Results tagged “damioneasley”

The Phillies are in action in LA, but for now the Mets are a ½-game in front in the NL East. The Mets now head to Pittsburgh for a four-game series with the Pirates.

But, Mariano Rivera couldn’t complete a five-out save and the Yankees had to go to extra innings to win the game. Xavier Nady and A-Rod went deep in the 12th and Edwar Ramirez pitched a 1-2-3 inning for his first save.

• Yankees 2, Red Sox 1: Classic games between these teams usually take four hours -- or four hours, 45 minutes -- not 2:58. The Yankees will take this. Mike Mussina spun six scoreless innings before Mariano Rivera wriggled off the hook in the ninth inning. The win came on the heels of two straight losses to open this four-game set. Mussina, whose unexpected successs (11 wins, 3.64 ERA) probably deserves to be on the All-Star team, finally started against Boston without throwing the Red Sox batting practice.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: By the Skin of Their Teeth"

Sidney Ponson, who will soon be forgotten himself, made a start that will be forgotten. That's thanks in part to his ineffectiveness but mostly to the Yanks' offensive explosion spearheaded by Jason Giambi (grand slam, six RBIs) and Alex Rodriguez (homer, three RBIs, four runs scored). Every Yankees starter had a hit. That includes Brett Gardner, who could be the new center fielder if Melky Cabrera continues his sour play. Ponson, picked up as a stopgap measure, was barely decent -- but fully clothed -- until the sixth inning, when he allowed a pair of two-run home runs. But then the Yankees exploded for a nine-run seventh.

It seemed like such an innocent play at the time. Willie Blumquist grounded to third for what should have been an easy out, but David Wright bobbled the ball and the bases were loaded. But, the pitcher was due up and pitchers can’t hit, especially American League ones, right? Wrong, Felix Hernandez became the first AL pitcher in 37 years to hit a grand slam as he connected off of Johan Santana and sent the Mariners out to a 4-0 lead.

• Red Sox 7, Yankees 5: Mike Mussina will be seeing Manny Ramirez in his sleep. The Stanford graduate gave up two home runs to the George Washington High School product as part of a distressing performance. The righty allowed five runs in three innings, and, unlike Wednesday, the Yankees could not put up 15 runs.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Ramirez Strikes Again"

• Red Bulls 5, Galaxy 4: Giants Stadium fills up for plenty of events, but Red Bulls games don't usually rank among those. Saturday's did, if only because David Beckham's Los Angeles Galaxy was in town. Those fans, who were there for Beckham and not the Galaxy, found another rare treat: goals in a Major League Soccer game. Soccer doesn't need frequent scores to be exciting, but the rare 5-4 game never hurt anyone. Not only did Beckham play, but he stayed on the artificial pitch the whole game, setting up three goals in his team's loss. The nine total goals fell two short of the league record, which came nine years ago. Jozy Altidore had two of them for the Red Bulls, who are now 10-7-3.
• Yankees 5, Tigers 2: Control can do wonders for a pitcher. Roger Clemens didn't have his best stuff, but he did well in two departments: strikeouts and walks. He K'd eight and walked none through six innings while allowing two runs, and Bobby Abreu's two-run homer off the left-field fair foul pole helped make him a winner. So did the bullpen, which in Kyle Farnsworth, Luis Vizcaino and Mariano Rivera provided three innings of scoreless relief. The Yankees can take three of four in the series if they win when Chien-Ming Wang takes on Jeremy Bonderman, the man who eliminated the Yankees from the playoffs last year.
• Mets 7, Nationals 4: The good news: Luis Castillo homered and the Mets won. The bad news: Damion Easley sprained his ankle, and, with Ramon Castro moved to the disabled list, the Mets' catching corps now consists of Mike DiFelice and Sandy Alomar Jr. Their short-handed lineup -- Carlos Delgado was also out nursing an injury -- still had David Wright, who doubled home two runs to give his team the lead for good against John Lannan, a Long Beach, N.Y., native.

• White Sox 4, Yankees 1: Despite entering the day leading the Major Leagues in runs scored, the Yankees offense hasn't looked great of late. White Sox starter Jon Garland became the latest opponent to shut down the Yankees bats, which were the main culprit on this 2-4 start to the road trip. Fans can't decide what to make of this team. Should they be glad their team is finally pitching better, or should they be upset the offense is wasting the newfound success on the mound? Probably the former. The Yankees and Mets square off for three games at Shea this weekend, and there's little doubt the Yankees need them more.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Subways Going Different Ways?"

• Yankees 4, Rangers 3: The storms have passed in Texas, and the Rangers and Yankees played two. In game 1 of the doubleheader, everything was normal as Andy Pettitte pitched for six strong innings. While he left the game with the lead, Luis Vizcaino was unable to hold the 3-2 lead as the Rangers tied the game in the 7th. Derek Jeter singled in the 8th inning to extend his hitting streak to 19 games and Hideki Matsui doubled to score Jeter. Mariano Rivera pitched a perfect 9th inning for his 2nd save of the season.
• Yankees 5, Rangers 2: Mike Mussina returned to the rotation and the Yankees won to swept the three-game series with the Rangers. Maybe they need to get rained out and play doubleheaders more often. Off the DL for a hamstring injury, Mussina had a 75-pitch limit, but only threw 64 before leaving the game in the 5th inning, allowing 1 run and picking up his first win of the season. Just like game 1, Derek Jeter got a hit (his 20th game in a row) and Mariano Rivera got a save (his 3rd of the season and 2nd game in a row). Maybe this series is the turning point of the season for the Yankees.
• Mets 9, Diamondbacks 4: Just last week against the Rockies, Damion Easley hit a game-tying home run in extra innings. Last night, with the Mets down 4-3 in the 9th inning, Easley hit a three-run homer, giving the Mets the go ahead runs they would need for the win. David Wright, who looks like he's coming out of his slump, added another three-run home run in the 9th, giving the Mets 6 runs in the inning. While Tom Glavine, who was looking for his 294th victory, didn't get the win, he did get his 2,500th strikeout.