Flickr Image by dbfoto
Sabathia’s 18th win of the season was a hard fought battle. He finished with 128 pitches and was taken out after six but he struck out ten batters, only gave up two runs and even though Sabathia gave up ten hits, the Red Sox thankfully left a small village stranded on the bases.
The big story of the game involves Cervelli and it wasn’t his home run, it was what happened after he got to home plate and in his next at bat.
When he touched home plate after his improbable home run, Cervelli clapped his hands much to the chagrin of Boston starter John Lackey who stared him down as he made his way back to the dugout. Apparently, there is an unwritten rule about clapping.
When Cervelli stepped in to lead off the seventh inning he was hit in the back with a pitch by Lackey. The intention was clear, the benches emptied, no punches were thrown and poor Larry Rothschild was ejected.
The best part about it was that after Cervelli was awarded first base, he ended up scoring the fifth run of the game for the Yankees after a double play groundout by Derek Jeter.
Of course, the story of the postgame show was Cervelli’s “enthusiasm.” He probably had more reporters around him tonight than after any other game in his career. He stood there answering question after question about how he acts when he plays baseball. It was actually quite ridiculous.
The funny thing is that the Red Sox of all teams got offended by Cervelli’s clap at home plate when they have David Ortiz on their team. Seriously?
Oh and speaking of Ortiz, he wasn’t able to score on a single by Carl Crawford in the bottom of the seventh much to Crawford’s dismay. Crawford pouted at first base most likely because he was denied an RBI. So classy.
The Yankees bullpen after Cory Wade – more specifically Boone Logan – was impressive. Logan was able to pull a David Robertson Houdini act and work into and out of trouble by loading the bases after Wade walked Ortiz and gave up a hit to Jed Lowrie. Logan came in, gave up that aforementioned single to Crawford to load the bases and then struck out both Jarrod Saltaralphmacchio* and Darnell McDonald to end the inning. Rafael Soriano pitched a scoreless eighth inning.
There was more controversy in the bottom of the ninth inning after the home plate and third base umps missed a call. They claimed Saltaralphmacchio was hit by a pitch when he really swung at the pitch first. Joe Girardi was heated as this brought the tying run to the plate. It could have been a game changer.
Thank Mo, it wasn’t because Mariano Rivera got JJ Reddick, wait no that’s the basketball player, Josh Reddick to line out to Brett Gardner to end the game. No harm, no foul.
Hitting Stars of the Game Other Than the Fist Pumping Maniac
Eric Chavez was 2-3 with two RBI
Robinson Cano was 2-3 with one RBI
Not So Good
Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira and Jorge Posada were all hitless.
The Red Sox stranded 16 runners – well, okay, not good for them but great for the Yankees.
Awesome Sauce
Logan is 2-0 in August with a 0.00 ERA in 6.1 innings. He has only given up four hits, walked one batter and has 10 strike outs
The series continues tomorrow with Phil Hughes facing off against Josh Beckett. Start the prayer circles now.
*Nickname by @YankeeMeginPHL
