The New York Yankees rode a great outing from free agent signee A.J. Burnett, who tossed 7 dominant innings, leading them to a 3-1 win over the defending World Champion Philadelphia Phillies Thursday night in the Bronx. DH Hideki Matusi and 1B Mark Teixeira homered for the Yanks while DH Matt Stairs drove in the lone Philly run. Veteran Pedro Martinez was the hard luck loser for the World Champs, tossing allowing all 3 runs in 6 plus innings. Yankees closer Mariano Rivera threw the final 2 frames for the save. The series, now tied at 1-1, moves to Philadelphia for 3 games starting Saturday.
Game Notes:
1- Incredible performance by Burnett, a whipping boy of many including this blogger. Threw an amazing 22 first pitch strikes to 26 batters!
2- Although they won, I do not like the game managing of Yankees skipper Joe Girardi. The insane bunting of Derek Jeter in the 7th was one of the worst decisions I have seen in the game. The Captain has 4 hits in the series and you have Johnny Damon, Teixeira and A Rod to follow. Potential big inning was killed by this play and a double play from Damon on a liner. Girardi also will need his middle men later in his series and had a great opportunity to use them in the 8th, instead he went to Rivera for a 2 inning save against a National League team that has several key hitters who are not familiar with the Yankees stud closer. I know this is a must win game but Joe, you have more than 2 pitchers. Or does he?
3- The struggles of A-Rod. 0 for 8 wtih 6 strikeouts, looks completely lost and out of sync at the plate. If he does not start to hit and hit soon, this series will be over FAST. If the Yankees lose this series, A Rod might need to move to Mars. He will take all the blame and will start to hear the ” He is not a true Yankee” stuff again.
4- Another bad night for umpires in the majors. Blown call on a huge inning ending double play in the 8th as well as several bad ball and strikes calls. You might hear about instant replay a lot this off season.
5- Pedro Martinez pitched his butt off. I don’t always root for this guy. Like many ex stars of the Boston Red Sox, he has a sense of entitlement and comes off as arrogant but he had the Yanks off balance all night. Teixeira’s homer was crushed and would have left Yellowstone Park but Matsui’s bomb was product of the joke known as the new Yankee Stadium.
