A-Rod and Yankees Take Round 1 in LA

Alex Rodriguez decided at some point last year to talk with his bat rather than his mouth. That wasn't more evident than the week leading up to the Yankees-Dodgers series and its corresponding Joe Torre reunion this weekend.

A-Rod and Torre didn't have any meet and greets beforehand, but A-Rod's bat certainly got his former manager's attention. The third baseman snapped a 1-1 tie in the 6th with his 10th home run of the year and the Yankees took the first game of the series, 2-1.

CC Sabathia (9-3) never played for Torre, but gave him a game to remember. After struggling with his control early, the big man bore down and limited the Dodgers to four hits over eight innings. He also protected his teammates when he drilled Vincente Padilla (1-2) in the leg after Padilla hit Robinson Cano. Padilla had also left his mark last year when he hit Mark Teixeira twice in the same game while pitching for the Texas Rangers.

Torre also now knows how it feels to have Mariano Rivera close out your loss. Rivera did it in style, striking out Manny Ramirez, Matt Kemp, and James Loney in the 9th for his 17th save.

The Dodgers took advantage of Sabathia's early lack of command to pick up their only run in the 1st inning. Rafael Furcal drew a lead off walk, swiped second base and scored on Ramirez's single. The Yankees tied it in the 2nd when A-Rod reached on a lead off double and scored on a one out single by Jorge Posada.

Notes

"Manny being Manny" dropped a fly ball in the 8th that gave the Yankees an opportunity for an insurance run, but Padilla retired Jorge Posada and Nick Swisher to escape the jam.

James Loney was ejected from the ball game, even though the ball game was over, when he was called out on strikes by home plate ump Phil Cuzzi. That set off hitting coach Don Mattingly who screamed at Cuzzi as he walked off the field.

A-Rod's home run was the 593rd of his career.

Derek Jeter turns 36 on Saturday.

Burnett Suspended for 6

A.J. Burnett realized he might be suspended for his actions against the Texas Rangers Tuesday night. It turned out he was right. Burnett was hit with a 6-game suspension after throwing up and in to Nelson Cruz in retaliation after Vincente Padilla hit Mark Teixeira for the second time in the game.

Burnett immediately appealed the suspension and will continue to pitch until a hearing is held. Both he and Padilla were also fined an undisclosed amount. Padilla is currently without a job after the Rangers put him on waivers.

Fired Up Yankees Crush Rangers

Don’t Mess with Tex

June 3rd, 2009 • Related • Filed Under

Filed Under: Yankees

Tags: a.j. burnett • Derek Holland • Elvis Andrus • errorless streak ends • hideki matsui • Jorge Posada • Mark Teixiera • Nelson Cruz • Vincenet Padilla • Yankees 6/2 recap • Yankees vs. Rangers

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9		R	H	E
Texas	0	0	3	0	0	0	0	0	0		3	8	0
NY Yankees	0	2	0	7	0	3	0	0	X		12	13	1

WP - Burnett (4-2) LP - Padilla (3-3)

The Yankees were playing a relatively flat game last night against the Texas Rangers last night and weren’t having much success off Rangers’ starter Vincent Padilla. Then with two men aboard in the 4th and the game tied 3-3, Padilla hit Mark Teixiera for the second time in the game.

An angry Teixeira, yelled some choice expletives at Padilla and implored him to throw the ball over the plate. With the bases loaded and one out, the next batter, Alex Rodriguez, hit a potential double play grounder to second baseman Ian Kinsler. Kinsler flipped to shortstop Elvis Andrus, but a fired up Teixeira took him out with a good hard, clean slide. Andrus couldn’t get enough on his throw to first base to complete the double play, enabling Derek Jeter to score the go ahead run and the 1,500th run of his major league career. The Yankees then stepped on the Rangers’ necks and won a 12-3 laugher in the first of the three game series.

