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| Colby Lewis pitched a gem last night. Photo credit: USA Today Sports |
After erupting for twelve runs on twelve hits in a victory over the Rangers on Tuesday night, the Yankees were only able to muster two runs on four hits in a 3-2 defeat.
By: Sunil Sunderraj
After surrendering two early solo home runs, starting Texas pitcher Colby Lewis(7-8) went seven innings while retiring the last 13 Yankees hitters.
Brett Gardner continued his monstrous series against Texas by belting his second consecutive leadoff home run and 14th of the season deep into the right field seats. The lead would be short lived as the Rangers came back in the bottom half of the first inning roughing up New York starting pitcher Hideki Kuroda(7-7) for three runs on five hits. Shin-Soo-Choo led off with a single to left center field. Elvis Andrus doubled down the left field line into the corner. Gardner had difficulty fielding the ball which enabled Soo-Choo to motor around from first base to score and tie the game up at 1-1.
Adrian Beltre’s single back up the middle into center field brought Andrus in from second base for the go ahead run. After another single off the bat of Jim Aducci, Leonys Martin pop up single into shallow left field plated Beltre from second extending Texas’s lead to 3-1.
In the third inning, New York cut the lead to 3-2 on a solo shot by Jacoby Ellsbury to deep right center field. After a single to left field by Carlos Beltran, the last 19 Yankees batters were retired in a row.
Derek Jeter, appearing in his final game in Texas went 0 for 4. Before the start of the game, Jeter was honored by Rangers and presented with a pair of boots plus a special guest appearance by Former President George W. Bush who presented Jeter with a framed picture of Bush and Jeter the night before Game 3 of the 2001 World Series.
Lewis received outstanding defense behind him as Aducci made two sparkling defensive plays. In the second inning leaping up and crashing against the left field wall in foul territory off a fly ball by Zoilo Amonte. The second spectacular gem came in the 8th inning leaning up against the wall in left field taking away an extra base hit away from Ellsbury. Neftali Perez pitched a scoreless ninth to earn his third save of the season.
After struggling in the first inning, Kuroda settled down not allowing a run over the final 6 innings pitched. This marked the sixth straight multi hit home run game for the Yankees. Gardner ended up 9 for 14 in the series with two doubles, four home runs, 4 RBIs and six runs scored. New York’s record is 5-29 when scoring 2 runs or less. After an off day on Thursday, the Yankees head to Boston for a three game set. 