"A New York Treasure" --Village Voice

Made to Order

The wife and I went to Citifield yesterday and were fortunate enough to sit in some cushy seats where we thoroughly enjoyed watching the Yankees beat the Mets to the tune of 5-2.

Bartolo Colon didn’t skip a beat in his return from the D.L. He threw hard, in the mid-90s, and froze the Mets’ hitters with his two-seam fastball–he struck out six batters in the first four innings, five looking. Some of the juice went out of the building early one when Jose Reyes was removed because he tweaked his hamstring, a disheartening development for sure.

There was no score in the bottom of the fifth when Jason Bay worked the count full against Colon with one out. Bay hit a little squibber down the third base line and Colon didn’t bother sprinting for it. He smiled instead. No man, no sudden moves for me, Papi. Lucas Duda, a hulk of a man, singled softly to right, Josh Tole hit a hard line drive to left and the bases were loaded. When Colon fell behind 2-0 to the pitcher Dillion Gee, the Mets looked to be in business. But Colon worked the count even and then Gee hit a soft ground ball to Alex Rodriguez who stepped on third and threw to first to complete the double play.

And then things turned. Brett Gardner led off the top of the sixth and lined out to center field. Gee had matched Colon with six strikeouts through the first five innings, all swinging, and all but one swinging through a nifty change-up. But now, the third time through the order, the Yanks had him figured out. Curtis Granderson followed Gardner and hit a change up high over the wall in right center field. Mark Teixeira singled and then Alex Rodriguez had a good swing at a first pitch fastball, fouled it right back to the screen. He swung through a curve ball and I figured there was no way he was going to see another fastball. But he did and singled to right. Robinson Cano looked at a pitch for a ball and then hit a triple into the right field corner; he scored on a sacrifice fly by Nick Swisher.

That outburst proved to be enough. Eduardo Nunez doubled in his first two at bats, was robbed on a sensational catch by second baseman Justin Turner, and then hit a solo home run in the 9th. He made be a constant adventure in the field but it is nice to see Nunez hitting well. One thing I’ve noticed is that he can take some wild hacks in an at bat but then recover to square a ball up and hit it hard.

Cory Wade allowed a couple of hits but nothing more in two innings of work and the newly reacquired Serge Meatray pitched the ninth and gave up a couple of runs. Banter commenter, “The Hawk” put it best when he said “Ah, Mitre, making sure there’s no case of mistaken identity.”

Otherwise, it was a fine day for the Yankees who have now won seven straight.

It was a swell outing for the wife and me. We even stopped by Sripraphai for Thai food on the way home and when we finally returned to the Bronx we were tired but very heppy kets.

Categories:  1: Featured  Bronx Banter  Game Recap  Yankees

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3 comments

1 Dimelo   ~  Jul 3, 2011 11:02 am

Oh Sriprahphai, how I miss thee!

2 Alex Belth   ~  Jul 3, 2011 12:05 pm

2) Dude, it was packed when we got there by 7:30. Nice to see on a holiday weekend in NYC.

3 YankeeInAZ   ~  Jul 5, 2011 2:42 pm

When I was living in Jackson Heights I would go to Sriprahphai all the time. Man is it good!!!

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"This ain't football. We do this every day."
--Earl Weaver