The only problem with all this confidence and reason to feel like the Rangers were just a speed bump was Rangers starter Colby Lewis. After spending years bouncing around the league and even to the Hiroshima Carp in Japan, he came to win. 12-13? Not today. He started the game by striking out Derek Jeter and retiring both Curtis Granderson and Mark Texeira. His team soon rewarded him.
Much like game one, the Rangers jumped out to an early lead. Elvis Andrus led off the inning with an infield single. While second baseman Michael Young was at bat he stole both second and third bases, Young struck out and Josh Hamilton walked. With Nelson Cruz at the plate, Hamilton broke towards second base and Jorge Posada's throw would easily have had him out. What Jorge had forgotten about is that Andrus was on third. When he threw the ball, he never looked towards third and Andrus immediately raced towards home. Second baseman Robinson Cano charged Posada's threw and desperately heaved it at home plate trying to throw Andrus out to no avail. Andrus officially stole all three bases and in doing so gave the Rangers a 1-0 lead. The inning would end with swinging strike outs by Cruz and Vladimir Guerrerro.
The second inning would prove no better for the Yankees. While they did have two base runners courtesy of a two out double by Nick Swisher and a full count walk to Posada, Lance Berkman ended the inning lining out to right field. The Rangers, on the other hand, had a great second inning. David Murphy's home run off the facing of the upper deck in right field, estimated at 366 feet, gave the Rangers a 2-0 lead. They weren't done though. After back to back two out singles by Mitch Moreland and Elvis Andrus, Michael Young's double down the right field line allowed Moreland to score, making it 3-0. Hughes then intentionally walked Hamilton to load the bases for Guerrerro, who harmlessly ended the inning on a force out of Young at third.
As the sun began to set and the shadows crept across the field there became a recurring theme for the game, the bull's eye on Nick Swisher's chest. Both right handed and left handed hitters consistently hit balls to right field off of Hughes. They weren't bloops either, they were hit there with authority. Line drives, a home run, balls off the wall that just missed being home runs and laser beams right at Swisher that more or less caught him as opposed to him catching them.
As the shadows started to creep in between the pitcher and the hitter the third inning moved along with Derek Jeter's one out infield single, this one of the infield variety. Lewis then hit Curtis Granderson with a pitch giving the Yankees two men on with no one out. Lewis bent but he did not break, no rally this time. He induced Mark Texiera into a fly out and Alex Rodruguez to a force out of Granderson at second on a ground ball.
Nelson Cruz greeted Phil Hughes in the bottom of the third inning with a double off the wall in right field and was bunted to third by Ian Kinsler. David Murphy then crushed another ball off the right field wall scoring Cruz and giving the Rangers a 4-0 lead with only one out in the third. The next pitch was doubled into the right field gap by Bengie Molina, scoring Murphy and giving the Rangers a 5-0 lead. No sooner did Murphy cross home plate than Yankees manager Joe Girardi picked up the bullpen phone and had Sergio Mitre warming up.
Robinson Cano led off the fourth inning with a double and moved to third on a wild pitch. Both Nick Swisher and Jorge Posada left him on third striking out and things were looking pretty grim for the bombers until Lance Berkman ripped a 2-0 pitch off Wes Moreland's glove at first base and Cano scored. When the ball went past the Rangers first basemen Lance Berkman forgot his nick name is Fat Elvis and tried to pull a Brett Gardner. He was promptly caught in a run down, tagged out and the inning was over. The Yankees did manage to put a dent in the Rangers lead and now trailed 5-1.
Hughes managed to quiet the Rangers bats in the fourth aside from a one out walk to Josh Hamilton; but he made up for it by getting Guerrero to line out to Nick Swisher who doubled Hamilton off first base to end the inning. The Yankees were retired in order in the 5th inning by Colby Lewis, who was definitely not pitching to his regular season record this afternoon.
The 5th inning had Hughes miraculously still out on the mound despite being spectacularly ineffective and with Joba Chamberlain having now joined Mitre warming up in the bullpen. At one point, the Rangers swung at 26 of Hughes previous 42 pitches. Cruz continued that trend by lining the 27th out of 43 a foot from the top of the center field fence for a lead off double. Ian Kinsler followed that by ripping what proved to be Hughes' final pitch down the right field line past a fully extended, diving Nick Swisher for a triple that scored Cruz to make it 6-1. Girardi, more likely than not regretting having left Hughes in to start the inning walked slowly out to the mound to lift him for Joba Chamberlain. Ian Kinsler after the game remarked of the inning: "It gave us a little more of a cushion, I mean, the at bat after that with Mitch being able to poke that ball through the left side was huge for us. Get us that extra run and just keep building momentum."
Hughes line read like a horror movie: 10 hits, 6 earned runs, 3 strike outs and 3 walks in four plus innings. Joba struck out the next two hitters and was one strike away from escaping the inning without allowing Kinsler to score when Moreland lined a single into left field scoring Kinsler and giving the Rangers a 7-1 lead. Said manager Joe Girardi after the game "I believe in our guys and I believe they will pitch well as we continue forward here" regarding Phil Hughes performance.
