June 10, 2012, Bronx, N.Y. – The storyline on game three between the Mets and the Yankees in Yankee Stadium was not the final score (5-4), or even that it was won by the home-standing Yankees for the three-game sweep. Unlike the domination the Bombers displayed Friday night, or even the one-run (for most of the game) slog on Saturday night, where the visiting Mets had the lead for all of five outs in the fifth inning; on Sunday the Mets took control of the game with a three-run second-inning rally behind an effective Jon Neise, and held it for five frames.

Andy Pettitte had a 36-pitch adventure in the top of the second that got started when Scott Hairston doubled into the left field corner. Vinny Rottino, playing first instead of Ike Davis against the southpaw vet, singled for run after a strike out of Lucas Duda, and moved up a base when Omar Quintanilla walked. Mike Nickeas’s potential double-play grounder up the middle was booted by Robinson Cano, and young shortstop Jordany Valdespin made the Yanks pay with a double past first. Pettitte stiffened after a second walk, and fashioned back-to-back swinging strike outs of righty power hitters Jason Bay and David Wright to escape down 3-0.

Surviving that carnage at a minimal price by striking out the side, Pettitte was perfect otherwise, removing the two singles that reached against him later by picking them off; he pitched through the sixth, which he survived after scaring his manager, teammates, and all of his fans by stopping a Hairston one-hopper up the middle with his bare pitching hand. It was clear Andy’s hand took a shot, but he talked himself into lasting two more outs, the third swinging strike out of Duda, and a long fly to right snared by Nick Swisher.

Niese, meanwhile, was rolling along, though challenged again and again. Around a dominant three-strike-out fifth, he battled through two frames in which one Yankee reached and two with two baserunners, including the sixth where Derek Jeter and Curtis Granderson singles had two on with no one out. Three ground balls got Niese through that threat and a leadoff single in the seventh that was erased on the third Yankee double play, but when Andruw Jones sent a soft hopper toward third, Rottino couldn’t handle David Wright’s throw in the dirt. Two pitches later, Russell Martin snuck a liner into the first row in right to close the score to 3-2.

With Clay Rapada and Cory Wade keeping the vistors silent through eight, the Yanks reached Bobby Parnell for two runs on four hits, two of them drilled and two not, leading off the home eighth, and Rafael Soriano strode out to the mound in an attempt to start his season with 10 straight saves. But Duda and Ike Davis, kept hitless and on the bench repectively by Yankee lefties, ruined that on back-to-back doubles, although if Granderson had gotten a good read on the former he would have caught up to it. Davis was out at third on a fielder’s choice but a Dan Murphy hit and run single had the Mets threatening to take the lead. Boone Logan relieved, struck out the pinch hitting Josh Thole and retired Kirk Nieuwenhuis on a grounder to second.

To the bottom of the ninth, and Jon Rauch, who had struck out the pinch hitting Raul Ibanez to close the eighth, faced Martin. With a poke over the wall behind him, Russell kept the bat on his shoulder for five throws, then blasted a full-count pitch to left field and the 5-4 win.

A Yankee offense that worked a little harder than usual was led by four guys with two hits in Jeter, Granderson, Mark Teixeira, and Cano, in addition to the two Martin bombs. And when Alex Rodriguez drove in the fourth run with a pop single over first, his 1,981st run batted in moved him past Eddie Murray into seventh place on the all-time mlb rbi list. With a bullpen missing both the greatest closer of all time and one of the top setup men in the game, Raffy’s blown save after nine straight successes is a quibble. Boone Logan earned the win with his nifty escape work, and the Yankee pen continues to represent a strength, this on a team with a rotation that’s performing like clockwork and an offense among the run-scoring scoring leaders in the league. Two weeks ago, New York was abuzz with the disturbing news that the Bombers could not win without hitting a home run. But Sunday they almost walked away winners on a four-single, two-run eighth inning, then capped a victory with a long ball. It is not a weakness; just ask the Mets.

Martin, whose defense has been stellar but his offense nonexistent for much of the year, has recently pushed his batting average over .200. And, as was to be found all over the twitterverse, he has now hit four home runs in his last six games, even though he only had four long balls through his first 44. Russell picked a good day to post his double-barrelled blasts. When new Yankee Babe Ruth stroked his 120st home run in the big leagues in an 8-6 loss to Cleveland on this day in 1921, it made him the career home run leader, an honor he would hold onto for more than 53 years. And on June 10, 1880, Charlie Jones of the American Association Boston Red Caps became the first player to homer twice in one inning, which he did against the Buffalo Bisons. The Yankees, luckily, were able to win Sunday because their catcher camer up with a much more common achievement, two home runs in just one game.

Russell the Muscle

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!