A.J. Burnett battled his way through seven innings to earn his second straight victory and his fourth of the season. Staked to a 2-0 lead, he gave up a mammoth 3-run home to Nelson Cruz in the 3rd inning to put Texas ahead. But after the Yankees took the lead back, he settled down and limited the Rangers to two base hits over his final three innings. He also backed up his teammates by knocking down Cruz with a pitch up and in. Teixeira appreciated Burnett’s actions and was still fuming about Padilla after the game.

“There’s really no reason for it in baseball. You know, if you can’t get a guy out, don’t hit him. You know, if you don’t want to pitch to a guy, then, you know, put four fingers out there and walk him,” Teixeira said. “And, unfortunately, when I was a teammate, it happened a lot where he would hit guys, and the 3-4 hitters, those are the guys that got hit for retaliation, and I got hit plenty of times.”

Courtesy of Assoicated Press

Padilla faced only one hitter, Robinson Cano, after Teixiera’s take out, and allowed an RBI single. Derek Holland was greeted just as rudely by Jorge Posada with an RBI single of his own and Hideki Matsui broke the game open with a 3-run home run. Posada would later put an exclamation point on the evening with a 3-run home run into the upper deck in right in the 6th.

Game Notes

The Yankees errorless streak ended at 18 games when Andrus attempted to steal second base and Jorge Posada’s throw sailed high over the glove of Robinson Cano and into center field.

It was another memorable night in the career of Derek Jeter. The 1,500th run made him just the fourth player, along with Honus Wagner, Bill Dahlen, and Cal Ripken, to accomplish the feat while playing 1,500 games at shortstop. Jeter extended his hitting streak to 16 games and his 3-hit game was the seventh straight multi-hit game during the streak, matching his career high.

Mark Teixeira’s hittting streak came to an end at 15 games.

Andy Pettitte’s (5-1, 4.10) back feels good so he’ll make his scheduled start tonight against the Rangers Scott Feldman (4-0, 3.91). Game time is 7:05 p.m. ET.

Deep in the Heart of Texas

The Yankees (61-50) open a three game road series this evening with the Texas Rangers (58-54). Temperatures are expected to be near 100 at game time at the Ballpark in Arlington for each game.

Texas has a lineup full of fire power, but they probably will be without one of their main parts for the series. Milton Bradley has missed the last 5 games with a quad injury and is probably headed to the DL. The Rangers still have the majors league RBI man in Josh Hamilton, who has driven in 106 runs this season.

Second baseman Ian Kinsler has 38 doubles, a .508 slugging percentage, and has stolen 25 bases in 26 attempts. Rookie first baseman Chris Davis has 11 home runs and 22 RBI in just 122 at-bats, and is sporting a .989 OPS. Another rookie David Murphy is one of the top first year players with 14 HR and 71 RBI. And of course, shortstop Michael Young is a perennial All-Star.

The Rangers' pitching is still their Waterloo. Their 5.25 ERA is the worst in the major leagues. They're without veteran Kevin Millwood, though his ERA is over 5, who is on the DL with a groin strain. Closer C.J. Wilson has 24 saves in 28 tries, but is sporting a 5.28 ERA that balloons to 6.49 at home.

The two teams met June 30 - July 2nd with the Rangers winning a pair of pitcher's duels before the Yankees won in an 18-8 blowout.

Here are the matchups for the series:

Monday - Joba Chamberlain vs. Vincente Padilla
Tuesday - Andy Pettitte vs. Matt Harrison
Wednesday - Sidney Ponson vs. Tommy Hunter
Thursday - Mike Mussina vs. Scott Feldman

Deep in the Heart of Texas

The Yankees (61-50) open a three game road series this evening with the Texas Rangers (58-54). Temperatures are expected to be near 100 at game time at the Ballpark in Arlington for each game.

Texas has a lineup full of fire power, but they probably will be without one of their main parts for the series. Milton Bradley has missed the last 5 games with a quad injury and is probably headed to the DL. The Rangers still have the majors league RBI man in Josh Hamilton, who has driven in 106 runs this season.

