OAKLAND, Calif. — Their thick muscles have produced homers by the truckload and easily have become the Yankees’ calling card.
Yet, there were more dimensions in play last night when the Yankees punished the A’s, 10-3, in front of announced crowd of 22,587 at The Coliseum for their third straight victory.
Yes, Curtis Granderson (four RBIs)and Robinson Cano homered, but the Yankees swiped four bases and watched Alex Rodriguez drive in three runs on two of his three singles.
Things went so well for the Yankees that they overcame Brett Gardner failing to get down a safety squeeze bunt in the third inning and still scored a run.
Derek Jeter went 2-for-4 and is 17 hits shy of 3,000. In 51 games, Jeter has 57 hits. That’s an average of 1.12 hits per game. At that rate look for him to reach the coveted mark in Chicago, where the Yankees play the Cubs June 17-19.
Freddy Garcia was the benefactor of the offensive orgy and improved to 4-4, picking up his second straight victory. In seven innings, which tied a season-high for the veteran right-hander, Garcia allowed three runs and nine hits. He walked two and fanned five. One of the hits was a two-run homer by Rutgers product David DeJesus.
“We are doing it anyway we can,” said Granderson, whose two-run homer in the first off loser Brett Anderson (3-5) was the first given up by the left-hander this year and gave Garcia an early cushion. “The home run, getting on base, getting walks. We are getting contributions from everybody. That’s as close to getting a complete game.”
A year ago Granderson had to check the lineup card to make sure he was playing against lefties. This year nine of his 17 homers have been hit off lefties.
“It’s hard to believe the adjustments this guy has made,” manager Joe Girardi said of his center fielder who added a two-run single in the three-run sixth that blew the game open. “You make a mistake and he doesn’t miss it.”
During the three-game win streak the Yankees have scored seven, five and 10 runs. And their starters have worked eight (CC Sabathia), nine (Bartolo Colon) and seven innings (Garcia).
“We have a deep lineup with patient hitters who know how to work the count,” Girardi said of his lineup that is 9-for-26 (.346) with runners in scoring position during the winning streak.
As for Garcia, he escaped a bases-loaded jam in the fourth by working around No. 8 hitter Kevin Kouzmanoff to load the bases for Andy LaRoche and got him to ground out.
Two innings later Garcia came within inches of taking a Kouzmanoff liner off his grill but turned it into an inning-ending double play.
“I was lucky, I almost got hit in the face,” Garcia said. “I don’t know how I caught the ball.”
With Colon, another veteran right-hander who came to spring training on a minor league contract, Garcia has saved the Yankees season. His off-speed stuff and control is the mirror to the hard-throwing Colon’s smoke.
“I don’t know where we would be without them,” Girardi said. “They have given us a chance to win every game they have pitched.”