Yankees Bounce Their Way to a Split

It wasn't pretty, there wasn't a classic rally, but the Yankees will take it. A 5-2 win over the Cleveland Indians tonight gained them a split of the 4-game series and finished off their road trip with a two game winning streak. The Yankees finished the last section of the road trip 4-2 and went 10-10 during the arduous 20 road games in 23 days schedule from hell.

It wasn't easy tonight though. The Yankees have historically struggled against pitchers they haven't seen before and pitchers who throw a lot of off-speed stuff. Tonight presented a combination of both in Aaron Laffey. Melky Cabrera lead off the game with a walk and Derek Jeter reached on 2nd Baseman Jamey Carroll's error. Laffey would not allow another base runner through the 5th inning.

Trailing 2-0 in the 6th, Cabrera ended the no-hitter with a high chopper in the hole between shortstop and 3rd Base. Jhonny Peralta fielded it, but had no play. Jeter followed with a slow bouncer to 3rd that took a bad hop on Casey Blake. Blake grabbed the ball bare handed, but his throw had no chance of getting Jeter.

Bobby Abreu hit the first hard hit ball of the inning, a slapped liner to left, to load the bases with no one out. Laffey got ahead of Alex Rodriguez 1-2, but then hit A-Rod in the left leg to force in a run. Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui followed with RBI ground outs to 1st Baseman Ryan Garko, and just like that the Yankees had the lead for good, 3-2. Morgan Ensberg added an RBI on yet another infield single, for the fourth and final run of the inning.

Mike Mussina kept his team in the game with 5 innings of smoke and mirrors, allowing a pair of runs in the 5th on consecutive singles by Casey Blake, Franklin Gutierrez, and Jason Michaels, and a sac fly by Travis Hafner. But after walking Victor Martinez to load the bases, Mussina retired Peralta on a line out to Jeter to end the inning.

Mussina (3-3) won his second straight game to reach .500 for the season and picked up career victory number 253, tying him with Hall of Famers Carl Hubbell and Al Spalding for 42nd place on the all-time list.

Joe Girardi got a big lift from his bullpen as well. Jonathan Albaladejo put two men on with two outs in the 6th, but struck out David Dellucci to escape trouble. Kyle Farnsworth, Joba Chamberlain, and Mariano Rivera then set down the final nine Indians in order to preserve the win.

The save was Rivera's 8th this season in 8 tries and career save number 451. Remarkably, the league is just 4-36 (.111) against Rivera this season. He is yet to issue a walk and has struck out 11 in 11 innings pitched.

News and Notes

After sitting out two games, Hideki Matsui added an insurance RBI, his second of the game, with a double in the 8th inning.

The crazy AL East now has the Rays, Blue Jays, and Red Sox tied for first (the Sox are actually .004 behind) and the Yankees just 1 game back.

Alex Rodriguez DH'ed to rest his sore quad and left the game in the 8th for a pinch-hitter, Johnny Damon, presumably to rest his quad and not because of the hit by pitch he suffered in the 6th inning.

Game time temps were 46 degrees. Baseball Fever in April...catch it!

Jorge Posada saw Dr. James Andrews today, but there's no word yet on his prognosis.

April 28, 2008

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
NY Yankees	0	0	0	0	0	4	0	1	0		5	5	1
Cleveland	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0		2	8	1

NY Yankees	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Cabrera, CF	4	1	1	0	1	1	0	.289
Jeter, SS	4	1	1	0	0	0	0	.279
Abreu, RF	4	1	1	0	0	1	2	.280
Rodriguez, DH	2	1	0	1	0	0	2	.286
a-Damon, PH-DH	0	1	0	0	1	0	0	.275
Giambi, 1B	4	0	0	1	0	0	5	.167
Matsui, LF	4	0	1	2	0	0	1	.317
Ensberg, 3B	4	0	1	1	0	1	1	.256
Cano, 2B	3	0	0	0	0	0	1	.153
Molina, C	4	0	0	0	0	0	1	.245
Totals	33	5	5	5	2	3	13
a-Walked for Rodriguez in the 8th.
BATTING 2B: Matsui (5, Lewis, J). TB: Cabrera; Jeter; Abreu; Matsui 2; Ensberg. RBI: Rodriguez (11), Giambi (11), Matsui 2 (13), Ensberg (3). 2-out RBI: Ensberg; Matsui. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Giambi; Ensberg. Team LOB: 5. FIELDING E: Jeter (2, fielding). DP: (Jeter-Cano-Giambi).

NY Yankees	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Mussina (W, 3-3)	5.0	7	2	2	1	2	0	4.73
Albaladejo (H, 1)	1.0	1	0	0	1	1	0	2.08
Farnsworth (H, 2)	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	3.65
Chamberlain (H, 6)	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1.59
Rivera (S, 8)	1.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	0.00

Cleveland	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Dellucci, LF	5	0	1	0	0	2	4	.268
Carroll, 2B	4	0	0	0	0	0	5	.219
Hafner, DH	3	0	0	1	0	2	0	.219
Martinez, C	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	.365
Peralta, SS	4	0	1	0	0	0	4	.247
Garko, 1B	4	0	0	0	0	0	2	.227
Blake, 3B	3	1	1	0	1	1	0	.224
Gutierrez, CF	4	1	2	0	0	1	1	.241
Michaels, RF	3	0	2	1	0	0	0	.200
Totals	33	2	8	2	2	6	16
BATTING TB: Dellucci; Martinez; Peralta; Blake; Gutierrez 2; Michaels 2. RBI: Michaels (8), Hafner (15). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Carroll 2; Garko; Peralta 2; Dellucci. S: Michaels. SF: Hafner. GIDP: Garko. Team LOB: 8. FIELDING E: Carroll (1, fielding).

Cleveland	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Laffey (L, 0-1)	5.2	3	4	4	1	1	0	6.35
Lewis, J	2.0	2	1	1	1	1	0	4.20
Julio	1.1	0	0	0	0	1	0	3.97

WP: Mussina.
HBP: Cano (by Laffey), Rodriguez (by Laffey).
Pitches-strikes: Mussina 92-60, Albaladejo 22-14, Farnsworth 12-8, Chamberlain 11-6, Rivera 15-10, Laffey 78-48, Lewis, J 32-21, Julio 12-9.
Ground outs-fly outs: Mussina 5-8, Albaladejo 1-1, Farnsworth 1-1, Chamberlain 1-1, Rivera 1-1, Laffey 10-6, Lewis, J 1-4, Julio 0-3.
Batters faced: Mussina 23, Albaladejo 5, Farnsworth 3, Chamberlain 3, Rivera 3, Laffey 24, Lewis, J 9, Julio 4.
Inherited runners-scored: Lewis, J 1-1, Julio 1-0.
Umpires: HP: Derryl Cousins. 1B: Angel Hernandez. 2B: James Hoye. 3B: Marty Foster.
Weather: 48 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 5 mph, In from RF.
T: 3:02.
Att: 20,689.