Andy Pettitte was concerned about his back and a lack of sharpness in his last two regular season outings. But his performance tonight against the Minnesota Twins should alleviate any of those fears. Pettitte gave up a 2nd inning run, but shut down the Twins the rest of the way as the Yankees won 5-2 for a commanding 2-0 ALDS series lead.
With the game tied 2-2 in the 7th, the Yankees took control against former teammate, if you can really call him that, Carl Pavano, but not before a bit of controversy. Lance Berkman got an extra chance to hit after an apparent called third strike was ruled a ball by home plate umpire Hunter Wendelstedt. Twins manager Ron Gardenhire was ejected from the game and the former Astro took advantage of the situation, drilling an ankle high pitch to deep center for a go ahead RBI double. The Yankees added an insurance run later in the inning when Derek Jeter's liner dropped in front of a diving Jason Kubel for a 4-2 lead.
The Twins had a chance to break the game open early when they loaded the bases in the 2nd inning on singles by Delmon Young and Jim Thome and a one out walk to Kubel. Danny Valencia gave the Twins a 1-0 lead with a sac fly, but Pettitte got out of further trouble when J.J. Hardy lined out to Robinson Cano.
Alex Rodriguez tied the game with a sac fly in the 4th, but Pavano got out of his own jam by inducing an inning ending double play from Nick Swisher.
Berkman drilled a 423-ft home run in the 5th inning for a 2-1 Yankees lead, but the Twins tied it back up in the 6th on Orlando Hudson's round tripper.
Kerry Wood and Mariano Rivera recorded the final six outs in a row to put the Twins' backs up against the wall for Game 3 in New York on Saturday.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment