Results tagged ‘ Eric Hosmer ’

Cano’s Blast Dethrones Royals As Yanks Take 1st

GAME 120

YANKEES 9, ROYALS 7

Foul ball. Foul ball. Foul ball. Foul ball. Foul ball. Foul ball. Foul ball.

Three-run home run.

Twelve pitches from Royals left-hander Danny Duffy pretty much summed up what the Yankees do to pitchers. Robinson Cano simply took advantage of a mistake on the 12th delivery and he sent the ball careening into the fountains in right-center that broke a 5-5 tie and gave the Yankees a hard-fought victory at Kauffman Stadium on Tuesday night.

Duffy, 22, began the fourth inning having just been handed a 5-3 lead by the Royals.

Brett Gardner opened the frame with a bunt single. Derek Jeter followed with an RBI double to left. Curtis Granderson bunted weakly and Royals catcher Salvador Perez was not able to get Jeter sliding into third. Mark Teixeira followed with a lined single to right to score Jeter with the tying run.

Duffy, who had thrown 78 pitches and recorded only nine outs in his first meeting with the Yankees, really got a major-league education from Cano.

Duffy fell behind in the count 3-1 and was forced to come in with a strike or walk the bases loaded. Cano then fouled off seven consecutive pitches in a grueling, mano-on-chico battle. On pitch No. 90 of the game, Duffy tried a backdoor slider but the pitch was up and caught too much of the plate. Cano swung and, the next thing Duffy knew, Cano was rounding the bases and Duffy was being removed from the game.

The Yankees, though they did not get a very good effort from their starter Ivan Nova (12-4), held on the rest of the way to defeat the Royals and claim first place in the American League East from the Boston Red Sox, who split their day-night doubleheader with the Tampa Bay Rays at Fenway Park.

Nova was unable to command his pitches and he was hit hard for the second time this season by the Royals. He won despite giving up seven runs on eight hits and a walk in 5 1/3 innings. On May 12, Nova gave up eight runs (four earned) on 10 hits and two walks in three innings against the Royals. Nova was 8-1 with a 3.50 ERA since that game at Yankee Stadium.

But the Yankees were able to get to Duffy for eight runs on eight hits, two walks, two hit batters and Duffy fanned three in three-plus innings.

The New York bullpen, which leads the American League in ERA, once again bailed out Nova and the Yankees. Boone Logan, Rafael Soriano, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera pitched 3 2/3 perfect innings to keep the Royals off the scoreboard the rest of the way.

Rivera pitched a perfect ninth, striking out two batters, to earn his 32nd save of the season and the 591st of his career. He needs only 11 saves to pass Trevor Hoffman as the all-time saves leader in the major leagues.

The victory improved the Yankees’ season record to 73-44. They are a half-game in front of the Red Sox. The Royals fell to 50-73.

PINSTRIPE POSITIVES

  • Cano was 2-for-5 with four RBIs and he is officially on a red-hot tear. He has at least one hit in his last eight games, in which he is 15-for-35 (.429) with three home runs and 10 RBIs. He is hitting .386 for the month and he has raised his season average to .306 with 21 home runs and 85 RBIs.
  • Teixeira saved Nova and the Yankees with another one of his Gold Glove-worthy plays in the bottom of the sixth. Boone Logan had come in to relieve Nova after the 24-year-old right-hander had given up a one-out two-run double to Perez that drew the feisty young Royals to within one run at 8-7. Logan struck out Mike Moustakas for the second out but Alcides Escobar sliced a hard grounder down the first-base line. However, Teixeira dove backwards and to his left to stop the ball, he got up and ran to tag first to end the inning and keep the Yankees ahead.
  • Jeter continued his hot hitting with a 2-for-5 night, including an RBI double and an RBI single. In his two games against the Royals, Jeter is 5-for-10 with two runs scored and five RBIs. He has a modest five-game hitting streak but he is he is 11-for-22 in that stretch and he has raised his season average to a season-high .283.
  • Gardner is also red hot. He was 2-for-5 on Tuesday with a bunt single and a triple and he scored two runs. In his last five games, he is 8-for-18 (.444).

