Yankees Beat Twins 6-4, Bullpen Stays Solid
Yankees Sweep Season Series Against Twins, Move to First in AL East
Jul 10, 2009
Aceves, a long reliever for the Yankees who has had a couple of long relief outings this season, was called to start and was limited to 65 pitches. He handled the start fairly well, allowing 4 runs (3 earned) over 3 1/3 innings of work. This was the second time this week he pitched more than 3 innings in a game, having secured his first save on Sunday after pitching four shutout innings.
Yankees Bats Were Relatively Quiet
The Yankees offense had to come into Thursday afternoon's game feeling very confident. The Yanks had scored 4 or more runs in every game since June 24th, and they were facing the struggling Francisco Liriano, who came into the game 4-8 with an ERA above 5.00. The Yanks once again put up runs early, but they did it in an unusual style: they scored three runs in the second inning with only one hit. Three walks, a hit batsman and a groundout scored two of the runs, and captain Derek Jeter knocked in his 36th RBI of the year with a single to put the Yankees out ahead 3-0. The Yanks seemingly tried to give the runs back, as a Jorge Posada throwing error and a Cody Ransom fielding error gave two runs back to the Twins in the bottom of the second, the Yankees never gave up the lead. Ransom made up for his error in the 4th inning by knocking in his second RBI of the game, Brett Gardner knocked in 2 RBIs in the nine hole, and All-Star Mark Teixeira hit his first homerun in his last 97 at-bats in the 5th inning for the Yanks. The Yankee bats were not the story of this game though; the bullpen was.
Bullpen Bails Out Yanks
Aceves left the game with the bases loaded in the fourth inning, and David Robertson took the mound in a tough spot. After striking out the first batter he faced, he proceeded to throw eight of his next nine pitches out of the strike zone and walked in two runs. Both runs were charged to Aceves. Still, the Yankees who relieved Aceves, five relievers in all, combined to pitch 5 2/3 innings while allowing 0 runs on only 2 hits while walking 4 and striking out 7. After looking incredibly shaky over the first two months of the season, the bullpen has quietly begun asserting itself as a reliable group of pitchers who have kept the Yankees in plenty of games this season. While the unrivaled leader of this platoon is perennial All-Star Mariano Rivera, Aceves and Jonathan Albaladejo have garnered a reputation for providing quality innings late in games for the Yanks.
Yankees Move Back Into First Place
The Yankees are easily one of the hottest teams in baseball. They have now won 13 of their last 15 games, and have eclipsed a 4-game deficit to move back into a tie for first with the Boston Red Sox. The problem is that the Red Sox own the tiebreaker against the Yanks, as Boston has won all eight matchups against their fierce rivals. The Bronx Bombers have a three-game set against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim before the All-Star Break. If the previous three weeks are any indication of the Yankees performance in the second half of the season, Yankees fans have plenty to be excited about.
