[新聞] In Back-and-Forth Game, Yankees'Bullpen Is the Differenc

[Ally1213 (牧羊貓 ^.^)]

In Back-and-Forth Game, Yankees' Bullpen Is the Difference
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/27/sports/baseball/27yankees.html?ref=baseball




Brian Bruney had been demoted in the Yankees’ bullpen and had spent the
last month pitching when they had a comfortable lead or were losing. That is,
if he pitched at all. Before Sunday, Bruney had made five appearances in the
last 25 days. He was as banished as a reliever could be.


But when the Oakland Athletics pushed two runners into scoring position
against Phil Hughes in the eighth inning Sunday, the Yankees’ bullpen door
opened and the forgotten Bruney emerged. The Yankees asked Bruney to get one
precious out and deliver the ball to Mariano Rivera. For Bruney, it was just
like old times.

With four important pitches, Bruney succeeded. He struck out Mark Ellis and
ceded the game to Rivera, something he used to regularly do as the setup man.
Rivera retired Nomar Garciaparra to end the eighth and barreled through the
ninth to help the Yankees to a 7-5 win at Yankee Stadium. The Yankees have
won nine of their last 10 games, including eight by two runs or fewer.

Although Phil Hughes worked one and one-third innings to boost his scoreless
streak to 23 1/3, Rivera converted his 25th straight save opportunity and
Derek Jeter punched a two-run single that put the Yankees ahead to stay in
the sixth, Bruney’s brief stint was as critical as anything that happened.


“For him to come in and strike out Ellis, that’s a huge out, maybe the
biggest out of the game,” Manager Joe Girardi said.


After Hughes rolled through the seventh, he gave up a one-out walk and a
double to Daric Barton in the eighth. Girardi had Bruney and Rivera warming
up, but he summoned Bruney because he did not want to tax Rivera by asking
him to get five outs. It was the first time since June 30 that Bruney pitched
in the eighth or later when the Yankees led by two runs or less.

Bruney said he had been working on extending his right hand a few inches
before releasing the ball because that keeps his pitches down. He started
Ellis with a cutter and then threw two sliders to move the count to 1-2.
Sensing that the pitches had slowed Ellis’s bat, Bruney uncorked a 96-mile-
per-hour fastball past him.


“I don’t know if I should be doing cartwheels or what,” Bruney said.
“I mean, obviously you’re happy any time you do well. But it’s a long
season, and you got to do the job many more times.”


For six innings, the Yankees and the A’s played tug-of-war with the lead.
The A’s scored two runs off Sergio Mitre in the first, but Robinson Cano
had a three-run double as the Yankees grabbed the lead with four runs in the
bottom of the first. The A’s regained the edge on Ellis’s two-run homer
off Phil Coke in the sixth, and the Yankees quickly snatched it back on
Jeter’s single in the bottom of the sixth. There was no sense that either
team felt secure.

But then Hughes started the seventh and the Yankees felt secure. Hughes did
what he has been doing for the last six weeks as he blanked the A’s for one
inning. Then, when Hughes encountered trouble, Bruney and Rivera produced and
made sure Hughes’s scoreless streak stayed intact.


“It means I’ve been pitching well, more than anything,” Hughes said.
 “As a reliever, you have to shut the door. You can’t afford to give
anything up.”


Mitre had a pockmarked outing in his second start as a Yankee and his second
in the major leagues since 2007. He gave up four earned runs and nine hits
in five-plus innings. Although Mitre allowed base runners in every inning he
worked, he used his sinker to collect three double plays. Mitre left the game
with a 4-3 lead, but Coke could not protect it.


Still, the first-place Yankees rallied for three runs and then used Hughes,
Bruney and Rivera to guide them to another win. Bruney bagged one of the 27
outs, but it meant a lot to him and to the Yankees.


“Brian is a guy that has no fear,” Girardi said. “And I knew he wouldn’t
have any fear coming in that situation.”




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