NAGGING NEGATIVES

  • Nova was just not Nova from the first inning on. Eric Hosmer and Jeff Francouer tagged him for RBI singles in the first. After the Yankees had reclaimed the lead at 3-2 in the third, Nova handed it back by giving up three runs in the bottom of the inning. It included an RBI groundout by Alex Gordon, Melky Cabrera’s 16th home run of the season and an RBI double by Francouer. Despite the fact Nova did not pitch well, he did win the game and he leads all rookie pitchers in the majors in wins and win percentage.
  • Designated hitter Andruw Jones was the only Yankee starter without a hit in the game. He was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts and he did not get a ball out of the infield. Jones’ season average slipped to .240.
  • Though he contributed a two-run bases-loaded single in the third inning and a walk, Russell Martin looked dreadful in his three other at-bats. He struck out looking once and swinging twice. He struck out in the eighth inning against Greg Holland on a awkward half-swing on a 1-2 pitch that was out of the strike zone. This the reason why Martin is still hitting .226 on the season.

BOMBER BANTER

Alex Rodriguez was 1-for-3 with a single in the six innings of a rehab game he played on Tuesday night for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre against the Durham Bulls. Rodriguez singled in his first at-bat and played all six innings at third base. Rodriguez, who is rehabbing from July 11 surgery to repair a torn meniscus in his right knee, is expected to play one more game with Scranton and then rejoin the Yankees on Thursday in Minneapolis for a four-game series against the Twins.  . . .  Starter Freddy Garcia, nursing a cut on a finger on his right hand, threw a bullpen session on Tuesday. However, Garcia did not throw his split-finger fastball to avoid aggravating the cut. The Yankees have him scheduled to throw another bullpen session on Thursday in hopes he can make a start either Saturday or Sunday.

ON DECK

The Yankees will go for a three-game series series sweep of the Royals on Wednesday.

Bartolo Colon (8-6, 3.31 ERA) will get the start for the Bombers. Colon held the Angels to two runs on five hits in six innings and he is undefeated over his last four starts with a 3.18 ERA. He has not faced the Royals this season but is 13-7 against them in his career.

The Royals will counter with a change-up tossing lefty in Bruce Chen (7-5, 4.15 ERA). Chen held the White Sox to one hit and no runs over six innings in his last outing on Friday. He has not faced the Yankees this season but he is 1-5 with a 6.71 ERA lifetime against them.

Game-time will be 8:05 p.m. EDT and the game will be telecast by the YES Network.

 

Gardner, Jeter Clear Tables As Yankees Sink K.C.

GAME 119

YANKEES 7, ROYALS 4

The Yankees’ table-setters took things in their own hands on Monday and cleared the tables themselves.

Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter, who hit one and two in the order, combined for five hits and drove in five runs to lead New York to victory over Kansas City at Kauffman Stadium.

They also handed starter A.J. Burnett (9-9) his first victory in August with the Yankees in 13 starts and pulled the Yankees into a first-place tie with the Boston Red Sox in the American League East.

Gardner and Jeter had actually combined to give Burnett an early 2-0 lead in the second inning when they each smacked two-out RBI singles off Royals starter and loser Felipe Paulino (1-9).

However, the Royals struck back in the fifth inning off Burnett when they strung together three consecutive one-out singles. Former Yankee Melky Cabrera battled Burnett from 0-2 count into a full count before drawing a bases-loaded walk to bring in the first Kansas City run. Billy Butler then laced an opposite-field two-run single to give the Royals a 3-2 lead.

Burnett wiggled off the hook with the help of a hard-hit grounder off the bat of Eric Hosmer that Robinson Cano turned into an acrobatic inning-ending double play.

The Yankees then went back to work on Paulino.

With one out, Jorge Posada singled to left and Russell Martin followed with a single to right. Gardner then hit a high-hopper over Hosmer’s head at first that scored Posada to tie the game at 3-3. Jeter then followed by lacing triple into the gap in right-center that scored Martin and Gardner.

Paulino’s night was over. He gave up a season-high five runs on eight hits and a season-high five walks and fanned four in 5 1/3 innings.

Burnett, meanwhile, gave up three runs on 10 hits and one walk and struck out in 5 2/3 innings.

The Yankees tacked on a run in the seventh inning on a two-out pinch-hit RBI single by Andruw Jones that looked like a routine grounder but the ball hit second base and rolled into center to score Cano. They added another run in the eighth on a two-out RBI single by Mark Teixeira that scored Jeter from second base.

