Swisher And Lowe Help The Yankees Win In Grand Style Over Rangers

Earlier today, all I saw were tweets from people saying how they expected tonight’s game to be a high scoring affair with Ryan Dempster starting for the Texas Rangers and David Phelps starting for the Yankees.

Well, they were half right.

The Rangers got the scoring started, picking up a run in the first and second innings. Meanwhile, Dempster set the Yankees down in order during his first two innings.

When the bottom of the third rolled around, Dempster wasn’t so lucky. Russell Martin got things started with a single which was followed by a Raul Ibanez single. After Ichiro Suzuki bunted, Martin and Ibanez advanced to second and third. Dempster followed that with a walk to Derek Jeter which loaded the bases for Nick Swisher. Dempster threw an 1-0 pitch to Swisher that was right over the heart of the plate and Swisher made him pay. The ball left the ballpark and landed in the second deck of right field in about three seconds.

That dinger was Swisher’s 15th of the season, the 6th grand slam of his career and it was the 200th home run of his career. It was also the Yankees’s 9th grand slam of 2012 and put them up 4-2; a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

Now, the offense was a big story in tonight’s game but the bigger story was Derek Lowe‘s performance.

The Yankees acquired Lowe off the scrapheap this weekend. A signing that was made fun of by pretty much everyone. And coming into tonight’s game, people weren’t expecting much from Lowe. Well, he shut those people up, at least for the next 24 hours or so.

Lowe pitched four innings of two-hit ball with four strikeouts. He kept the Rangers off the scoreboard and he picked up a save. His first since 2001.

Now, people will say, “It’s only one game,” and that may be the case but this was a game in August against a Texas Ranger team who is in first place in the AL West and who are looking to make their third World Series in a row. It wasn’t as if Lowe was pitching against the Houston Astros – no offense to Astro fans out there. He had this performance against a good team when the Yankees really needed it.

And we can’t forget David Phelps who did a good job starting in CC Sabathia‘s absence. Phelps lasted five full innings and gave up two runs on six hits. He surrendered one walk, struck out three and gave up a home run to David Murphy in the second inning.

Some notes:

• Eric Chavez continued his hot hitting, picking up two more tonight. His average is now .293 on the season.
• Ichiro had one hit but it was a big one, a triple, that led to the Yankees scoring two more runs in the seventh inning.
• Derek Jeter picked up his 154th hit of the year. He’s now tied with Nap Lajoie for 13th all-time with 3,142 hits. Next up: Eddie Murray. Jeter needs 13 more hits to get there.

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