Robinson Cano put his mark on the game in the sixth inning by hitting a towering home run, his second in as many games, ten rows deep into the right field upper deck that had the Rangers' right fielder Nelson Cruz moving only to watch it soar over his head and into the crowd behind him. 2 batter and a mound visit from Rangers pitching coach Mike Maddox later, Jorge Posada lined a ball into right field for a two out single. The next batter, Lance Berkman, walked on Lewis' 102nd pitch, it would be his last. After the game he went on to say of his performance "I needed to go out and do my job today and get us back on track, like I said these guys (his team mates) did the job for us today."
With two men on and two men on, Marcus Thames pinch hit for Brett Gardner when the side arm lefty reliever Clay Rapada. As Thames strode to the plate, the crowd rose to it's feet and cheered for their lefty pitcher. The first pitch was a slider swung on and missed. The next few pitches were spoiled foul, each one bringing more nervous energy to the crowd. Thames ran the count full after being down 0-2 and, with the loudest the crowd had been all weekend in Texas, he swung and missed on a slider to end the inning.
The Yankees again came close to breaking through in the 7th inning as the field was draped in shadows that started to make it look late early out there. Alexi Ogando came in for the Rangers and promptly walked Derek Jeter. After a Curtis Granderson fly out and a force out of Jeter at second that left Texeira standing wistfully on first base, Alex Rodriguez lofted a fly ball into shallow center field that Elvis Andrus reached but could not catch as it kicked off the heel of his glove while he tried to make an over the shoulder catch. Up came Cano, the Yankees looked to have hope, he ran the count full and to a full standing house swung and missed for strike three to end the inning.
After an inning and a third of solid relief work by David Roberston, in came Boone Logan with one out. He faced the pinch hitter Jeff Franceour, who hit a ball a mile high all the way the to center field warning track where it was tracked down by Curtis Granderson. Bengie Molina would end the inning swinging at strike three.
With the lights now on and the sky dark, the 8th inning began with Darren Oliver facing Nick Swisher. After fouling off multiple pitches and running the count full he earned a walk. Darren Oliver didn't let the feeling of deja vu all over again creep into his mind as he proceeded to set down the Yanks next two hitters and walk off the field to a standing ovation as Darren O'Day came in to face Marcus Thames, who grounded out to the second baseman Ian Kinsler throwing him out from his knees at first.
In the bottom half of the inning the Yankees brought Sergio Mitre in to face Andrus, he walked him. With two men on, the next hitter Michael Young grounded into a double play. With Moreland on third the Yanks intentionally walked Josh Hamilton. This time when he took off and stole second, the Rangers fifth steal of the game, Posada held on to the ball and prevented the run from scoring from third like hs should've done the night before. Vladimir Guerrero struck out to end the inning.
The ninth inning brought the young Rangers close Neftali Feliz into the game and the crowd to its feet once again. Throwing as hard as 100 MPH, he struck Derek Jeter out to lead off the inning. Curtis Granderson narrowly missed hitting a home run with a foul ball down the right field line and walked, Mark Texeira also walked to bring Alex Rodriguez on with two men on and one man out. He harmlessly bounced out to the shortstop Andrus for the second out but advanced the runners to second and third.
It all came down to the match up everyone in the park wanted to see, Cano versus Feliz. The first pitch was high, a 99 MPH ball. The second pitch was outside but called a strike, at 97 MPH. The third pitch was a 98 MPH ball up high. Cano stepped in and fouled the fourth pitch, a 98 MPH fastball, off Molina for a 2-2 count. The crowd rose to its feet and roared for the win, trying to will their young closer to victory. The fifth pitch was hit down the left field line, driving Cruz to the warning track where he lept up and made the game ending catch on the run to give Rangers fans something they had never seen before, a post season win at home. Fireworks went off, no one left and the series was now tied at one game a piece. Texas manager Ron Washington said of his team after their huge win: "It was not unusual from any other game, go to the club house and talk about the positives. Those guys have always bounced back and they did it today."
After the game, Cruz remarked in an interview on TBS "Hopefully we come back and go to New York and do the same...it was disappointing last night but we don't worry about what happens the night before, we just come out today and do our job today."
In reference to Cliff Lee, the Rangers game 3 starter, Girardi remarked "We know he's very good and we've seen him a lot in his career, I mean there's been talk about Cliff Lee before we even started this series. People were talking about game 3. But let's not forget that we have a pretty good guy on the mound too...he's been doing it a long time so you would think that it would be a great match up on Monday night."
With 48 hours to find answers to his floundering offense and questionable pitching, Joe Girardi has plenty to think about on the long flight back to New York. When asked if he would start AJ Burnett should the Rangers win game 3, he remarked "We're on a rotation." Let's see if that rotation holds should the series go 2-1 in favor of Texas.
No comments:
Post a Comment