Second baseman Ian Kinsler has 38 doubles, a .508 slugging percentage, and has stolen 25 bases in 26 attempts. Rookie first baseman Chris Davis has 11 home runs and 22 RBI in just 122 at-bats, and is sporting a .989 OPS. Another rookie David Murphy is one of the top first year players with 14 HR and 71 RBI. And of course, shortstop Michael Young is a perennial All-Star.

The Rangers' pitching is still their Waterloo. Their 5.25 ERA is the worst in the major leagues. They're without veteran Kevin Millwood, though his ERA is over 5, who is on the DL with a groin strain. Closer C.J. Wilson has 24 saves in 28 tries, but is sporting a 5.28 ERA that balloons to 6.49 at home.

The two teams met June 30 - July 2nd with the Rangers winning a pair of pitcher's duels before the Yankees won in an 18-8 blowout.

Here are the matchups for the series:

Monday - Joba Chamberlain vs. Vincente Padilla
Tuesday - Andy Pettitte vs. Matt Harrison
Wednesday - Sidney Ponson vs. Tommy Hunter
Thursday - Mike Mussina vs. Scott Feldman

Around the Horn - 5/8

You can tack another loss on to Barry Zito's record. The Giants gave Zito a start yesterday and held their breath. Throwing 99 pitches in 5 innings is not good, but he gave his team a chance to win by allowing 2 runs in 5 innings. But the Giants bats couldn't do anything against Pirates starter Phil Dumatrait and the bullpen. They finally broke up the shutout in the 9th, but still lost, 3-1.

The Rockies looked like they were going down to defeat again after the Cards' Adam Wainwright shut them down for 7 innings. But Kyle McLellan, Randy Flores, and Jason Isringhausen each did their part to blow the game. The Rocks scored 4 times off of the 3 Cards pitchers in the 8th inning with Chris Ianette delivering the decisive blow- a 2-run game winning triple.

The Astros won their second straight over the Nationals in their final at-bat. In both cases, Carlos Lee delivered the game winning hit. Tuesday night Lee doubled in a pair with the Astros trailing by a run. Last night's game was tied in the bottom of the 9th when Lee singled home Kaz Matsui with the winning run a 4-3 contest.

The Marlins moved 5 games over .500 with a 6-2 win over the Brewers. Jorge Cantu and Dan Uggla each homered against a Brewers team that fell back under the .500 mark.

The Mets took out their frustrations from the prior two games and pounded the Dodgers 12-1. Four different Mets drove in 2 runs each and John Maine came within 2 outs of a complete game shutout.

Tim Hudson picked up his 140th career win in the Braves 5-2 thumping of the Padres. The game was tied 2-2 in the 7th when newly acquired Greg Norton put the Braves ahead with a pinch-hit single. The Padres fell to 12-23, but got to watch Bobby Cox get ejected for the 137th time in his managerial career.

As we told you yesterday, Joey Votto smacked 3 home runs and the Reds totalled 7 in all in a 9-0 whitewashing of the Cubs.

The Phillies came back from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits to beat the Diamondbacks 5-4. Eric Bruntlett and Chase Utley each knocked in runs in the go-ahead 8th inning.

Carlos Gomez hit for the cycle in the Twins 13-1 win over the White Sox. Gomez had the two hardest hits, a home run and triple, by the end of the 5th inning. He's the first Twin to achieve the feat since Kirby Puckett in 1986. Meanwhile the White Sox have dropped 7 out of 8.

Detroit blew a 3-run lead, but rallied against Jon Papelbon in the 9th inning to beat the Red Sox 10-9. Curtis Granderson tied it with an RBI ground out before Placido Polanco's 5th hit brought home the game winner for the Tigers. Kevin Youkilis homered twice for Boston.

Mark Ellis belted a walk-off home run in the A's 6-5, 10 inning win over the Orioles. The loss was a season high 5th straight for the O's.

Zach Grienke improved to 4-1 (1.80 ERA) and David DeJesus belted a 3-run HR in the Royals 9-4 thumping of the Angels. Jered Weaver was tagged for 8 runs in just 3.1 innings.

Shaun Marcum allowed just 1 hit over 8 innings before losing the shutout in the 9th, but he came away with the win in the Blue Jays 6-2 triumph over the Rays. Scott Rolen hit his 2nd home run in Jays uni.

