Results tagged “marianorivera”

• Yankees 3 Phillies 1: The Yankees gave AJ Burnett a lot of money this offseason to pitch in big games and he delivered on Thursday night. Burnett, who would have had a shutout with better defense, allowed only one run over seven innings and struck out nine. Pedro Martinez almost matched him, but he was touched up for two home runs, one by Mark Teixeira that tied the game at 1 and one by Hideki Matsui that put New York up 2-1.

The momentary controversy over whether Yankees reliever Mariano Rivera spit on a ball is over...at least, in the eyes of the MLB. The Commissioner's office spokesman said, "From the available video and still pictures that we have, there's no evidence that Rivera spit on the ball."

• Angels 5 Yankees 4 (11 innings): Joe Girardi made some strange moves in this game, but his last move, removing David Robertson and putting Alfredo Aceves in is what ultimately lost the Yankees the game as they fell to the Angels. Aceves came in with two outs in the 11th and gave up two-straight hits, the second the game-winner, as the Angels clawed back into this series.

     

• Yankees 4 Minnesota 1: Carl Pavano tried his best to make Yankees’ fans miserable, but the Yankees got revenge in the end. A-Rod and Posada homered in the seventh to put the Yankees up 2-1 and the bullpen took it from there. Mariano got the final four outs for the save meaning the Yankees won a playoff series for the first time in five years. The ALCS with the Angels begins Friday in the Bronx.

The first playoff game at the new stadium was a happy affair as the Yankees defeated the Twins 7-2 on Wednesday night. C.C. Sabathia pitched well, striking out eight and allowing only two runs, one earned, over 6-2/3 innings. Sabathia only struggled in the third when he ran into trouble with two outs. With runners on second and third, Sabathia allowed a single to score a run and then Jorge Posada simply didn’t catch a Sabathia pitch allowing a second run and putting the Twins up 2-0.

    

The Yankees will face the hottest team in baseball, the Minnesota Twins, in the ALDS starting tonight. Minnesota came back from a three-game deficit with four games to play to tie Detroit and then beat them yesterday in a 12-inning playoff game to earn a trip to the Bronx.

• Yankees 3, Angels 2: For all the talk about how the Yankees can't beat the Angels, the Yankees did finish 5-5 against Los Angeles of Anaheim this season. The fifth and final win came with some irregulars -- including Jerry Hairston Jr., Shelley Duncan and Jose Molina -- in the lineup. It also included Ian Kennedy, back from an aneurysm, wriggling out of an eighth-inning jam. A.J. Burnett pitched 5 2/3 innings of two-run ball for the win. Robinson Cano had a critical two-run single. Melky Cabrera followed that up with an RBI double. Mariano Rivera got the save. The Yankees should have a chance to clinch the American League East this weekend when second-place Boston comes to town.

• Yankees 6, Angels 5: After a one-year absence, the Yankees will play in October again. They clinched a berth when Oakland defeated Texas. Then the Yankees bounced back to beat the Angels after blowing a 5-0 lead. Alex Rodriguez hit a two-run homer in the third -- as did Jorge Posada -- and then hit the tiebreaking sacrifice fly in the ninth. Chad Gaudin, a stealth candidate to be in the playoff rotation, started strong but couldn't finish the fifth inning. Alfredo Aceves and Phil Hughes combined to blow the lead, but Mariano Rivera held the one-run margin in the ninth. The Yankees didn't pop any Champagne or do anything crazy. They're saving that for a division title. The magic number for that is six. The Yankees are six up with 10 games left -- the Red Sox have 12. The teams play three times in the Bronx this weekend.
• Braves 3, Mets 1: Only 10 games left. That's right, only 10. Nelson Figueroa pitched seven innings of two-run ball but got zero help from the "bats" in the Mets' lineup. The No. 3-6 hitters went 1-for-15. Brian Schneider got two hits, doubling his total for the season. Luis Castillo put the Mets on the board first with an RBI single in the third, but Figueroa gave up both his runs in the top of the fourth. Mike Pelfrey faces Tim Hudson as the Mets close out their penultimate homestand on Wednesday night.
Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Back to the Playoffs"

Seattle 3 Yankees 2: This loss hurts, but seeing A.J. Burnett pitch like he did matters more at this point. Burnett pitched seven innings, allowing one run while striking out six. He helped himself immensely by picking Ichiro off of first two separate times. But, Ichiro got his revenge and got it against Mariano Rivera. With two outs in the ninth and the Yankees leading 2-1 Rivera gave up a double and then a home run to Ichiro to turn a Yankee win into a loss. The magic number remains at 10.

