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| Jacoby Ellsbury came up clutch for NY in their win. Photo Credit: USATSI |
Jacoby Ellsbury’s go ahead 14th inning solo shot off Vinnie Pestano gave the Yankees the 5-4 victory over the Indians.
By: Sunil Sunderraj
It was a game that lasted nearly five hours and featured 25 combined strikeouts. Ellsbury belted the game winner of an 0-2 breaking ball offering deep into the right field seats for his 6th round tripper of the season. Chase Whitley picked up the win in relief and David Robertson recorded his 22nd save.
Newly acquired starting pitcher Brandon McCarthy encountered early difficulties as he surrendered three runs in the 1st inning. Cleveland sprinted out to the 1-0 lead on a Lonnie Chisenhall grounder to Brian Roberts with the bases loaded that scored Jason Kipnis from third base. Former Bronx Bomber Nick Swisher continued to have success against his former team in this series as he knocked in a two run single into right center field extending the Indians lead to 3-0.
In the top of the 3rd inning, Mark Teixeira golfed a ball over the right field wall plating New York’s first run of the night. McCarthy was aided by some stellar defense in the 4th inning as Roberts nabbed a ground ball in shallow field and spun around to fire a one hopper to Teixeira to nail Murphy out at first base.
New York drew closer in the fifth inning on a Brian McCann sacrifice fly that brought Ellsbury home to make the score 3-2. Ellsbury led off the inning with a double down the right field corner followed by a Derek Jeter single to left field.
Teixeria would make history clubbing a two run homer, his second home run of the game and 17th of the season deep into the right field seats giving the Yankees a 4-3 lead. His 358th which ties him for 83rd on the all-time home run list with Yogi Berra and Carlos Lee. In addition 37th multi home run game.
The Indians responded in the bottom half of the fifth off a Carlos Santana line drive single to right field that scored Asdrubal Cabrera from second base, tying the game up at 4-4. Earlier Cabrera had doubled into the right field corner.
McCarthy exited the game in the seventh inning having thrown 101 pitches with 67 of them for strikes while giving up four runs only one earned on nine hits, walking one batter and striking out three.
The game went to extra innings and in the 11th, Cleveland had a golden opportunity to end the game as they loaded the bases on three consecutive walks issued by David Huff. However, Shawn Kelley replaced Huff and promptly struck out two Indians batters to work out of the jam.
Injury bug continues to plague New York as Masahiro Tanaka was placed on the DL with inflammation in his right elbow. The Yankees are awaiting the results of an MRI. Brett Gardner sustained a lower abdominal strain. Meanwhile, Carlos Beltran already dealing with a bone spur in the elbow and swelling in right knee was hit by a ball in the face inside the batting cage before Wednesday’s game. The rubber match of the series concludes on Thursday as David Phelps faces off against T.J. House. 