Meanwhile, the Yankees bullpen of Boone Logan, Rafael Soriano, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera preserved the Yankees’ lead the rest of the way, although Soriano surrendered the first run he has given since being activated from the disabled list in the seventh inning.

Rivera pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 31st save of the season and the 590th of his career.

The Yankees’ season record stands at 73-46. The Royals fell to 50-72.

PINSTRIPE POSITIVES

  • Jeter was 3-for-4 with two singles and a triple, a stolen base, a run scored and three RBIs. In his last nine games, Jeter is 12-for-36 (.333) with five runs scored and six RBIs. His three hits on Monday also raised his batting average to a season-high .283. Jeter is also hitting. 388 in August.
  • Gardner was on base in three of his five plate appearances with two singles, a run scored and two RBIs. He also nearly scored another run on a errant pitch but was tagged out at the plate on a dive by Royals catcher Salvadore Perez to end a bases loaded threat. Since Aug. 3, Gardner is 15-for-41 (.366) with a home run, three RBIs and nine runs scored. Gardner has an on-base perecentage of .418 in the month of August.
  • Rivera looked like himself again after being scored upon in his last three appearances. He was back to the same old nasty cutter-throwing right-hander who breaks bats and strikes out hitters looking. He needed only 13 pitches to dispatch the Royals for his 31st save. Rivera needs only 11 saves to tie and 12 saves to break the mark of 601 career saves by Trevor Hoffman, the current all-time saves leader.
  • Cano had two hits in the game and raised his season average to .305. But Cano’s biggest contribution to the Yankees was his defense. He ranged all over the outfield to catch two fly-ball outs, one extending into foul territory in right. He also was part of two key double plays that ended Royals’ threats. The second one in the fifth ended the inning when he ranged far to his left to stop Hosmer’s hard-hit ground ball. Cano spun 180 degrees while in the air and hit Jeter right at the chest with a perfect throw that resulted in a huge double play that ended K.C.’s three-run rally.

NAGGING NEGATIVES

  • By almost any measure, Burnett’s outing was not very good. He gave up thee consecutive singles in the second inning, two consecutive singles in the fourth and he hit a stretch in the fifth in which he gave up three hits, walked in a run and a two-run single. He walked only one batter but that was a huge one and he ended up giving up 10 hits in 5 2/3 innings. He was very lucky the Yankees’ defense kept him out of further trouble.
  • Eric Chavez did not have a very good night at all. He was 0-for-5, he did not get a ball out of the infield and he struck out three times. Chavez’ batting average dipped to .276 on the season.
  • Though he did walk twice, Curtis Granderson was 0-for-3 with two strikeouts. Granderson has now struck out 128 times this season, which ties him with trade-mate Austin Jackson of Detroit for second in the American League behind Mark Reynolds of Baltimore with 140.

BOMBER BANTER

Alex Rodriguez will play for Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre on Tuesday and Wednesday to complete his minor-league rehab and he hopes to be able to join the Yankees on Thursday in Minneapolis to begin a four-game series against the Minnesota Twins. Rodriguez is recovering from a July 11 surgery to repair a torn meniscus in right knee.  . . .  Freddy Garcia hopes to be able to throw a bullpen session on Tuesday but it is unclear if the veteran right-hander will be able to make his next scheduled start on Friday. Garcia had to be scratched from a start on Sunday, though that game was eventually rained out, because of a cut on a finger on right hand. The cut prevents Garcia from throwing his split-finger fastball.

ON DECK

The Yankees can grab a quick win of the three-game series with a victory against the Royals on Tuesday.

The Yankees will send to the mound rookie right-hander Ivan Nova (11-4, 3.85 ERA). Nova is 3-0 with a 2.61 ERA in his three starts since being recalled from Triple-A. He also has not lost in his last eight major-league starts. However, the Royals did beat him on May 12 in Yankee Stadium. He is 0-1 with a ERA of 12.00 against them.

The Royals are throwing a rookie of their own in left-hander Danny Duffy (3-6, 4.97 ERA). Duffy pitched seven effective innings in last Thursday’s loss to the Tampa Bay Rays. It is only the third time Duffy has lasted seven innings in his 15 starts. He has never faced the Yankees.

Game-time will be 8:10 p.m. EDT and the game will be telecast by MY9.

 

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