• Yankees 4 Tampa Bay 2: The Yankees swept the Rays in an eventful game in the Bronx. Things started with Joba Chamberlain struggling again in the first inning by giving up two runs, but Joba pitched a lot better after it appeared that Derek Jeter have him a bit of a pep talk. Jeter laid down a bunt to leadoff the game and beat it out for a hit. He had two more hits, tying him with Lou Gehrig, but the Yankees still trailed 2-0 in the eighth. But, A-Rod and Matsui got hits, Tampa made a huge error and Jorge Posada cleared the bases with a three-run pinch-hit blast. The Yankees chose to give Mariano the night off and the combination of Bruney and Coke finished things off in the ninth.
• Florida 6 Mets 3: Florida scored four in the first and never looked back. Daniel Murphy had a RBI double in the loss.
• US Open: Cinderella story Melanie Oudin fell in two sets to Caroline Wozniacki, seeded 9th, 6-2, 6-2. Others advancing to the semifinals were Yanina Wickmayer over Kateryna Bondarenko on the women's side, and Roger Federer over Robin Soderling and Novak Djokovic over Fernando Verdasco.

• Yankees 5 Red Sox 2 When things are going right, they really go right. Joe Girardi bypassed Phil Hughes in the eighth, despite holding a 1-0 lead and the Red Sox scored two runs to take a 2-1 lead. No matter, the Yankees jumped back on top thanks to back-to-back homers from Damon and Teixeira, the sixth time they have done that this season, and added two more runs to take a three-run lead into the ninth. Girardi didn’t fool around from there, bringing Mariano Rivera in for the ninth. Rivera didn’t look good, but he got the save and the Yankees swept the Red Sox to take a 6-1/2 game lead in the AL East.

At minimum, the Yankees will finish this weekend with a 4-1/2 game lead on the Red Sox. In the process of building that lead this weekend, they have answered the biggest question hanging over them since the last time they played Boston: can the beat a good team?

• Yankees 5 Toronto 3: The Yankees got to Roy Halladay thanks to some shaky defense by the Blue Jays. New York scored twice in the first, the second run coming when Halladay dropped the third out at first base. They padded their lead in the eighth with back-to-back solo shots from Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira, but Phil Hughes and Mariano gave those runs right back to make it 4-3 heading into the ninth. Hideki Matsui started the top of the ninth with a solo shot and Rivera worked around a couple of base runners in the bottom of the inning to earn his 31st save.

• Yankees 2 Detroit 1: Maybe some time off was all Joba Chamberlain needed. Whatever the reason the Yankees were thrilled to see their young pitcher dominate the Tigers on Sunday. Joba pitched 6-2/3 striking out eight and allowing only three hits. The two New York runs were provided by (what else?) solo homers from A-Rod and Mark Teixeira. Phil Hughes came in and pitched the eighth with Mariano closing the door in the ninth as the late-inning tandem performed spotlessly again. With a Boston loss, New York is now only one game behind the Red Sox.
• Atlanta 7 Mets 1: What can possibly happen next? Sunday night’s injury was Fernando Nieve hurting his quad while running to first. Nieve had to leave the game, Tim Redding came in and things fell apart from there. Add it all up and the Mets have dropped three-of-four coming out of the break and now head to Washington.
• Liberty 89 Atlanta 86: Shameka Christon scored 32 points, including the last five of the game as New York survived a late onslaught from The Dream.

      

Last night in St. Louis, the American League won its 13th MLB All Star game in a row, giving the AL team that makes it to the World Series home field advantage. Mariano Rivera closed the game (video); the Daily News reports this is his fourth All Star save, "moving him past Dennis Eckersley for the most in history," leading Rivera's teammate and fellow All Star Derek Jeter to say, "It's just another thing he can put on his Hall of Fame plaque, I guess."

