Yankees Power Their Way To Subway Win

Perhaps it was the ineffective Phillies offense rubbing off on them or more likely an ill-time slump. Whatever the case the Yankees somewhat snapped out of their offensive doldrums today and powered their was past the crosstown Mets 5-3.

Jose Reyes hit a pair of home runs off of Phil Hughes to give the Mets a 3-1 lead, but Mark Teixeira went deep with a man aboard against Mike Pelfrey in the 3rd to tie it. One inning later Curtis Granderson replicated the feat to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead.

That was all that Hughes and the pen would need. The right hander joined Ubaldo Jimenez and David Price as the only major leaguers with double figure victories. Hughes allowed just three hits over his final four innings and retired the side in order in his final inning, the seventh.

After losing three straight, an audible grown could be heard when Reyes homered on the second pitch of the ball game to put the Mets on top 1-0. The Yankees tied it up in the bottom half of the inning when Brett Gardner, hitting lead off with Derek Jeter sitting with a bad heel, and Nick Swisher stroked back to back singles and Teixeira bounced in a double play.

Hughes walked the nine hitter, Henry Blanco, with one out in the 3rd and it came back to bite him when Reyes took him deep for the second time. Hughes followed the home run with a walk to Angel Pagan, but Jorge Posada shut down a bigger inning by throwing Pagan attempting to steal second base.

Gardner set the table again in the 3rd with an infield single and moved into scoring position on Swisher's ground out. Teixeira took out his 1st inning frustration on a hanging Pelfrey change up and sent it into the right-center field seats for his 11th home run of the season.

Posada worked a walk to start the 4th and Granderson followed with a long home run to right when Pelfrey left a curve ball in the center fielder's wheelhouse.

Joba Chamberlain bounced back from a rough outing against the Phillies and tossed a scoreless 8th inning. He did give up a 2-out double to Pagan, but struck out David Wright by throwing a steady diet of sliders.

Mariano Rivera tossed a 1-2-3 9th inning to pick up his 16th save, and first since June 11.

Notes

Derek Jeter is expected to be back in the lineup for Sunday's game after bruising his heel on first base Friday night. Alex Rodriguez DH'ed so Ramiro Pena started at shortstop with Kevin Russo taking a turn at third base.

photo courtesy of NY Daily News