Kuroda Tosses A Complete Game Shutout, Yankees Win 3-0

I’m going to start this recap off with a pretty amazing stat from David P. also known as @YankeeSource on Twitter: Hiroki Kuroda has just seven walks in his last eight starts, combined.

As you digest that nugget, I am going to talk about how phenomenal Kuroda’s performance was tonight.

Against a tough Texas Rangers lineup, Kuroda gave up two hits in nine innings with two walks and five strikeouts. The Rangers lineup wasn’t able to get anything going against him and he had a no-hitter going into the seventh inning. He threw 109 pitches – 74 for strikes and his ERA is now 3.06.

What a job he has done coming over from the National League.

For a while, I was afraid it was going to be a typical Kuroda start and that he would be victimized by the offense getting shut down by his opposition. As I mentioned in the game thread, he was one who had the misfortunate of being matched up with Felix Hernandez when he threw a two-hit, complete game shutout on August 4 at Yankee Stadium.

Wait, that sounds awfully familiar, doesn’t it?

As for the offense, it was pretty quiet until Matt Harrison was lifted for Alexi Ogando in the seventh inning. Harrison held the Yankees to one run on five hits. He walked three and struck out two. Derek Jeter hit a single with one out in the seventh and Ron Washington took Harrison out of the game.

Next, Nick Swisher came up to bat and after working the count to 3-2, he tattooed a 97 m.p.h. offering from Ogando and it landed in the Yankees’s bullpen. Mark Teixeira followed that up with a laser shot of his own into Section 105 to make the score 3-0 Yankees.

In a matter of minutes, the game went from being a 0-0 pitcher’s duel to being a sure fire Yankees victory. With the way Kuroda was pitching, the Rangers weren’t going to get anything going in the eighth or ninth innings.

So, the Yankees bullpen’s arms were rested for a second night in a row, the Rangers’s much vaunted lineup was shutdown and the Yankees won their 69th game of the season.

Some notes:

• From @YankeeSource: The Yankees are 7-3 in last 10 games and 6-1 in last 7 games.
• From @YankeeSource: The Yankees are 82 for 249 w. RISP since the All Star Break, that’s a .329 BA w RISP.
• Jeter picked up hits #155 and #156 of the season tonight and keeps moving up the all-time hit list.
• From  @yestoresearch: Last Yankee CG shutout of any kind against the Rangers was David Wells 8/21/98 at Arlington.
• From @yestoresearch: Last Yankee 2-hit shutout was Chien-Ming Wang vs. Devil Rays 7/28/06

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