The New York Yankees beat the Cleveland Indians by a score of 6-5. They won with a home run by Derek Jeter in the top of the eigtth inning. Joba Chamberlain didn't pitch well. Brian Bruney got the win and Mariano Rivera got his third save.
Derek Jeter had his second game winning hit this season. Whether it's the one spot or two spot, Jeter produces.
In the eighth and ninth innning this season, Jeter is 6-for-10 and those are usually big at bats. He's always been a clutch hitter that rises to the occasion when the spotlight is the brightest. He loves the limelight and he likes to be in situations where he can make people go home happy.
The top three of the order of Derek Jeter, Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira did great. They went 4-for-11 with 3 RBI, 4 runs and 4 walks. Even if they weren't hitting the ball, Damon had two walks and Teixeira had two walks. They found a way to get on base.
The four walks by Teixeira and Damon help drive pitch counts up by the opposing pitcher and by getting deep in the counts. It makes it easier for the hitters behind them to get decent pitches to hit.
The Yankees are 6-5 in their first 11 games. Mark Texeira's wrist has been bothering him and he missed three games and he's been some what compromised because of a cortizone shot he had yesterday. The Yankees don't have Alex Rodriguez so they're treading water until he gets back, but they're not sinking themselves.
The Yankees hit five solo home runs and it makes you wonder if the new Yankee stadium has turned into Coors field.
Joba Chamberlain did not have a good outing. You can't walk five batters and you have to at least give your team six innings. Joba pitched only 4.2 innings and gave up five earned runs on six hits. He did not have good command. He pitched behind a lot and if you walk enough people, any major league team is going to score runs.
After Joba came out of the game, the bull pen slammed the door shut. As bad as they were yesterday, you have to give them credit today. Between Coke, Alabladejo, Bruney and Rivera, they pitched four and a third innings and they gave up just three hits and no runs.
The Yankees are still trying to find the right combination by mixing and matching and seeing who rises to the occasion. Right now it looks like Brian Bruney has established himself as the set up man in the eighth inning. Since his first bad outing ,he's been practically unhittable. He's averaging over two strike outs an inning an it looks like he's going to take the eighth inning spot away from Jose Veras.
Mariano Rivera gave up two hits in the ninth inning and they were hit hard. It seemed like his pitches were tailing in to right handers instead of away because his cutter just wasn't behaving like it should. Mariano's pitches were also at 90-91 mph instead of his usual 93 mph. He wasn't on top of his game but he still got the save.
The bottom line is that the Yankees won.
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