Bronx, N.Y., June 15, 2011 – The Yankees played the part of very poor hosts yet again Wednesday night, humiliating the Rangers with yet another blowout. Texas manager Ron Washington was forced to call on three relievers once the Yank abused a quality starter for the second night running, although this time they more pestered southpaw Derek Holland to distraction rather drove him out, as they had with Alexi Ogando after he retired just five batters the night before.
The game didn’t look to be a Yankee cakewalk early, as two singles around a walk and a fielder’s choice grounder against Ivan Nova had Texas up 2-0 before the Yanks came to bat. But Holland enjoyed no respite. The game was tied in three batters on the first of two Mark Teixeira home runs and, following two walks around a single, Holland emerged after three outs still tied only because Eduardo Nunez’s hot shot up the middle caromed off the Texas lefty right to Elvis Andrus at short for a 1-6-4-3 double play, a scenario you’re not likely to see more than once or twice a season.
The Yanks added a run after a Nick Swisher double off Adrian Beltre in the second but, as they did Tuesday night, Texas had another two-run inning card to play, and they cashed it in the third, on an Ian Kinsler bomb to straightaway center, a Josh Hamilton double almost as far, and a Beltre sac fly sinking liner that Curtis Granderson snatched at his shoetops when he misjudged that the ball would hang up for him to run under. That made it 4-3, Texas, and once Nunez homered in the home fourth, the teams appeared posied to continue a back-and-forth battle.
And as would be fitting in such a game, two plays at the plate really decided the contest. The Yanks took the lead in a two-run fifth when Alex Rodriguez barely beat a Hamilton throw to the plate on an Andruw Jones two-out single. Alex exhibited exceptional base running that frame, barely avoiding a Kinsler tag on a dp attempt that got him to second so he could score on the hit. Cervelli added an rbi single for a 6-4 lead and, though Holland was able to finish the frame because Nunez was thrown out going first to third, the Texas lefty was cooked after 103 throws through five.
The Rangers had been denied in the fifth after a Nunez error and walk on a dp grounder, but they got Nova out of the game in the sixth with a single, fielder’s choice and long drive to center that Granderson did run under this time. Luis Ayala came on and surrendered a walk and a single, but Granderson charged the latter and threw Yorvit Torrealba out at home. Francisco Cervelli made the play with a nifty tag and by masterfully blocking the plate, and Texas’s last chance in this game was done.
The Yanks scored six runs between the sixth and eighth innings on home runs by Ramiro Pena, in his first 2011 start, Robinson Cano and a second blast from Teixeira, to put the game quickly out of reach. By scoring the bing-bang run in the fiifth, Rodriguez tied Ted Williams for 16th place on the all-time runs scored list with 1,799, and Tex’s homers from both sides of the plate marked the 11th time he has done that, tying yet another all-time mlb record.
Ayala escaped the seventh in three batters despite allowing a leadoff single on Tex’s smooth catch of a liner to first and touch up for a dp, and new bullpen pickup Alex Cord pitched a one-two-three eighth. Once Jeff Marquez pitched around a two-out single in the ninth the victory was secured. For the second straight day, the Bombers scored six off the Rangers starter, then six off the bullpen, while all eight runs (four, then four) Texas scored came against the starters.
As is obvious, Nova struggled, but he pitched well enough to win and was rewarded for those efforts. Seventeen of his 27 first pitches were strikes, he had a 57/32 strikes/balls ratio, walked three with two strike outs, and allowed the four runs on seven hits. But although as opposed to Tuesday this game was close halfway through, this victory was all about the offense. Teixeira scored three runs and drove in four with two homers and a single; Nunez and Pena each went 2-for-4 with a home run and rbi, and Robinson Cano drove in three with his eighth-inning drive. Nunez stood out in particular on his 24th birthday because, despite committing an error and being thrown out at third, he stole two of the five bases the Yanks pilfered, and his shot off Holland’s body in the first could easily have made this a blowout early.
But it certainly was a blowout by the time it ended, with a 12-4 winning Yankee score for the second straight night. But unlike Tuesday, the plays at the plate defined the night, and the Yanks were 2-2 on those, the Rangers 0-for-2.
A very different blowout.
BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!