Brett Gardner finally broke up the perfect game with a leadoff walk in the 6th. However, all hope appeared dashed when Gardner was horrendously called out on a pickoff at first. Replays clearly showed Gardner beat the tag back to the bag. Joe Girardi jumped all over the ump for his terrible gaffe and earned an early shower. Girardi's boot finally awakened the slumbering bats of the Yanks.
Francisco Cervelli tied the game up with his 1st ML home run, providing a huge lift to an offense that was clearly pressing. With 2 out, hits by Jeter and Damon, and a walk to Tex loaded the bases for the enigmatic ARod. Struggling through a 1-25 slump, ARod quickly fell behind 0-2 in the count. After fouling off a pitch, he laced a single to right to knock in 2 runs and giving the Yanks a 3-1 lead on what was considered an endangered species around these parts - the 2-out hit with RISP.
Nick Swisher, who had a mysterious closed door meeting with GM Brian Cashman and Girardi earlier in the day and then found himself in the lineup after being initially left off of it, laced an opposite field HR to left to make it 4-1 Yanks in the 6th. Joba pitched into the 7th before he ran into trouble. The Braves rallied to make it 4-3 with Phil Coke closing out the inning, thanks in part to a circus catch by Swisher in RF. The Yanks would "rally" for 2 more runs in the 8th, despite Robinson Cano's best efforts to sabotage the whole inning. With the bases loaded, no outs, Cano embarrassed himself, yet again, by hitting it to 1B for a force out at home. Braves catcher, Brian McCann, hit Cano in the back in an attempt to double him up at first, leading to the 5th run. Swisher knocked in another run with an RBI groundout. Someone please tell me how Cano is still hitting 5th in this lineup.
There was a Brian Bruney sighting in the 8th, but with 2 outs, he ran into trouble, setting the stage for another rare sight - Mariano Rivera. Mo hasn't pitched in 8 days, but it didn't show in his performance tonight. He struck out all 4 batters he faced, recording his 16th save this season and 498th of his career. He even got to bat with the bases loaded in the top of the 9th, while the Yanks cushioned the lead to 8-4. Mo hit a hard liner to CF to end the inning, as his amused teammates were hopeful it would fall in for a hit. It's been awhile since these guys had any fun.
After starting the game 0-15, the Yanks ended it by going 10-20 after Girardi's ejection, with 2 dingers and scoring in every inning after the 5th. Joba improved to 4-2 on the season, 4-0 on the road. They'll face an old foe in Derek Lowe tomorrow in the rubber match.
Other AL East notes: Boston, Toronto and Tampa Bay all won. Big Sloppy hit his 7th HR of the year, 6th this month, as the Sawx beat Craig "Yankee Killer" Stammen. They've never seen him before either, yet they proved it is possible to beat someone the first time a team faces a pitcher. That excuse is getting old for the Yanks. Other teams are beating these first timers like a drum, so why can't a club of the Yankees caliber do the same? Besides, they've faced the likes of Josh Beckett and Roy Halladay all the time and they still beat the Yanks regularly, so that "facing a pitcher the first time" theory is garbage. Pat Burrell helped Tampa beat his old team, the Phillies. I'm sure that will be a topic of discussion in Philly tomorrow.
Yankees Record: 39-32
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