Yankees Outlast Royals in 13

Thank goodness we weren't around to sit through this one. We came out of a party in the 10th inning, listened in the car on the way home, and then watched the rest. Just experiencing those few short innings was painful enough as the Yankees couldn't push a run across against the Royals. Finally, Brett Gardner delivered his second walk off single of the season in a 3-2, 13 inning Yankees win over the Royals.

Sidney Ponson has stepped into the spotlight in his time in Pinstripes, and due to injuries, has become the number three starter. He hasn't let the Yankees down in that position as he put together his fourth good start in a row. But has been the case in each of those starts, the Yankees have had trouble scoring runs, twice being shutout with Ponson on the mound.

Yesterday was no different with the Yankees trailing 2-0 to Zach Greinke as the game entered the seventh inning. Alex Rodriguez reached second base when third baseman Alex Gordon booted his lead off ground ball and then threw it away for a double error. A walk to Jason Giambi followed and the Yankees were set up. But the Yankees have failed in these situations all year and especially the last few weeks. It looked like they would again when Xavier Nady bounced into a 5-4-3 double play.

But Robinson Cano came through though with an RBI triple off the wall in right. Greinke then wild pitched Cano home with the tying run. The Yankees had a chance to take the lead when Ivan Rodriguez reached on a Tony Pena Jr. error and Gardner singled, but reliever Ramon Ramirez struck out Johnny Damon to end the inning.

The Yankees had a chance to take the lead in the eighth when they loaded the bases, but Robinson Tejeda struck out a suddenly slumping Nady and retired Cano on a fly out. In the ninth the Yankees put two men aboard with just one out, but Derek Jeter bounced into an inning ending double play.

The fans held their collective breath when Mariano Rivera entered the game in the 10th inning, but unlike Friday and seemingly every other tie game he's pitched in this year, Rivera threw two scoreless inning to keep the game knotted up.

Finally in the thirteenth inning, Cano reached on a one out single, moved to second base on I-Rod's ground out, and scored on Gardner's base hit threw the left side. Cano beat David DeJesus' throw home, four hours and fifty-three minutes after the game began.

The Royals took the lead in the second inning on Gordon's 14th home run of the season and added a second run in the sixth on Estaban German's bases loaded sacrifice fly.


News and Notes

Sidney Ponson is 1-1, 2.96 in his last four starts.

The Yankees bullpen, about as bad as they could be for the last 17 games, threw 6.1 scoreless innings of relief.

Hideki Matsui homered in his first rehab game for Tampa on Friday. He went 1-5 in the doubleheader against Clearwater. Yesterday he went 1-3 with a walk.

Xavier Nady is in a 3-16 skid.

Despite bouncing in yet another double play, Derek Jeter is 8-15 in his last three games. All the hits have come after fouling a ball of his instep in Minnesota.

Melky Cabrera has three days to report to Scranton and apparently he's using all of it. He still has not shown up, and since the team is off on Monday, they may not see him until Tuesday.


August 16, 2008

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13		R	H	E
Kansas City	0	1	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0		2	8	3
NY Yankees	0	0	0	0	0	0	2	0	0	0	0	0	1		3	10	1

Kansas City	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
DeJesus, LF	6	0	2	0	0	1	3	.291
Aviles, M, SS-2B	6	0	0	0	0	2	5	.318
Teahen, RF	4	0	2	0	2	0	0	.252
Guillen, DH	6	1	0	0	0	0	7	.252
Gordon, 3B	4	1	1	1	2	1	2	.256
Gload, 1B	4	0	0	0	1	1	2	.269
German, 2B	1	0	0	1	0	0	0	.222
Pena, SS	2	0	0	0	0	0	1	.158
Buck, C	5	0	0	0	0	2	4	.219
Maier, CF	5	0	3	0	0	0	0	.352
Totals	43	2	8	2	5	7	24
BATTING 2B: Teahen (21, Ponson), DeJesus (19, Ponson). HR: Gordon (14, 2nd inning off Ponson, 0 on, 0 out). TB: DeJesus 3; Teahen 3; Gordon 4; Maier 3. RBI: Gordon (50), German (16). Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Gload; Aviles, M; Buck. SF: German. GIDP: Guillen. Team LOB: 9. BASERUNNING CS: Teahen (3, 2nd base by Robertson/Rodriguez, I), Maier (1, 2nd base by Ramirez/Rodriguez, I). FIELDING E: Gordon 2 (14, fielding, throw), Pena (8, fielding). DP: 4 (German-Aviles, M-Gload, Aviles, M-German-Gload, Gordon-Aviles, M-Gload, Pena-Gload).