Mariano Rivera achieved two big career milestones in Sunday’s 4-2 Yankees’ win. He got his 500th save, becoming only the second player to reach that mark and he got his first career RBI.

• Yankees 8 Atlanta 4: For five innings the offense kept doing what it has done far too often these past few weeks, sleepwalked through a game. In fact, the Yankees didn’t have a runner reach base until Francisco Cervelli went deep in the sixth inning, but that seemed to spark the bats. They scored seven more times over the final four innings and cruised to the 8-4 win. Joba Chamberlain went 6-1/3 allowing three runs and striking out five. Mariano Rivera came into the game in the eighth and nailed down his 16th save by striking out four batters.

Yankees 5 Tampa Bay 3: The ball certainly carries in the Bronx. The new ballpark saw five dingers on Monday, four of them by the Yankees as they finished their homestand with a 4-2 record. Mark Teixeira got things started and Nick Swisher added a two-run shot to put New York up 3-0. But, Andy Pettitte had a rough fourth, allowing three runs, before settling down to pitch well in the fifth and sixth. Johnny Damon and Derek Jeter added solo shots for the final two runs of the game and Mariano Rivera recorded his 14th save. New York now heads to Boston for three games with the second-place Red Sox, a team they have not defeated this season.

• Yankees 4, Rays 3: A two-run deficit turned into a one-run win after a bases-loaded walk (Robinson Cano), a booted double-play grounder (Jorge Posada) and an infield grounder (Hideki Matsui). Mariano Rivera rebounded from a rough Saturday to save the game for Alfredo Aceves. Joba Chamberlain allowed three runs in six innings, and Nick Swisher had a solo homer. Yankee Stadium still hasn't had a game without a homer this season. After Texas beat Boston, the Yankees are back in first place by a half-game.
• Mets 7, Nationals 0: Livan Hernandez pitched seven scoreless innings and got five runs of support before he even took the mound as the Mets rolled in this rubber game. Five different Mets knocked in runs. Hernandez, whose ERA is 3.88, is probably living a charmed life. He walked four and struck out four. Although he's been everything the Mets could have asked for so far, don't count on him down the road.
• Revolution 4, Red Bulls 0: Awful. The Red Bulls have lost four straight, have no wins in their last five games and have just nine points in 14 games overall.

Once upon a time, Ray Kinsella had to turn his corn field into a baseball diamond and travel across the country in search of a reclusive author to reconnect with the memories of his upbringing and come to terms with his late father. Nowadays Yankee fans simply have enter in their credit card information and are well on their way to owning an eighty-dollar tablespoon of dirt from the old stadium in order to do the same.

• Mets 7 Philadelphia 5: Things got a bit dicey, but the Mets got the sweep in an abbreviated series. Beltran, Wright and Reyes all homered and Pelfrey pitched seven solid. They are over .500 and on a four-game winning streak. The Mets are only a ½ game back of the division lead and with Pittsburgh in this weekend, they have an excellent chance to move into first.

Yankees 7 Angels 4: A.J. Burnett wasn’t good, but he battled though seven innings to give the Yankees a chance to win. And that’s what they did, coming back from a 3-1 deficit, thanks to a home run from Johnny Damon, a huge hit from Derek Jeter and a double by Ramiro Pena. Phil Coke pitched a scoreless eighth and Mariano nailed down the save. The win gets the Yankees two-games over .500, their highest point this season and starts off this difficult homestand on the right note.

The Yankees just won’t go quietly into the offseason. Last night controversy erupted between Joe Girardi and the press corps over the status of Mariano Rivera, who had left the team yesterday to return to New York for a checkup. Girardi insisted it was just a end of year physical while Brian Cashman told the press Mariano had felt something in his shoulder and was having a MRI. The press conference included Girardi banging his fist on his desk and telling the media they could stare at him if they wanted to.

• Yankees 7 Baltimore 3: They played a game, but it was the ceremonies that captured all the attention. The Yankees brought back some of the greatest players to ever play for them. From Hall of Famers like Yogi, Whitey Ford, Dave Winfield and Reggie Jackson to fan favorites like Paul O’Neil, Scott Brosius and Tino Martinez and the return of Bernie Williams, the crowd was rocking before the game.
  Continue reading "Last Night's Action: Turn Out The Lights"