On a night where ace CC Sabathia did not have his best stuff, The New York Yankees still managed to squeeze out a victory at Target Stadium in game 1 of The ALDS. CC Sabathia was not himself, but managed to get out of jams and kept The Yankees in the ball game.
In the second inning after plunking Twins' DH Jim Thome, Sabathia gave up a home run to dead center field to Michael Cuddyer, putting The Yankees down 2-0. Yankee fans were not worried, and neither was Sabathia. All CC had to do was keep the damage to a minimum, and eventually The Yankee offense would come alive.
Twins' ace Francisco Liriano was dominant through 5 innings before imploding and giving up 4 runs in the 6th. Robinson Cano and Jorge Posada both singled in runs, and Curtis Granderson hit a sky high triple off the wall that scored Cano and Posada, giving The Bombers a 4-3 lead.
Sabathia loaded the bases and walked in the tying run in the 6th inning, which would be his last inning of work. Nick Swisher got on base in the 7th inning and it was Shortly after that Mark Teixeira gave The Yankees a 6-4 lead on a 2 run shot to right field.
The Yankees' bullpen kept their lead at 2 runs as they worked 1 2/3 scoreless innings. Mariano Rivera's number was called in the 8th inning to get a 4 out save but this is nothing new for Mo in the playoffs. After a questionable call on which would have been the final out of the 9th when right fielder Greg Golson made a shoestring catch, Mo got Jim Thome to pop out to A-Rod to close out game 1 of The ALDS.
Veteran Andy Pettitte will square off against former Yankee Carl Pavano in game 2.
Read more MLB news on BleacherReport.com
- Login to post comments