Game 37 - Walkoffs Are En Vogue

Since the Yankees returned home Friday night, they've been treating their fans to some exciting, nail-biting, ball games.  If anybody has left those games early, they must be kicking themselves.  For the third game in a row, the Yanks won walkoff style, with Johnny Damon providing today's heroics with a HR in the bottom of the 10th to give the Bombers a 3-2 victory over the Twins.  

Once again, the Yanks found themselves in a pitcher's duel, with AJ Burnett and Kevin Slowey matching zeroes for the first 6 innings.  The Twins broke through with a 2-spot in the top of the 7th, but the hometown heroes quickly responded in the bottom frame.  ARod led off with a HR, his second in 2 days, and third of the season.  Hideki Matsui followed with a double down the rightfield line.  Joe Girardi wisely had the slumping Nick Swisher sacrifice Matsui to 3rd.  As evidence of things going well for the Yanks lately, Matsui chugged in from third on a rarely seen Melky Cabrera sacrifice fly to tie the game.

For the second straight day, the game would go into extra innings, as Girardi mixed in his relievers at all the right times.  He had Albaladejo bailing Burnett out of a bases loaded jam in the 7th and Brett Tomko bailing Albaladejo out of the same predicament in the 8th.  I just thought Girardi was giving up the game when he brought in those 2.  He used Mariano in the 9th to face the heart of the Twins order and Alfredo Aceves pitched a scoreless 10th to pick up his 2nd win in 2 days.  The Yankees and Girardi may have found their 7th inning reliever in  Aceves, who's been a huge boon in their bullpen.  

Other notes:  The Bosox lost to Seattle, bringing the Yanks one game behind them in the loss column.  Toronto just can't lose, especially with Roy Halladay on the mound.  The Dodgers beat Florida, improving to a pedestrian 5-5 record without The Manny.