[新聞] Swing, Shout, Score. Repeat as Needed.

[ivanos (common sense)]

October 10, 2009
Yankees 4, Twins 3, 11 Innings

Swing, Shout, Score. Repeat as Needed.
By TYLER KEPNER
New York Times
http://tinyurl.com/yhey4jo


Even for $1.5 billion, the engineers of the new Yankee Stadium could not
keep it from shaking. They could not have tested for such a thing, anyway. It
comes from postseason passion, in the stands and on the field, the kind that
has happened in the Bronx more than anywhere else.

The Yankees stormed past the Minnesota Twins in Game 2 of their division
series Friday, tying it in the ninth inning on a two-run home run by Alex
Rodriguez and winning in the 11th, 4-3, on a screamer down the left-field
line by Mark Teixeira that just cleared the 318-foot sign and sent 50,006
fans into sudden delirium.

“The emotions of this game were unbelievable,” Manager Joe Girardi said. “
The emotions were up, down and all around.”

The Yankees have taken a two-games-to-none lead in the division series for
the first time in 10 years. Unless the Twins beat them in the Metrodome on
Sunday and Monday, the Yankees will play their next home game on Oct. 16 in
the opener of the American League Championship Series.

Teixeira had seven singles for the Angels last season in a division series
loss to Boston. This year, he was 0 for 7 before a ninth-inning single off
Joe Nathan that preceded Rodriguez’s homer. That hit was important, but the
Yankees did not give Teixeira $180 million last winter just to hit singles.

He tied for the American League lead in homers this season, with 39, and
most of his shots were no-doubters off the bat. This one was different, a
laser to left on a 2-and-1 fastball at 91 miles an hour from the left-hander
Jose Mijares.

Teixeira ran hard, and when the ball bounced into the first row, he stuck
his index finger to the sky. It was the first game-ending posteason homer for
the Yankees since Aaron Boone won the 2003 pennant, and the first game-ending
hit for Teixeira as a Yankee. He was rewarded with a pie in the face from A.
J. Burnett.

“A. J. told me, ‘I finally got you,’ ” Teixeira said. “If I’m going to
get one this season, I’m glad I waited until the postseason. It was fun. I
really thought it was a double. I hit it with so much topspin I thought there
was no chance it was going out. The crowd started going nuts, and then I knew
it was a home run.”

It was a sudden and emphatic ending to a twisting and turning game. The
Yankees had runners at the corners with one out in the 10th, but Johnny Damon
lined to short and Brett Gardner was doubled off third.

Then the Twins loaded the bases with no outs in the 11th before Dave
Robertson survived with a line out, a force at the plate on a grounder and a
fly to center.

The Twins might have scored, but the umpire Phil Cuzzi missed a call down
the line with Joe Mauer batting against Damaso Marte. Mauer sliced a ball
that replays showed was clearly inside the line. It negated a double, and
though Mauer singled, the Twins would have appreciated the extra base.

“We just feel horribly when this happens to us,” said the umpiring crew
chief Tim Tschida, who admitted the call was wrong after seeing a replay. “
There’s a guy in the umpire’s dressing room who feels horrible.”

Jason Kubel singled, but Mauer could advance only to second. When Michael
Cuddyer singled off Dave Robertson, Mauer held at third. Then Robertson
stifled Delmon Young, Carlos Gomez and Brendan Harris.

Still, the Twins blew their best chance when their All-Star closer and
highest-paid player this season, Joe Nathan, could not convert the save in
the ninth.

Nathan also lost a lead in Game 2 of the division series in 2004, at the old
Yankee Stadium, faltering in his third inning of work as the Yankees evened
that series. Rodriguez beat him then, too, with a game-tying double.

This time Nathan was fresh, but the ninth inning was a minefield he could
not cross. The first three hitters — Teixeira, Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui —
 were 12 for 24 off him in their regular-season careers. Teixeira lashed a
single to the right-field corner.

Then Nathan threw three breaking balls out of the strike zone to Rodriguez.
He got a called strike with a fastball, then tried another at 94 miles an
hour. Rodriguez unloaded on it, a homer off the bat. He looked to the home
dugout and pumped his fist, the ball soaring into a glove in the Yankees’
bullpen.

It was 3-3, and the new stadium throbbed with noise, the fans shaking the
park to its foundation. Rodriguez, who failed consistently and spectacularly
with men on base across his last four Octobers, is 4 for 8 this series with
five runs batted in.

The starting pitchers Burnett and Nick Blackburn both struggled in August
but finished strong. In their last four starts, Burnett was 2-0 with a 1.88
earned run average, Blackburn 2-0, 1.65. It forecast as a pitchers’ duel,
and that is what happened.

Pitching to the backup catcher Jose Molina, instead of Jorge Posada, Burnett
held the Twins to one run and three hits in six innings, though he walked
five and hit two batters. The Twins could have had another run, but Gomez
slipped while rounding second base on a single by Matt Tolbert in the fourth,
and Nick Swisher threw him out before the runner from second crossed the
plate.

The Yankees went hitless against Blackburn until Robinson Cano singled with
two out in the fifth. Posada pinch-hit for Molina to lead off the bottom of
the sixth. He flied to the warning track in center, but Derek Jeter followed
with a one-hop double into the Yankees’ bullpen in right center.

After a walk and a pop out by Teixeira, Rodriguez drilled a single past
third base to tie the game and chase Blackburn. Ron Mahay struck out Matsui,
and the game would be decided by the bullpens.

Phil Hughes retired the first two Twins in the eighth, but he walked Gomez
after getting ahead, 1-2. Three singles followed — the first by Harris and
the second by Nick Punto, who smacked a 2-2 curveball to center to put the
Twins ahead.

Denard Span singled off Mariano Rivera to make it 3-1, and Matt Guerrier
retired the side in the bottom of the eighth. The Twins had the game where
they wanted, in the hands of Nathan. But the Yankees had Rodriguez and
Teixeira, and now they have a commanding lead in the series.


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推 sinrong:AJ:我等你很久了  XDD
推 oxooxxox:這些記者都很嗨，因為又有文章了，哪怕有沒有內容都沒差
推 molemilk:unbelievable!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
→ ivanos:我覺得Kepner寫得一向還不錯
推 lulu0408:AJ只剩Jeter就收集完先發九人了說...
推 Conpana:AJ:I finally got you  XD
推 eccentricer:AJ:我終於砸到你囉~科科