[新聞] Yankees Get Stellar Start From an Unexpected Source

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Yankees 7, Angels 1
Yankees Get Stellar Start From an Unexpected Source
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: September 10, 2008

ANAHEIM, Calif. — The man in the gray T-shirt, marked in black with
a giant number 91, had been waiting for this moment for decades.

He played 10 years as a first baseman in the Mexican League, where he was
teammates with Fernando Valenzuela. But Alfredo Aceves Sr. never got a
chance with a major league organization, and his eldest son, Jonathan,
topped out at Class AAA in a 10-year minor league career.

On Tuesday at Angel Stadium, a younger son, Alfredo Jr., made his first
major league start, and it was a rousing success. Aceves held the Los
Angeles Angels to one run and five hits in seven innings, pitching the
Yankees to a 7-1 victory before 43,042 fans, including a father who was
too tense to be excited.

"Just nerves," said Aceves Sr. "More nerves than emotions."

Baseball teams learn to be skeptical of what they see in September,
a lesson that was reinforced for the Yankees this season. They gave
starting spots to Phil Hughes and Ian Kennedy after both pitched well
late last season, a decision that seems rash in hindsight.

So while there was reason to temper enthusiasm over Aceves, the Yankees
were cautiously excited. At 25, Aceves is older than Hughes and Kennedy,
and catcher Chad Moeller said his pitches are well above average. Aceves
throws a fastball, cutter, changeup and curve.

"He attacked hitters, and he has plenty of stuff," Moeller said. "He has
a lot better stuff than a lot of guys in this league. It's just going to
be learning what to do here."

Aceves' effort was not enough to rescue the Yankees from fourth place in
the American League East, because the third-place Toronto Blue Jays won
both games of a doubleheader in Chicago, running their winning streak to 10.

But it was the Yankees' first victory in five games this season at Angel
Stadium, where the Angels often expose the Yankees' flaws. The Angels
(87-57) used a makeshift lineup on Tuesday, but that did not matter to
the Aceves family.

"His confidence," said Alfredo Sr., when asked what made him most proud.
"He confronted a team that had big bats – the biggest, strongest team,
the Angels, with a lot of respect to them."

Aceves signed with Toronto in 2001 and played one season for their team in
the Dominican Republic. When the Blue Jays tried to send him back the next
season, Aceves asked for a trade to the Mexican League, where he stayed
until the Yankees paid $450,000 to sign him in March.

Manager Joe Girardi was unfamiliar with Aceves at the time, but he could
not help noticing him with each glowing minor league report. Aceves went
4-1 for Class A Tampa, and soon worked his way to Class AAA
Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.

The Yankees promoted him last month, and after throwing five strong
innings in relief of Darrell Rasner last week, Aceves took Rasner's
spot in the rotation.

Manager Joe Girardi said the quality of the last two opponents Aceves has
faced -- Tampa Bay and the Angels – makes his effort more impressive.
Girardi also noticed how confident Aceves seemed with his pitches,
throwing a changeup to the veteran Garret Anderson with a 2-0 count.

"I think he has good stuff, because he locates and he changes speeds,"
Girardi said. "He's not a guy that just blows you away. He locates his
fastballs, he locates his changeups and he has the ability to throw
off-speed when he's behind in the count for strikes."

Girardi continued: "Not only in that at-bat to Garret Anderson did he
throw a 2-0 changeup, he threw a 3-2 curveball for a strike. It's one
thing when you've thrown 20 in a game, but he probably only threw four or
five. He has a good feel for all his pitches."

The Yankees supported Aceves with a run in the second inning and a
three-run homer to right by Alex Rodriguez in the sixth. The rest of
the runs came on homers by Johnny Damon, who chased Ervin Santana (15-6)
in the seventh and connected again in the ninth off Justin Speier.

Aceves was gone by then, leaving after seven and taking the approach of
a pitcher who has done this before. He said he had more than 30 friends
and family members at the game, but he did not know where they were
sat and did not look around.

"I don't see the stands," Aceves said. "Just the game."

INSIDE PITCH

Derek Jeter singled in the first inning for his 2,519th career hit,
passing Babe Ruth for second place on the Yankees' career list.
Lou Gehrig is the leader, with 2,721 hits.


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◆ From: 140.109.23.17

改標題後，要把底部的編輯，給修掉時，
不小心Ctrl K掉推文，之前推文者，不好意思喔！
推 j094097:...吃推文幹嘛= =
推 subcrew02:希望Ace不要像Rasner一樣阿 冏 穩穩投吧
推 akainorei:最後一段, 在說小王吧
→ akainorei:小王也是投完就去洗澡了
推 subcrew02:家人都來球場幫他加油 這就讓我想到Rasner上次出征OAK時
推 j094097:結果卻不慎敗投那場?
※ 編輯: yyhong68        來自: 140.109.23.17        (09/10 16:15)
推 MRHAUNG:是太空人那場嗎?