Prado's Big Day Propells Yankees to Win

Kuroda delivered  a solid start for NY. Photo Credit: Richard Perry/NY Times

 

On a day at Yankee Stadium where Joe Torre’s number was retired and plaque unveiled in Monument Park, the Yankees rode the wave of emotions and past good memories defeating the Chicago White Sox 5-3.

By: Sunil Sunderraj

 

Martin Prado continued his torrid hitting pace as he ripped a line drive go ahead two run double off the base of left field in the 4th inning giving the Yankees a 3-1 lead. Prado ended up going 3 for 4 on the day with two doubles and run scored. It is his fourth game with two RBI’s plus since joining New York.

New York caught a lucky break as Brian McCann’s fly ball was lost in the sun by Chicago’s left fielder Alejandro De Aza in the sun which allowed McCann to end up on second base.

The Yankees wasted a chance to blow the game wide open on a series of base running miscues by Mark Teixeira and Prado who were caught in rundowns between second and third base.

Chicago cut the lead to 3-2 in the 5th inning. They created a run by De Aza leading off the inning with a walk and moved over to second base on a wild pitch. Jose Abreu’s line drive single to left field allowed DeAza to score.

In the bottom of the 6th inning, Carlos Beltran added some insurance drilling his 15th home run of the season into the first row of seats in right field making the score 4-2. Beltran had missed the previous three games including receiving a cortisone shot in his troublesome sore right elbow.

Prado followed with a chop ground ball over the White Sox third baseman Conor Gillaspie. Deciding to go for two Prado was initially ruled out at second on the strong throw by De Aza. However, replays showed Prado getting his hand in before the tag applied by Chicago’s second baseman Carlos Sanchez. Joe Girardi challenged the call which was overturned. Chase Headley’s ground out to first base advanced Prado to third base Next up Stephen Drew who delivered a sac fly to right field. Prado slid safely in as the ball skipped by the catcher.

Shawn Kelley replaced Hideki Kuroda to start the 7th inning. Kelley gave up a leadoff single to Jordan Danks followed by a DeAza double down into the corner of right field. Sanchez slow dribbler down the first base line brought Danks across reducing the Yankees lead to 5-3.

Jose Abreu walked to load up the bases. At that point Girardi signaled for Dellin Betances who induced a deep fly ball to the warning track in right field by Adam Dunn to end the inning.

David Robertson pitched a scoreless ninth recording his 34th save of the season. Kuroda (9-8) pitched six innings while yielding two runs on five hits while walking two and striking out six. The Yankees have won 5 out of their last 7 games. They are 34-10 when scoring 5+ runs. In games decidedby 2 runs or less New York’s record is 42-27.

On Sunday afternoon the Yankees look for the sweep of the series as Chris Capuano(1-3) squares off against Chris Sale(10-3). Masahiro Tanaka threw 35 pitches in a simulated game and reported no pain.


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