Bronx, N.Y., May 31, 2010 — The 18 hits and 11 runs in the boxscore notwithstanding, Andy Pettitte and Cleveland’s Mitch Talbot actually enjoyed a dandy pitching duel for much of Monday afternoon in Yankee Stadium. The 11-2 Memorial Day victory, which gave the Yanks a three-games-to-one win in the wraparound weekend series, actually stood at 2-1 Yanks entering the bottom of the seventh.

The Yanks jumped to a 1-0 lead on an Alex Rodriguez two-out single in the first, but Cleveland got the equalizer instantly, as Jhonny Peralta lined an opposite field home run to right leading off the top of the second. Mark Grudzielanek would reach Pettitte for a one-out single in the third, but the Indians couldn’t land a glove on the Yankee southpaw after that, as Andy retired the next 14 batters to end his day. Talbot couldn’t equal that output, but he kept his team in the game.

He hit Derek Jeter with a pitch to load the bases in the second following two, two-out singles, but struck out Curtis Granderson. Then he hit A-Rod with a pitch to put two on in the fifth, but survived that dustup too. There were no outward signs of it these last few days, but it seemed to me these teams were not happy with each other all weekend, and I do believe that A.J. Burnett hitting two hitters Sunday had something to do with at least one of these today.

Talbot had not escaped a leadoff double to Nick Swisher in the fourth, but he got close. He retired Juan Miranda and Francisco Cervelli with Nick still on second, but Brett Gardner gave the Yanks a 2-1 lead with a 3-2 single up the middle. The best part of the Yankee offense to start was that both early runs were driven in with two-out base hits, something we haven’t seen of late except for the five-run seventh-inning rally Sunday afternoon. An unexpected setback was that young Indians catcher Lou Marson, leading the league in this category, threw Gardner out twice trying to steal.

The first followed Brett’s rbi single and was achieved on a pitchout. The next inning Derek Jeter started an achievement that has to have Cleveland noticing, as he stroked a single leading off and then again with one out in the seventh for eighth straight two-hit game against the Tribe. The latter one-base hit came after Gardner, who had led off with his third single, was erased by a Marson throw yet again. But the caught stealing barely slowed the Yankee onslaught. Following Jeter’s single, Talbot was replaced by back-to-back relievers named Perez. Granderson singled Jeter to second against lefty Rafael, the second straight time Curtis has hit successfully against a lefty brought in specifically to face him, a particularly good sign.

Rafael Perez stayed in to force Teixeira to hit righty, and walked him on four straight, and Chris Perez was summoned to face Alex Rodriguez with the bases loaded. But the latter Perez fell behind 2-0 and then 3-1 and Alex drilled his next pitch to dead center for a grand slam into Monument Park, and the Yanks were up 6-1. Cano followed with a 3-2 homer to right, and after fouling off five pitches Swisher drilled Perez’s 10th pitch into the right field corner for a two-base hit. Jamey Wright relieved, allowed a Miranda single and a Cervelli sac fly, then three more runs in the eighth. The back-to-back Perez relief outings were worthy of a look, as they went so poorly. Between them, Rafael and Chris recorded no outs while throwing 30 pitches, with one walk and four hits, two of them home runs. Although Wright earned no medals by surrendering five hits, three runs and a sac fly, he at least recorded five outs to retire the home team in the seventh and the eighth.

With an 8-2, seven-run lead, Pettitte bowed out after seven, and Chan-Ho Park pitched the final two frames. He needed the work, and was effective in setting down five hitters in a row across the eight and ninth, on two strike outs and three grounders. But he tired and allowed ex-Yank Shelley Duncan an rbi single following a walk and two-out Peralta one-base hit in the ninth. But Chan-Ho finished his 44-pitch outing with a third strike out, and the Yanks had copped another series.

The Yanks got fine glove work too, including a Cano catch on a foul pop deep toward the right field foul stands in the fourth, soothing after C B Bucknor had ruled he was off the bag in the middle of a 5-4-3 two innings earlier. Jeter made a fine play in the hole against Trevor Crowe in the fifth, but Derek was pulled for a pinch runner in the seventh, due to a tight left hamstring, a hint of yet another unwelcome injury problem on the team. Gardner made a good adjustment flagging down an Austin Kearns liner in the third, and Rodriguez, whose throw probably caused Cano to be off the base five innings earlier, closed the top of the sixth by making a cunning adjustment on a Matt LaPorta bad hop to third.

Alex hardly needed the “D” to make his game though. He delivered his second grand slam with a game on the line in the last few weeks, singled and doubled for another rbi each, and missed a cycle by a triple. His first-inning two-out single to start the scoring was hardly a surprise, because he leads the team in batting average with runners in scoring position by a healthy margin. Behind Alex’s three hits and six rbi’s come three hits from Gardner, and two each from Jeter, Granderson, Swisher, and Cano, with the latter knocking in three runs as well.

Detroit first baseman Johnny Neun pulled off the second major league baseball unassisted triple play in two days in a 1-0 Tigers win against these Cleveland Indians on May 31, 1927. Which brings me to the open secret behind this Yankee win, the triple threat pitching of Andy Pettitte. He beat the Twins last time out giving two runs over eight innings, and would likely have topped that today had the long Yankee seventh not sent him to the showers at least one inning early. He is 7-1, and along with A.J. Burnett, Phil Hughes, and a good-enough CC Sabathia, he is the reason the Yanks have the second-best record in the game (pending Mets-Padres, an NL West team with whom the Yanks would be tied should the latter win tonight).

Andy has unleashed an improved curve this year, one that darts across the zone and induces one flailing strike out after another, as in the one that set down Travis Hafner swinging for the second time in the sixth. Pettitte’s 58/32 strikes/balls ratio though seven was superb, and he allowed no walks and four hits. He coaxed just one of the usual groundouts through four, but piled up six more on his two-seam sinking fastball in the next three frames. But he got off to a great start with some help from an old friend, using his trusty cutter and fastball to cause an usually large number of broken bats and popups, with six Indians hitters making outs on the latter in the first four innings.

Now Andy hands the ball off to Javy Vazquez against another struggling team as the Yanks host Baltimore for three starting Tuesday night. Javy won’t have what Andy had Monday. Rather than being over-the-top positive, the Yankee home crowd will be skeptical of Vazquez. But they remember how well he performed in Flushing two starts ago, and would love to make New York a favorite place for Javy too. Then Hughes, Sabathia, and Burnett should follow, until Saturday in Toronto when the Yanks unleash triple Pettitte yet again.

BTW,TYW
YANKEE BASEBALL!!!