Jeter

Mon, 5 Sep 2011 21:12:37 -0400

By Howard Goldin
The Yankees continued their daytime dominance on Sunday as they won their 37th day game of the 2011 season while only losing nine under natural light. Their success rate of .804 is the highest in the majors this year.
The Yanks began the scoring with a single run in the first. They added three more in the third. Jesus Montero led off the third with his second single in his three day major league career. The next batter Brett Gardner was hit by a pitch. On a 1-1 pitch, Derek Jeter socked his fifth homer of the season into the left field seats.
Alex Rodriguez led off the fifth with a solo shot into right field, the 628th of his career. The game was the 28th in which superstars Jeter and A-Rod have both homered as teammates. The tandem has powered the Yankees to 25 wins in those 28 contests.
The final four Yankees runs were scored in the eighth frame. Robinson Cano singled and was driven in by Nick Swisher’s 22nd round tripper of 2011. Swisher’s homer was his seventh in his last 13 games. With two out, the Yankees loaded the bases on a walk to Russell Martin, a single by Eduardo Nuñez and a base on balls to Gardner. Jeter drove in the final two runs of the game with a sharp single to center.
Jeter’s five runs batted in were a career high that he accomplished on three previous occasions, last on July 22, 2010. When asked about the mark, Jeter said, “I’m happy that it helped us win today. It’s a lot more fun when you’re contributing.”
Since his return from a say on the disabled list on July 4, Jeter has batted .346 (72 for 2908). A-Rod spoke to reporters of Jeter’s batting prowess lately, “He’s been awesome. He’s swinging the bat really well with a lot of power.”
Complementing the nine runs of Yankees’ offense was the fine pitching by starter CC Sabathia, who earned his 19th win of the year. In 7.1 innings, Sabathia gave up two runs and eight hits. He walked only one batter while fanning 10. The lefthander needs only two strikeouts to become the third active hurler to strike out 2,000 batters.
Yankees manager Joe Girardi stated, “I thought he was really good today. I would have let him continue for a couple more batters if he hadn’t thrown so many before.” Sabathia, the workhorse of the staff, threw 128 pitches in his last outing and has thrown less than 100 pitches in only two of his 29 starts.
The 9-3 victory and the Red Sox defeat on Sunday moved the Yankees lead to 1.5 games in the AL East. New York now has a four game win streak and has been victorious in seven of the last eight games.
On Labor Day afternoon, Freddy Garcia (11-7) will face Brian Matusz 95-20 of the Baltimore Orioles.

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