Kansas City	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Greinke	6.2	6	2	0	2	5	0	3.92
Ramirez, R	0.2	1	0	0	2	1	0	2.81
Tejeda	2.2	0	0	0	2	4	0	3.66
Peralta	2.0	1	0	0	1	2	0	5.40
Fulchino (L, 0-1)	0.2	2	1	1	0	1	0	9.45

NY Yankees	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	LOB	AVG
Damon, DH	6	0	1	0	0	3	5	.316
Jeter, SS	6	0	2	0	0	1	3	.289
Abreu, RF	5	0	2	0	1	2	1	.289
Rodriguez, A, 3B	5	1	0	0	1	2	5	.308
Giambi, 1B	2	0	0	0	1	1	3	.252
1-Ransom, PR-1B	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	.000
a-Betemit, PH-1B	1	0	0	0	2	1	2	.261
Nady, LF	5	0	0	0	1	2	6	.325
Cano, 2B	6	2	2	1	0	1	4	.265
Rodriguez, I, C	5	0	0	0	0	0	2	.287
Gardner, CF	5	0	3	1	1	0	0	.176
Totals	46	3	10	2	7	13	31
a-Walked for Ransom in the 8th. 1-Ran for Giambi in the 7th.
BATTING 2B: Gardner (2, Greinke). 3B: Cano (3, Greinke). TB: Damon; Jeter 2; Abreu 2; Cano 4; Gardner 4. RBI: Cano (55), Gardner (8). 2-out RBI: Cano; Gardner. Runners left in scoring position, 2 out: Abreu; Damon; Cano 2; Betemit 2. GIDP: Giambi; Rodriguez, I; Nady; Jeter. Team LOB: 13. FIELDING E: Jeter (9, throw). DP: 3 (Jeter-Cano-Giambi, Rodriguez, A-Cano, Rodriguez, I-Jeter).

NY Yankees	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	HR	ERA
Ponson	6.1	7	2	2	2	2	1	4.19
Marte	0.0	0	0	0	1	0	0	4.50
Bruney	0.2	0	0	0	0	0	0	2.60
Veras	1.0	0	0	0	1	1	0	2.72
Ramirez	1.0	1	0	0	0	2	0	3.60
Rivera	2.0	0	0	0	0	1	0	1.64
Robertson (W, 3-0)	2.0	0	0	0	1	1	0	5.48

Marte pitched to 1 batter in the 7th.

WP: Greinke, Ponson.
HBP: Rodriguez, I (by Tejeda), German (by Ponson).
Pitches-strikes: Greinke 104-64, Ramirez, R 26-12,
Tejeda 48-28, Peralta 43-27, Fulchino 14-8,
Ponson 85-54, Marte 6-2, Bruney 8-6, Veras 17-10,
Ramirez 14-10, Rivera 25-15, Robertson 23-12.
Ground outs-fly outs: Greinke 12-3, Ramirez, R 1-0,
Tejeda 2-2, Peralta 2-2, Fulchino 1-0, Ponson 9-8
,Marte 0-0, Bruney 0-1, Veras 1-1, Ramirez 0-0, Rivera 3-2, Robertson 1-3.
Batters faced: Greinke 27, Ramirez, R 5, Tejeda 10,
Peralta 8, Fulchino 4, Ponson 29, Marte 1, Bruney 1,
Veras 4, Ramirez 3, Rivera 6, Robertson 6.
Inherited runners-scored: Ramirez, R 2-0,
Tejeda 3-0, Marte 2-0, Bruney 3-0.
Umpires: HP: Wally Bell. 1B: Laz Diaz.
2B: Scott Barry. 3B: Kerwin Danley.
Weather: 77 degrees, partly cloudy.
Wind: 7 mph, Out to RF.
T: 4:53.
Att: 54,180.