Yankees Blast Their Way to Victory

The Yankees won, they lost, they won again. It was a crazy night in the Bronx this evening as the Yankees rolled Dice-K, watched their bullpen get pounded, and then saw Alex Rodriguez and Marcus Thames take Jonathan Papelbon deep for an 11-9 Yankees win.

The Yankees led 6-1 before Phil Hughes ran out of gas and Boone Logan and Chan Ho Park turned the lead into a 9-7 deficit. As the bottom of the 9th inning started, YES commentator John Flaherty mentioned that Papelbon had pitched two and one-third innings on Saturday and may not have his best fastball. His words were prescient.

Brett Gardner started the inning with a double that sliced under a sliding Darnell McDonald in left field. After Mark Teixeira flied out to deep center, Rodriguez hit a no mistake about it home run to center to tie the game at nine apiece.

Papelbon put the winning run on base by plunking Francisco Cervelli and then served up a fat first pitch fastball to Thames, who drilled into the left field seats for the game winner. Needless to say there was pandemonium on and off the field. It also resulted in the first walk off pie of the season as A.J. Burnett delivered a spot on facial to an unsuspecting (well, not totally unsuspecting) Thames.


The most ironic part of the night though may have been the winning pitcher. It was none other than Javier Vazquez who came on and struck out Kevin Youkilis to end the top of the 9th inning.

The Yankees had jumped all over Datsuke Matsuzaka for five runs in the first inning, which included a pair of RBI for Rodriguez and one for Thames. But down 6-1, the Red Sox started chipping away.

David Ortiz hit a solo shot in the 4th and an inning later J.D. Drew blasted a 3-run home run off Hughes to cut the Yankees lead to a single run. A gassed Hughes got the final out of the 5th, but was done after 105 pitches.

Thames' RBI double in the bottom of the 5th put the Yankees back up by a pair of runs, but Victor Martinez's answered back with a solo home run off Boone Logan in the 6th.

With a shortened bullpen, Chan Ho Park had to go two innings and it caught up to him in the 8th. First, Youkilis put the Red Sox on top for the first time with a 2-run home run. Then Martinez made it back to back shots and home runs from each side of the plate when he drove Park's delivery into the night.

It appeared the Yankees might be done, but Damaso Marte and Vazquez quieted things down before the Yankees bats got Yankee Stadium rocking again.

Notes

As expected, Ivan Nova was optioned to Scranton to make room on the roster for Park.

Joba Chamberlain was unavailable because he warmed up two different times on Saturday in addition to pitching on Sunday.