It is High, It is Far, It is Gone

Yanks outslug Mets 11-8

The Yankees were in mid-April form today with poor starting pitching and shaky relief by Mariano Rivera. But the offense, lead by A-Rod slugged through way through to an 11-8 win. Tyler Clippard earned himself a ride by to Scranton with an awful 3 1-3 inning performance. The Mets touched him up for runs in the 1st two innings, Ruben Gotay providing the second with his 3rd home run of the season. The Yankees tied it up in their half of the 2nd, but the Mets got the go ahead run back across home plate in the 3rd, courtesy of the Jose Reyes show.

Reyes drew his 2nd walk of the game and promptly stole 2nd base (his 2nd steak of the day and his 5th steal in 2 days). A Carlos Beltran ground out moved him to 3rd where he proceeded to dance down the line. When Carlos Delgado signaled for time out, Clippard broke from his stretch position and was called for a balk by home plate umpire Bruce Froemming. Jorge Posada and Joe Torre argued, but Froemming had never granted the time out.

The Yankees got Clippard off the hook again in the bottom of the inning when Alex Rodriguez tattooed a Tommy Glavine delivery into the back of the Met's bullpen for a 2-run shot. It was A-Rod's 26th of the season and number 490 for his career.

Unfortunately for the Yankees, Clippard threw the lead away immediately. After issuing a 1-out walk to Shawn Green, Clippard served up a gopher ball to Ramon Castro. Castro's 4th of the year put the Mets back in front 5-4. For whatever reason, Torre kept Clippard in the game for one batter. That turned out to be a single for Gotay.

Clippard's removal turned out to out to be the turning point of the game. While Glavine continued to struggle, Luis Vizcaino and Scott Proctor finally stopped the bleeding. Then the Captain stepped up.

Derek Jeter crushed a Glavine pitch and drove into the runway between the left field seats and the bleacher for a 6-5 Yankees lead. It was Jeter's 5th of the season on a day when he would go 4-5 and extend his hitting streak to 11 games. He fell a triple short of hitting for the cyle.

Glavine, who has been stuck on 295 career wins since May 19th (5 starts), exited the game after giving up a lead off double to Posada. Robinson Cano's single off of Scott Schoeneweis brought home Posada, with Cano advancing to 2nd on the play. He would later score on a Miguel Cairo base hit as the Yankees scored 2 runs for the 5th straight inning.

The Mets bullpen finally stopped the Yankees from scoring in the 7th, but Cano doubled in a big insurance run in the 8th off of Aaron Sele for an 11-6 lead. The Yankees would need those runs because Mo was hit like the Mo of April.

Delgado lead off with a ground single through the left side and Paul Lo Duca followed with a rope to right. Green flied out, but Castro singled to left to load the bases. Rivera struck out Gotay looking for the 2nd out of the inning and it appeared he may escape unscathed. But rookie Carlos Gomez ripped one back up the middle that ricocheted off of the closer's ankle for an infield single. A run scored and the bases remained loaded for the hot Reyes.

Rivera got ahead, but Reyes eventually lined a single to center to bring home 2 runs. That brought the go-ahead run to the plate in the person of Beltran. But Mo bounced back, getting the cold centerfielder to pop out in foul territory to Posada for the final out.

It certainly was written up as a game plan, but the Yankees will take the 'W'.

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Clippard was demoted after the game and replaced by outfielder Kevin Thompson. After tomorrow night's game, the Yankees play the next 6 in National League parks so they can use the extra non-pitcher. In 6 starts, Clippard was 3-1, 6.33. He only had 1 effective start after his debut victory against the Mets on May 20th.

Kei Igawa will most likely be recalled to start Friday night in San Francisco. Igawa was 1-1, 2.00 in 2 starts for Tampa, and 2-2, 2.88 in 4 starts for Scranton. More importantly, he has a 27/7 strikeout to walk ratio and has gotten command of his change up.

Jorge Posada has only played 1st Base one time in the last 6 years, but Torre plans on putting him out there a couple of times this week to keep his bat in the lineup while Wil Nieves catches.

The Yankees remain 8.5 back in the east as Boston beat San Fran 1-0. The Yanks do move back to 3.5 out in the wild card after Detroit's loss to Philly, 6-3.