Yankees Win 6-5 In Extra Innings

Mood Music - I Like It by Enrique Iglesias (You don't approve, I know)

The Yankees came out on top in the first game of their double-header with the Red Sox in what proved to be another very weird game.  In his third start back from the disabled list, Andy Pettitte turned in a pretty ugly looking performance, with his final line sitting at 4 IP, 3 ER, 9 H, 2 BB, 8 K.  While that looks pretty awful, Pettitte really didn't pitch poorly.  A lot of the hits that he gave up where of the bloop and dunk variety, and the knee high strike simply did not exist for home plate umpire Mike Winters.

After Pettitte left the game in the fifth inning, Joe Girardi (unfortunately) burned through a boatload of our best relievers.  David Robertson, Boone Logan, Joba Chamberlain, Kerry Wood, Phil Hughes, and Mariano Rivera were all used, and are all unlikely to be used in tonight's game.  As such, the Yankees are somewhat reliant on a long start from A.J. Burnett to save us from the horrors of Chad Gaudin, Sergio Mitre, Javier Vazquez, and Jonathan Albaladejo making important pitches with the division title on the line.

And speaking of that, the Yankees seem to be doing this whole "concede the division and play for the Wild Card" thing very, very poorly.  Don't look now, but we may win it after all.

Offensively, the Yankees managed to scrape together six runs in 10 innings, five of them coming off of Red Sox starting pitcher Tim Wakefield, highlighted by a Robinson Cano home run and a Curtis Granderson triple.  While the Yankees did manage to knock around Wakefield (in possibly his final game), they also squandered many opportunities to put the game out of reach, causing John Sterling to beat the drum about small ball at a nauseating rate.

With that said, the Yankees managed to score in the tenth inning off of Red Sox closer, Jonathan Papelbon, without the ball leaving the infield.  Also, in their tenth inning rally, we were once again reminded of the following fact: Brett Gardner can run extremely fast. 

Unfortunately, I feel like in the hands of the wrong man (Girardi) this might not be such a good thing.  Joe has always salivated at the idea of using GGBG late in games a pinch runner, and him scoring from second base on a check swing infield single (and some help by Bill Hall) will only further enhance Joe's belief that Gardner can change games on the base paths in the late innings.

I just hope he was also watching the beautiful 10 pitch walk that he drew off of Papelbon to get the whole thing started.

Comment Of The Game: Edgware.

Play Of The Game: GGBG scoring on Jeter's infield single.