Vincente Padilla won his 3rd straight game as the Rangers blanked the anemic Mariners 2-0. Padilla has allowed just 1 earned run over his last 21.2 innings Erik Bedard took the hard luck loss and is just 2-2 despite a 1.99 ERA. The Mariners, who have scored 2 or less runs in 6 of their last 7 games, dropped into sole possession of last place in the AL West.

Around the Horn - 5/8

You can tack another loss on to Barry Zito's record. The Giants gave Zito a start yesterday and held their breath. Throwing 99 pitches in 5 innings is not good, but he gave his team a chance to win by allowing 2 runs in 5 innings. But the Giants bats couldn't do anything against Pirates starter Phil Dumatrait and the bullpen. They finally broke up the shutout in the 9th, but still lost, 3-1.

The Rockies looked like they were going down to defeat again after the Cards' Adam Wainwright shut them down for 7 innings. But Kyle McLellan, Randy Flores, and Jason Isringhausen each did their part to blow the game. The Rocks scored 4 times off of the 3 Cards pitchers in the 8th inning with Chris Ianette delivering the decisive blow- a 2-run game winning triple.

The Astros won their second straight over the Nationals in their final at-bat. In both cases, Carlos Lee delivered the game winning hit. Tuesday night Lee doubled in a pair with the Astros trailing by a run. Last night's game was tied in the bottom of the 9th when Lee singled home Kaz Matsui with the winning run a 4-3 contest.

The Marlins moved 5 games over .500 with a 6-2 win over the Brewers. Jorge Cantu and Dan Uggla each homered against a Brewers team that fell back under the .500 mark.

The Mets took out their frustrations from the prior two games and pounded the Dodgers 12-1. Four different Mets drove in 2 runs each and John Maine came within 2 outs of a complete game shutout.

Tim Hudson picked up his 140th career win in the Braves 5-2 thumping of the Padres. The game was tied 2-2 in the 7th when newly acquired Greg Norton put the Braves ahead with a pinch-hit single. The Padres fell to 12-23, but got to watch Bobby Cox get ejected for the 137th time in his managerial career.

As we told you yesterday, Joey Votto smacked 3 home runs and the Reds totalled 7 in all in a 9-0 whitewashing of the Cubs.

The Phillies came back from 3-1 and 4-3 deficits to beat the Diamondbacks 5-4. Eric Bruntlett and Chase Utley each knocked in runs in the go-ahead 8th inning.

Carlos Gomez hit for the cycle in the Twins 13-1 win over the White Sox. Gomez had the two hardest hits, a home run and triple, by the end of the 5th inning. He's the first Twin to achieve the feat since Kirby Puckett in 1986. Meanwhile the White Sox have dropped 7 out of 8.

Detroit blew a 3-run lead, but rallied against Jon Papelbon in the 9th inning to beat the Red Sox 10-9. Curtis Granderson tied it with an RBI ground out before Placido Polanco's 5th hit brought home the game winner for the Tigers. Kevin Youkilis homered twice for Boston.

Mark Ellis belted a walk-off home run in the A's 6-5, 10 inning win over the Orioles. The loss was a season high 5th straight for the O's.

Zach Grienke improved to 4-1 (1.80 ERA) and David DeJesus belted a 3-run HR in the Royals 9-4 thumping of the Angels. Jered Weaver was tagged for 8 runs in just 3.1 innings.

Shaun Marcum allowed just 1 hit over 8 innings before losing the shutout in the 9th, but he came away with the win in the Blue Jays 6-2 triumph over the Rays. Scott Rolen hit his 2nd home run in Jays uni.

Vincente Padilla won his 3rd straight game as the Rangers blanked the anemic Mariners 2-0. Padilla has allowed just 1 earned run over his last 21.2 innings Erik Bedard took the hard luck loss and is just 2-2 despite a 1.99 ERA. The Mariners, who have scored 2 or less runs in 6 of their last 7 games, dropped into sole possession of last place in the AL West.