Results tagged “kennylofton”

Not everything went so smoothly though. As is becoming the norm in this series, tempers rose during the game, resulting in ejections and bench clearing. First came Kenny Lofton and Doug Mientkiewicz in the third inning. The two had some issues as Lofton grounded out and Mientkiewicz supposedly didn't get out of Lofton's way quickly enough. Then, in the 8th, Pedro Astacio threw the ball behind Lofton, which got him ejected. In retaliation, Brad Halsey threw a ball high and tight to Dave Roberts, which got him and Joe Torre ejected. The benches cleared and words were exchanged, but there were no fisticuffs.

Javier Vasquez had another disappointing outing. His first two innings were sharp, he retired the first six batters he faced. Vasquez ran into trouble in the bottom of the third. He walked Jody Gerut, then balked allowing Gerut to get to second. He seemed to recover, by getting two consecutive outs, but then gave up a home run to Coco Crisp. Vasquez then gave up a single to Omar Visquel, Walked Tarvis Hafner, threw a wild pitch and then gave up a deep double to Victor Martinez. it seems like Vasquez has too many innings like this. 4-1 Indians after three innings.

Even though the Yankees are crushing the Red Sox in the standings and can seemingly cruise into October, I have a bone to pick with Mr. Torre. First let me say that I think he is a terrific baseball man, and a great manager. However, when the Yankees got to within one run of tying the game in the bottom of the ninth, Jorge Posada drew a walk with no one out and the Yankees down by one. The next batter, Bernie Williams, who has been on fire of late, did not sacrifice Bubba Crosby (the pinch runner for Posada) to second base. I don't understand this. Why not sacrifice? What is the logic?

It was a good and busy weekend at the Stadium for the Yankees. the Yankees managed to take three out of four games from Baltimore and increase their lead over the Red Sox to 9.5 games. The big trade that everyone wanted to see (Randy Johnson coming to the big Apple) did not happen, but Cashman was able to unload the inconsistent Jose Contreras for the steady Esteban Loaiza.

Ponson was the story of the night. After the first two innings, Ponson retired 16 straight batters. Matsui broke the streak with a single in the 8th inning. The Yankees could only muster 4 hits off of Ponson as he pitched a complete game. Jose Contreras on the other hand was doomed by one bad inning. He was pitching on three days' rest.

The Boston Red Sox took advantage of their mastery of Yankee pitcher Jose Contreras last night for a 9-6 win in legendary Fenway Park. The victory gave the Sox a 2-1 series win but still left them 7.5 games behind the Yankees in the standings.

If you asked Jeremy Bonderman to hold the Yankees to four hits after seven innings, he probably would have told you he would be winning the game when he was replaced. Unfortunately, those four hits were all solo home runs by the New York Yankees and ended up being the difference in the 5-1 Yankee win.

The game also marked the return of former Yankee David Wells returned to loud cheers from the fans at Yankee stadium. Wells pitched a stellar 7 innings, scattering 5 hits, with no walks and four strikeouts. His Yankee counterpart, Javier Vazquez pitched 8 innings and gave up 2 runs on 6 hits and 8 strikeouts.

The Yankees edged the Texas Rangers 2-1 yesterday behind eight-plus innings from Mike Mussina to increase their lead in the AL East to 2 1/2 games over the Red Sox. "Everything went right," Mussina conceded. "I can't complain about much of anything." The Yanks have now won 11 of 13. Mariano Rivera allowed one run and surrendered back-to-back two-out singles in the ninth before earning his 23rd save.

Never in baseball will you hear the second game of a season considered a must win, but today's Yankee game against Tampa Bay was considered just that. After their loss to the Devil Rays yesterday, George Steinbrenner would expect a win from his $183 million Bronx All-Stars. They delivered by beating the F-Rays, 12-1 (box score). Jack Curry of The Times said it best: