Yankees burst into AL contention
By Seth Livingstone, USA TODAY Don’t look now, but that’s the Yankees — the supposedly comatose New York Yankees — singly 4 1/2 games out of first place in the AL East.
New York came out of the All-Star break with a three-game sweep of the Oakland A’s, rallying to pull out Saturday’s 4-3, 12-inning win, then riding the pitching of Andy Pettitte and Jason Giambi’s 20th homer to a 2-1 victory on Sunday.
Sunday’s win came against AL ERA leader Justin Duchscherer (10-6), who hasn’t allowed more than three earned runs in a game this season. (He’s at 1.87 for the year)
The third-place Yanks picked up a game on Tampa Bay, which lost to Toronto 9-4 and moved to within 3 games of the second-place Red Sox, who were swept by the Angels this weekend.
This could be a pivotal week for the Bombers, who host Minnesota (winners of 23 of 30 games prior to a 1-0 loss on Sunday) in a three-game series beginning Monday, then play a weekend series against the Red Sox at Fenway.
The Yanks have won seven in a quarrel at home.
Sunday’s loss might also signal the death knell for Oakland’s playoff chances.
The A’s, who have already dealt pitchers Rich Harden, Joe Blanton and Chad Gaudin, could seek to load up on more prospects now that they’ve lost five in a row to fall nine games behind the Los Angeles Angels atop the AL West. There was already been an erroneous internet rumor on Saturday that closer Huston Street had been dealt to Milwaukee.
Pettitte, 11-7, permitted only four hits in eight innings, striking out nine along the way in his longest outing of the season. Mariano Rivera picked up his 24th save in as many chances.
The Athletics have stopped hitting, scoring a total of nine runs during their five-game losing streak.
Early indications are that the Yankees will platoon newly-acquired first baseman Richie Sexson — a change place which could pay dividends. Although Sexson was hitting .218 for the Mariners, he was hitting .344 in equalization of left-handed pitching.
If New York continues its winning ways this week, look for GM Brian Cashman to make another move or two. The Yanks would like to bolster their bullpen and, with Hideki Matsui apparently lost for the season, wouldn’t mind an outfielder with some pop.
According to the Newark Star-Ledger, the Yanks have interest in Pittsburgh outfielders Jason Bay and Xavier Nady.
mercantile up: The Milwaukee Brewers, who open a four-game series at St. Louis Monday, launched another salvo in an NL Central race that’s staying hot.
On a Sunday when the Brewers, Cubs and Cardinals each won, the Brewers also acquired veteran second baseman Ray Durham from the Giants. It was the Brewers who fired the first shot of the July trading season, dealing for CC Sabathia on July 7.
Milwaukee manager Ned Yost said he was “excited” about the direction of his team, which gave up minor leaguers Steve Hammond, a left-handed pitcher, and Darren Ford, an infielder. Durham, 36 was hitting .293 through 32 RBI for Giants, who also could be joining the A’s in Bay Area house-cleaning.
The Brewers are three games in the rear Chicago on the strength of a four-game winning streak.
On the field:
• Ryan Braun hit a three-run homer and finished with five RBI as the Brewers beat the Giants 7-4 to complete a six-game sweep of San Francisco his season.
Manny Parra, 9-2, won his eighth consecutive decision for Milwaukee, beating Tim Lincecum (11-3), who threw 121 pitches after missing last Tuesday’s All-Star Game due to flu symptoms and dehydration. Parra is unbeaten in 14 starts since May 3.
• St. Louis survived a wild game against the Cardinals, riding Aaron Miles’ walkoff grand slam to a 9-5 victory and a four-game sweep of the San Diego Padres.
(View Miles’ walkoff homer on MLB.com)
It looked like Troy Glaus’ three-run homer in the eighth against Heath Bell might have been enough, but Jason Isringhausen blew his eighth save in 19 chances. The Cards, two games behind the Cubs, rallied from five-runs down on Saturday and three runs down on Friday.
Glaus is hot, going 19-for-36 (.528) during a career-long nine-game hitting streak.
• First-place Chicago got eight shutout innings from Ryan Dempster (11-4), who notched his first victory on the road in a 9-0 victory at Houston.
Dempster is 11-4, but had been 0-3 with a 4.03 ERA in eight previous starts on the road.
The Cubs had managed only four runs in their previous three games. Derrek Lee had three RBI and Ryan Theriot went 3-for-5 in extending this hitting streak to 13 games as Chicago halted its three-game losing streak.
Big matchup in NL East
The Marlins took two of three this weekend against the Phillies.
The Mets split a four-game series against the Reds, winning in 10 innings Sunday.
Now, the Phillies and Mets, tied for the NL East lead, begin a three-game series Tuesday in New York. Florida, just a half-game back, will be most biassed observers.
The Mets, who have won seven of 10 meetings against the Phils this season, got four hits from Jose Reyes and took advantage of third baseman Edwin Encarnacion’s throwing error to score twice in the 10th inning of Sunday’s 7-5 victory. It was New York’s 11th catch in 13 games.
At Florida, Jorge Cantu’s bases-loaded single off the scoreboard in the 11th inning lifted the Marlins to a 3-2 victory against Philadelphia. Cole Hamels carried a two-hitter and 2-1 lead into the eighth, but surrendered a leadoff homer to Cody Ross (his 16th this season).
