With the Yankees trailing 5-4, what should have been a sacrifice fly from Mark Teixeira to center fielder Peter Bourjos became the game-winning play on a two-run error. The Yankees would go on to win the game 6-5 and end a 4-game losing streak that showed a slumping offense that could not muster many runs.
Freddy Garcia started today’s game and had difficulty with the umpire’s strike zone as well as keeping the ball in the ballpark. He surrendered two home runs, two-run home runs by Howard Kendrick and Peter Bourjos.
The Yankees scored runs with the long ball as Robinson Cano went deep and Curtis Granderson drove in two on his 39th of the season.
After Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter got singles, they knocked the starter Ervin Santana out of the game and Mark Teixeira hit a long fly ball to center field that bounced off of the center fielder’s glove and let two runs score and give the Yankees the lead.
Later, Austin Romine made his debut as a defensive replacement for Jesus Montero behind the plate. Jesus Montero started the game and had difficulty blocking the balls in the dirt. Montero did get to throw out one base runner. However he did allow two runners to steal. This may be a factor of Freddy Garcia’s slow pitches and not holding runners close. With Montero behind the plate, Freddy Garcia may have had some hesitation to throw his signature splitter in the dirt at the risk of the ball getting away from the defensively-hindered hitting star.
The Red Sox were swept by the Tampa Bay Rays and the Yankees 4-game losing streak didn’t let them take advantage of this but they did make up some more ground between them and the Red Sox with this win.
Ryan Nakada
@adakannayr
