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Yankees Make a Statement to Close a Troubled First Half
Ending on Positive Note, the Yankees Still Have Work Cut Out for Them
http://myurl.com.tw/6792 (New York Times)
The Yankees arrived at the final day before the All-Star Game break yesterday
with no chance to even their record. The best they could hope for was to make
an emphatic statement that things will be better in the second half, and they
did that by punishing a nemesis, the Los Angeles Angels, by 12-0 at Yankee
Stadium.
「In some sense, you wish you could keep playing when you're playing good,」
Derek Jeter said.
Too often this season, it has not been much fun for the Yankees to come to
work. So it was encouraging that, as they scattered, they wished they could
play more.
Yet with a record of 42-43, there is still a long way to go, and the math for
them is daunting. In a one-game-at-a-time sport, the Yankees must think
bigger.
「We need to fight our way back to 20 games over .500,」 Manager Joe Torre
said. 「That's basically where we need to go, and hopefully up from there.」
A final record of 20 games over .500 would give the Yankees 91 victories,
which probably would not be enough to reach the postseason. A more manageable
goal is to win each series, and the Yankees have taken their past two by
winning five of seven against the Twins and the Angels.
「Minnesota and Anaheim are a lot like National League-style teams that give
you fits,」 Alex Rodriguez said. 「This was a good win today and a good
series.」
Rodriguez, as usual, was a big part of the offense, passing two Yankees Hall
of Famers on the way. He slammed his 494th career home run, 1 more than Lou
Gehrig, and collected four runs batted in to give him 1,433, 3 more than Yogi
Berra.
Another Yankees great was also in play: According to the Elias Sports Bureau,
Rodriguez became the first Yankee to hit 30 home runs before the All-Star
Game break since Roger Maris, who had 33 en route to breaking Babe Ruth's
single-season record in 1961.
Barry Bonds, who now holds the mark with 73, smashed 39 before the break in
his record-setting season of 2001. Maintaining a pace like Rodriguez's, his
teammate Hideki Mastui said, is not easy.
「It's very difficult, because the more he hits, the opposition is going to
be more cautious,」 Matsui said through an interpreter. 「So to be able to
perform that way in the midst of all that, he's been nothing less than
amazing.」
After Rodriguez drove in the Yankees' first run with a bloop single, Matsui
drilled a three-run homer to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead in the first. It was
a swift turnaround from a game that started shakily for Chien-Ming Wang.
Seven of Wang's first eight pitches were balls. He walked the Angels' leadoff
man, Reggie Willits, a sin that led to a three-run inning when he did it in a
3-1 loss to the Angels in May. This time, the game turned on a 3-1 pitch to
the second batter, Chone Figgins.
If it had been a ball, the Angels would have had two men on base for their
third and fourth hitters. But it was a strike, and Jorge Posada threw out
Willits trying to steal. Figgins and Orlando Cabrera struck out, and Wang was
on his way.
「Very important,」 Wang said of Posada's throw. 「Big break.」
Wang threw more changeups than usual and pitched six and a third innings,
allowing five hits. Torre removed him because the split fingernail on Wang's
right middle finger was sore.
「It's always going to be a problem because of how much pressure he puts on
his finger to throw the sinker,」 the pitching coach Ron Guidry said. 「It's
never going to heal as long as he throws the sinker, but you can't ask him
not to throw it, because that's his pitch.」
Wang files the nail on the bench between innings and says he soaks it in
alcohol and wraps it in a bandage after games. So far, so good: His record is
9-4, and his earned run average, 3.36, is lower than it was last season, when
he was the runner-up for the American League Cy Young Award.
The runs in the first were all the Yankees needed, but they piled on in the
fourth with home runs by Robinson Cano' and Rodriguez. Cano' and Bobby Abreu
had two hits each, making for a satisfying ending to an inconsistent first
half.
The same could be said for Scott Proctor, who struck out two Angels — both
on 96 mile-an-hour fastballs — in a scoreless eighth. Since burning his
equipment in front of the dugout after a frustrating outing June 30, Proctor
has allowed one hit and struck out seven in six scoreless innings. 「We'll
probably have a whole ring of bonfires,」 Proctor said.
Torre praised Proctor before the game for his work Friday when he brought
order to a high-scoring game. Since Proctor entered that night, the Yankees
have allowed one earned run in 24 2/3 innings, an impressive feat considering
the opponent. The Angels are the only A.L. team with a winning record against
the Yankees in the Torre era, and they are leading the A.L. West.
The schedule will be softer after the break, when the Yankees play their
first 27 games against teams currently under .500. But Torre will not
emphasize that.
「How we're playing, not how the other team's playing, is the most important
thing,」 Torre said. 「We just need to maintain a level of excellence out
there and stay at it.」
The 2007 Yankees have not been called excellent very often. Yesterday they
were, and they cannot afford to let up now.
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