The Yankees batted around against a tired Zach Duke with two outs in the fourth, putting up seven runs before Josh Phelps, in his second at bat of the inning, lined to third to mercifully end the inning.
Lineup:
L – Johnny Damon (CF)
R – Derek Jeter (SS)
L – Jason Giambi (1B)
R – Alex Rodriguez (3B)
L – Hideki Matsui (LF)
S – Jorge Posada (C)
R – Josh Phelps (1B)
L – Robinson Cano (2B)
R – Melky Cabrera (RF)
Pitchers: Mike Mussina, Mariano Rivera, Kyle Farnsworth, Mike Myers, Luis Vizcaino
Subs: Doug Mientkiewicz (1B), Miguel Cairo (2B), Chris Basak (SS), Angel Chavez (PR/3B), Ben Davis (PR/C), Bronson Sardinha (RF), Kevin Thompson (PR/CF), Kevin Reese (PR/LF), Andy Phillips (DH)
Opposition: Jason Bay, Adam LaRoche and a bunch of scrubs.
Big Hits: Jason Giambi hit a grand slam in the middle of the Yankees’ seven-run outburst against Duke. Alex Rodriguez followed with a triple. Chris Basak doubled off Damaso Marte in the eighth, eventually scoring the Yankees’ eighth run.
Who Pitched Well?: Mike Mussina finally had a good outing, pitching five scoreless innings, allowing just three hits, all singles, and a walk while striking out two. Mariano Rivera needed just six pitches to work a perfect sixth, and thus threw ten more in the pen afterwards. Mike Myers pitched around a double in the eighth. Luis Vizcaino pitched around a single in the ninth, striking out one.
Who Didn’t?: Kyle Farnsworth gave up a run on two walks and a hit in the seventh.
Slick Plays: With one out in the fifth Jose Castillo flew out to shallow right with Ryan Doumit on first base. Doumit wandered a bit too far off first and Melky Cabrera fired a strike to Doug Mientkiewicz for a 9-9-3 double play. Later, Minky made a couple of nice plays of his own, one a diving stop to his right on a line drive, the other fielding a short hop on the foul line. Left fielders Hideki Matsui and Kevin Reese both made nice running catches heading back toward the warning track, though Reese’s was more impressive.
Ouchies: Bobby Abreu looked good in batting practice yesterday, ran the bases, and is penciled in as Tuesday’s DH. Humberto threw 25 fastballs in the bullpen and will remain in camp to work with Ron Guidry, throwing another bullpen on Tuesday. Wil Nieves should play in today’s game. Jose Veras (elbow) will play catch today.
Battles: Josh Phelps went 2 for 3 and made a nice base-running play with two outs in the fourth. That came when Robinson Cano hit a grounder behind second base which Pittsburgh shortstop Brian Bixler dove for and stopped on the edge of the infield grass. Phelps, who had taken off on contact, slid in just ahead of Bixler’s flip to second. Andy Phillips grounded out in his only at-bat from the DH slot. Ben Davis did not come to bat.
Notes:
Housekeeping: I’ve fixed all of the MLB hit-chart links on the sidebar. I’ve also deleted all of the Retrosheet links, as all of the splits and game logs on Retrosheet can now be accessed via Baseball-Reference (with the exception of the catch-all “men on” split, but it hardly seemed worth the clutter for that single split seeing as B-Ref provides all of the individual men-on-base situations).
