“Now, the real season begins…”
After the game, while speaking with Meredith Marakovits of the YES Network, Captain Derek Jeter expressed that sentiment after tonight’s 14-2 drubbing of the Boston Red Sox.
The game started off similarly to last night’s game with the Red Sox scoring first. This time, they scored one run off Hiroki Kuroda in the first inning.
The Yankees went down in order against Daisuke Matsuzaka in the first inning but after that they pounced on weak Red Sox pitching all night.
Curtis Granderson hit the first of his two home runs, in the second inning – a three run shot that put the Yankees up 3-1. he lead off the seventh inning with a solo shot, his 43rd of the season.
Robinson Cano hit the first of his two home runs, in the third inning – a two-run shot to put the Yankees up 5-1. He hit his second home run in the fifth inning – another two-run shot that put the Yankees up 7-1.
Cano added a two-run single in the sixth inning which put the Yankees up 9-1. He finished the night 4-4 with six RBI and one walk.
After the Red Sox scored a run in the top of the seventh, pulling them to within seven (I typed this with a smile on my face), the Yankees exploded for five runs in their half of the inning.
It started with Granderson’s second home run, Ichiro hit a two-run double, Nick Swisher hit an RBI single and Mark Teixeira hit a sac fly.
The Yankees were up 14-2 but they had already clinched the Division thanks to the Tampa Bay Rays beating the Baltimore Orioles 4-1.
Kuroda allowed two runs through seven innings and earned his 16th win of the season. Kuroda and Phil Hughes both finished with 16 wins. It was just the third time since 1976 that two right handed starters have won that many games – Roger Clemens and Mike Mussina did it twice (2001 and 2003).
Thanks to those four home runs by Cano and Granderson, the Yankees set a franchise record with 245 home runs – they had 244 in 2009.
So now, the Yankees will rest until Sunday when they meet the winner of Friday’s wild card game between the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers.
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7 Responses to Yanks Crush Red Sox 14-2, Next Stop: The ALDS
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TIQ IQ
At the beginning of the season, 95 wins seemed about as much as one could hope for . To end up with that many after all the injuries is remarkable.
Cashman did a hell of a job
I second that
WHEW! Faces, and likely Girardi’s job, saved for another year. I hope they try to keep Ichiro. This year, after the 10-game lead collapse, the Division means a lot more, and the playoffs are a bonus.
I’m not really sure how losing the 10 game lead was a collapse considering that from Aug 1 to the end their record was 35-24 which about .590 ball.
I wonder if Ichiro might not have played so well that the Yankees won’t be able to keep him as someone will offer to pay him more than the Yankees would wish to pay.
Would be nice to have him back though, as an outfield with he and Gardner flanking Granderson would be rather a novelty.
All-lefty, really good defensive outfield, with the only power hitter in center! and also rather odd as Ichiro might be, for certainly the only time in his career, the guy with the least foot speed.
The Yanks may have lost a 10 game lead, but they never lost that intangible ingredient that has defined the better NY Yankees teams.
They battled throughout the month of September and 3 days into October and never ended the day out of 1st place.
After their high water mark of 57-34 just after the All-Star Game, with the 10-game lead, they went through two long slumps of 6-12 and 9-15, with a brief 7-1 spurt in between, to fall into a tie with Baltimore. That constitutes a collapse. Fortunately, they never fell behind and revived with a 16-5 finish to ensure that the collapse was not fatal, as Texas’ may prove to be. Jeter stayed steady throughout, and Ichiro, CC and Cano got hot in the last spurt. And the WhffenPoof Boys (Granderson and Swisher) cut down on their whiffs. Still, there are a lot of holes, maybe too many to do much in the playoffs, that will need filling next year to stave off Baltimore, Tampa Bay and maybe a revived Boston (or healthier Toronto).
check the lineups during those slumps. they had a bad West Coast road trip , going 1-5, that ending with Swisher injured and out and Rodriguez on the DL.
I’m gonna suggest that the injuries (including the ones to the starters) make “collapse” overblown.