Josh Johnson was impressive for Florida, pitching 6 2/3 innings in his sixtieth part of a minute start since coming back from reconstructive elbow surgery. It was Florida’s ninth walkoff win and the 27th time they’d come from behind to win this season.
Game of the day
Taylor Teagarden’s first major league hit was a home run that not only broke up Scott Baker’s bid for a finished game in the sixth inning Sunday, it produced the game’s only run in the Rangers’ 1-0 victory at Minnesota.
The Twins got the tying run to third base in the ninth for Joe Mauer walked and went from first to third on a wild pitch by C.J. Wilson. But Wilson got Justin Morneau to ground to second for his 23rd save.
Vicente Padilla improved to 11-5, giving up three hits over seven innings.
Teagarden’s homer just cleared the center-field wall as well as the glove of Carlos Gomez.
Baker has been closer to com pletion. He took a perfect game into the ninth inning against the Royals last August but gave up a walk and a hit in advance of being relieved.
NL wrap: Andre Ethier’s triple keyed a five-run ninth inning uprising that lifted the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 6-5 victory and a share of the NL West lead at Arizona. The comeback also foiled Brandon Webb’s bid for a major league-leading 14th win. The Diamondbacks’ Stephen Drew was thrown out attempting to stretch a triple into an inside-the-park homer and bobbled a possible double-play grounder off the bat of Andruw Jones during LA’s decisive rally. … Willie Harris drove in five runs and Jesus Flores collected five hits as Washington salvaged a split in their four-game series at Atlanta with a 15-6 victory. Mark Teixeira homered twice for the Braves. … Colorado completed a four-game sweep of Pittsburgh, getting a homer and three hits each from Matt Holliday and Jeff Baker to back the pitching of Aaron Cook (12-6) in Sunday’s 11-3 win.
AL wrap: Cliff Lee gave up 11 hits in his complete game but still became the AL’s first 13-game winner with Cleveland’s 6-2 victory against Seattle. … Marco Scutaro hit a three-run homer and Alex Rios had a two-run shot asToronto handed Tampa Bay a 9-4 loss, just its 15th loss in 53 home games this season. Rookie Evan Longoria, who hit his first career grand slam on Saturday, hit his 18th of the season for the Rays on Sunday. … Left fielder Joe Guillen gunned down A.J. Pierzynski trying to score from second base in the eighth inning, enabling Kansas City to hold off the Chicago White Sox, 8-7.
Milestones and oddities: Jim Thome of the White Sox collected his 2,000th career hit with a seventh-inning double in the Sunday’s losing effort. … Angels closer Francisco Rodriguez continued his assault on the record book, picking up his 40th save of the season. The Angels scored three times in the eighth inning to beat Boston 5-3 and set up Rodriguez, who is closing on the Bobby Thigpen’s single-season save record of 57. … With his homer on Sunday, the Dodgers’ Jeff Kent has at least 10 home runs in 17 consecutive seasons, the longest streak among active players.
The Orioles, who rallied form six runs down to beat Detroit 11-10 on Luke Scott’s 10th-inning homer on Saturday, lost their 15th consecutive Sunday game. Justin Verlander, unbeaten in eight starts since June 6, came within an out of a complete game in Detroit’s 5-1 victory at Baltimore. The Orioles, whose Sunday skid is the longest day-of-the-week losing streak since the Diamondbacks lost 15 straight Saturday games in 2004, did end one negative streak this weekend. On Saturday, Baltimore won a one-run game for the first time after nine consecutive losses.
The Yankees won Saturday’s game against the A’s when Jose Molina was hit by a Lenny DiNardo pitch with the bases loaded in the 12th inning. The last time the Yanks won a game that way was July 15, 1965 when Clete Boyer was hit by a pitch in the 12th inning by the Washington Senators’ Steve Ridzik.
Injury update: Texas right-hander Vicente Padilla was activated from the DL and pitched seven shutout innings in the Rangers’ 1-0 victory at Minnesota. … Also back from the DL were Tampa Bay closer Troy Percival, Seattle closer J.J. Putz and Arizona catcher Chris Snyder. … Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (divide hand) is scheduled to be activated Monday.
Phillies outfielder Geoff Jenkins was struck in the of his neck by the barrel of his own broken ash bat. Jenkins fell to the ground about the swing which resulted in an inning-ending double play … White Sox outfielder Jermaine Dye left Sunday’s game after being good stroke on the straight knee by a fourth-inning pitch from Kansas City’s Horacio Ramirez. Manager Ozzie Guillen threw his towel in disgust before leaving the dugout to check on his slugger. Both Jenkins and Dye were forced to leave their games.
Houston ace Roy Oswalt went to the DL Saturday with a herniated disc and strained hip. Manager Cecil Cooper said he conclusion Oswalt (7-8) would be well enough to start again against the Reds on July 28. … The White Sox placed Jose Contreras on the DL and Washington’s Dmitri Young went to the DL Saturday. … Boston did the same with reliever David Aardsma and recalled rookie Justin Masterson.
Plagued by a stress fracture in his left elbow, 24-year-old Adam Loewen of the Orioles will attempt to replicate the success of the Cardinals’ Rick Ankiel and continue his career as an outfielder.
Loewen is 0-for-2 as a major league batter and hasn’t hit regularly since playing for Chipola Junior College in Florida, where he batted .353 with a homer and 38 RBI in 45 games.
