Alex Rodriguez Comes Up Clutch Again for New York Yankees in a Classic
August 8, 2009 · Doug Rush · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
As if a Yankees-Red Sox game needed anymore dramatics. Friday night’s game provided just that.
The second of a four game series was billed as a pitcher’s duel between A.J. Burnett and Josh Beckett. Both performed up to expectations like advertised. Burnett went 7 2/3 innings, allowed one hit and no runs, walked six and struck out six with a no decision.
But when he departed in the eighth inning, Yankee Stadium gave him a tremendous standing ovation and a deserved one for Burnett, who pitched his guts out.
This was the A.J. Burnett the Yankees were paying the big five-year contract for. The same Burnett who destroyed the Red Sox his entire career showed up Thursday night again to shut them down.
Now for Boston, Beckett was just as good. He went seven solid innings, allowed four hits, no runs, walked two and struck out seven and also got a no decision.
Love him or hate him, Beckett is one of the best in the game when the pressure is on and the game is huge. His performance tonight was just as outstanding as Burnett’s.
After Beckett and Burnett left, it was a battle of the bullpens, which up until now, favored the Red Sox. But, the Yankees bullpen has gotten much better over the course of the season.
Phil Hughes got 1/3 of an inning, Mariano Rivera pitched a scoreless ninth, Alfredo Aceves pitched three scoreless innings and Brian Bruney seemed to work out some of his troubles in two scoreless innings.
Hideki Okajima and Jonathan Papelbon both pitched 1 1/3 scoreless, Daniel Bard and Ramon Ramirez both pitch 2/3 scoreless and Manny Delcarmen and Takashi Saito both pitched a scoreless inning.
Phil Coke came into the top of the 15th inning and pitched a scoreless inning to keep the Yankees chances alive.
Rookie reliever Junichi Tazawa came in for his first ever appearance and his 14 inning was impressive as he escaped trouble. But he did not in his 15th inning appearance.
He allowed a single to Derek Jeter to start off the inning. He got Johnny Damon and Mark Teixeira out, so up came Alex Rodriguez with a chance to do something.
Tazawa hung a breaking pitch over the plate and A-Rod didn’t miss. He sent the ball over the left field wall and hit another walk-off home run for the Yankees as they won 2-0 in 15 grueling innings.
Coke (3-3) got the win and in his first ever game, Tazawa (0-1) took the loss. The Yankees now move ahead 4 1/2 games over the Red Sox in the A.L. East and were able to go punch-for-punch with Boston.
Boston never really seemed to have any big hits in the game. Burnett allowed a lot of base runners from walks, but the lead-off single in the first by Jacoby Ellsbury was the only hit he allowed. Otherwise, Burnett just dominated the Red Sox.
The Yankees had a ton of chances to win this game. They got the hits off Beckett, and even had a chance to strike in the fifth inning with the bases loaded, but Jeter’s dribbler to third was thrown out by Youkilis, who made a great play in the field to get the Yankee captain hustling for a hit.
In the 14nth inning, Eric Hinske nearly won it for the Yankees as he ripped the ball down to right field, but J.D. Drew made a great catch leaping up and extending his arm to get the ball so it didn’t fly over his head. If it did, Ramiro Pena was coming around to score. But, Drew made an outstanding catch.
When A-Rod hit that home run, you saw legitimate joy from the entire Yankee team, coming over to hug their heroic teammate for coming up clutch again. That was the 11th of his 20 home runs in 2009 that have either tied a game or taken a lead; in this case it won the game.
And of course, with the walk-off home run came a shaving cream pie to the side of the face from Burnett.
Everyone knew it was coming, the camera on YES caught Burnett walking to the dugout with a smirk on his face as if they knew he was up to trouble. He was just waiting for the perfect moment to nail his teammate in the face for a job well done.
He got him, and the crowd left at Yankee Stadium loved every moment of it.
This 2009 year and Yankee team has the feeling of something special. They have a certain mental toughness about them. They don’t get discouraged and they don’t ever give up. They can take a team’s best shot and still come back and punch you right back and sometimes, even harder.
But best, this team likes each other and they have a great chemistry with each other. It’s been missing with the recent Yankee teams, but no more now.
The game ended around 12:48 a.m. So the Yankees and Red Sox will get some rest and come back 16 hours later for the third game. CC Sabathia will take the ball against Clay Buchholz in a game broadcasted on FOX.
The Yankees will probably look for Sabathia to go deep in this game and give the bullpen a much needed rest and Boston will hope for the same thing with Buchholz as they used every single relief pitcher on the roster Friday night.
Friday night started out a pitcher’s duel. It ended early Saturday morning as a pure classic.
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