Sox.
Another of those subs, third baseman Mauro Gomez, drove in a run in the fifth as the Red Sox got the lead for the first time in the game. A wild pitch by Kuroda put Gonzalez, who led off the inning with a single, in scoring position. One out later, Gomez singled him home.
Kuroda failed to pitch through the sixth inning for the first time in eight starts. He departed with two outs in the sixth after giving up seven runs (six earned) and 10 hits with a walk, a hit batter, two wild pitches and three strikeouts and having blown two leads.
Red Sox pitcher does Yankees a favor
There are times to retaliate for infractions of unwritten rules and times not to. One time definitely not to do it is at the start of a late inning in a game of importance in which you are trailing. Red Sox pitcher John Lackey took precisely that time to take revenge against Francisco Cervelli, and it helped the Yankees get a run.
Cervelli obviously ticked off Lackey and his catcher, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, not only for the home run the Yankees’ backup catcher hit in the fifth inning but also because he stomped on the plate and clapped his hands when he reached home. This is a big no-no in the game of be careful not to show up the opposition.
Lackey did not waste any time. The next time he saw Cervelli as the leadoff hitter in the seventh with the Yankees leading 4-2 the righthander hit him in the back with a pitch. The dugouts emptied, and there was the usual jawing and finger pointing but no punches were thrown. Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild was furious enough to get himself ejected for his behavior.
Lackey’s maneuver fulfilled the macho code but proved foolish because it eventually cost the Red Sox a run. A passed ball by Saltalamacchia got Cervelli to second base, and he crossed to third when Bret Gardner beat out an infield single on a sacrifice attempt. Derek Jeter grounded into a double play, but Cervelli crossed the plate, so just what did Boston gain for retaliating so soon?
The Yankees and Red Sox still have two more games left in this series and another series left in the regular season Sept. 23-25 at Yankee Stadium, plenty of time to make Cervelli pay for his indiscretion. What Lackey did Tuesday night was just foolish, to the Yankees’ benefit.
AL East race thickening up
As if they did not know already, the Yankees found out they have a lot of work cut out for them the rest of the way. Forget all that stuff about the poop starts the Rays and Red Sox got off to this year. That is all in the past.
Boston got back to .500 Sunday night with a 7-5 victory to complete a three-game sweep at Yankee Stadium. It concluded a 1-5 homestand for the Yankees, who won’t catch any break on the road this week since they are on their way to St. Petersburg, Fla., to get a first-hand look at the first-place Rays, who have moved out to a two-game lead over the Bombers in the American League East.
Meanwhile, the third-place Red Sox are only one game behind the Yankees and very much in the division race. Boston came back from a 4-1 deficit behind Jon Lester, who toughened after the second inning and improved his career records against the Yankees to 7-1 overall and 5-1 at the Stadium.
The Yankees actually had a decent night of hitting with runners in scoring position (2-for-5; I said decent, not great, but better than the Red Sox’ 1-for-11), but it really was a matter of home runs (by Andruw Jones and Curtis Granderson) and little else. The defense was also responsible for two runs, which proved to be the deficit.
A strikeout-passed ball, a play that seldom occurs, happened for the second time in the series by the same two principals (catcher Russell Martin, batter Kevin Youkilis) leading to a run for the Red Sox each time. An error by third baseman Alex Rodriguez accounted for another unearned run.
Youkilis took back the 4-1 lead from Freddy Garcia with a three-run home run, and the Red Sox added solo shots by David Ortiz off Garcia and Jarrod Saltalamacchia off David Robertson for punctuation.
The Yankees’ losing streak has reached five games, equaling the longest in Joe Girardi’s term as manager dating to 2008. They lost five straight games May 2-7, 2009, also all at home. Look at this way. What the Rays and Red Sox went through in early April is what the Yankees, 3-9 since May 3, are going through now. Tampa Bay and Boston worked their way out of it. The Yankees have to do the same.
Jack O'Connell
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