There is one thing in New York with less life than the Yankees’ bats across the first three games: Eliot Spitzer’s political future.
Fortunately for the Bombers, they have pitchers such as Phil Hughes, Joba Chamberlain and Mariano Rivera and bullpen supporters such as Billy Traber and Brian Bruney.
In three games the Yankees have scored eight runs. Nevertheless, thanks to their pitching they sent the Blue Jays out of Yankee Stadium with two losses in three games, including last night’s pulsating, 3-2, decision that was witnessed by 47,785.
“We just kept pushing,” said Bobby Abreu, who drove in the game-winning run with a single in the eighth.
Held to a pair of gift runs through seven innings thanks to a wild pitch by Dustin McGowan, the Yankees used another act of charity – pitcher Scott Downs muffing Johnny Damon’s sacrifice bunt in the eighth – which led to the winning run.
“You are going to win with pitching and defense,” said manager Joe Girardi, the latest victim of a nasty flu bug that has struck the Yankees’ clubhouse.
Last night, the recipe was pitching. Hughes, likely the most polished pitcher of Generation Trey, gave up two runs and four hits in six innings. Traber, a left-handed specialist, retired the left-handed-hitting Lyle Overbay to start the seventh, and Bruney retired the two batters he faced in the inning. Chamberlain gave up a meaningless single in the eighth when he pushed the scoreboard radar gun to 99 mph, and Rivera worked around Vernon Wells’ leadoff single in the ninth to end the game with Wells at third when Aaron Hill looked at a 1-2 pitch.
“Ace in the making,” Damon said of the 21-year-old Hughes, the second-youngest player in the big leagues.
“I spotted my fastball pretty well and for the most part I was able to get ahead,” Hughes said. “For the most part I am happy. We won and I kept us in the game.”
After a six-inning, 87-pitch outing, Hughes left trailing 2-0, giving up solo runs in the fourth and fifth. Damon started the game-tying, two-run rally in the sixth with a leadoff double, then McGowan hit Derek Jeter. Abreu walked to load the bases without an out, and McGowan bounced a pitch to Alex Rodriguez that got past catcher Gregg Zaun and allowed Damon to race home. After Rodriguez (0-for-4, two strikeouts) fanned, Jason Giambi’s fly to right scored Jeter to tie the score at 2.
Melky Cabrera opened the ninth with a single to right and went to second when Downs muffed Damon’s sacrifice bunt. Jeter moved the runners to second and third with a sacrifice bunt before Abreu dumped a single in front of Wells in center that scored Cabrera. Rodriguez whiffed before Giambi got hit by a pitch that loaded the bases for Robinson Cano, who stranded three with a stress-free fly to Wells.
“It’s nice to have guys in the back end [of the bullpen] who can do the job,” Girardi said of Chamberlain and Rivera. “When you have the bullpen shut the door it’s a lot easier. We have a lot of confidence, and we will go to them.”
Girardi has a lot of confidence in his lineup, too. He should, because there are too many good hitters to have to keep relying on the arms – though they are batting .244 (21-for-86) overall and .059 (1-for-17) with runners in scoring position.
“We have to treat these kids like gold,” Damon said of Hughes, Chamberlain and tonight’s starter Ian Kennedy. “If they don’t throw well, we aren’t going to the playoffs. We have to get them some runs.”