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Tonight was all about the Yankees. Andy Pettitte returned from a stiff back to hold the Blue Jays down and allow the offense to wallop Brandon Morrow. The 'weak' Yankee lineup once again proved everyone wrong as the home runs were plentiful and every Yankee made it on base tonight.
The scoring started almost immediately when Robinson Cano doubled and Kevin Youkilis was hit by a pitch to put two on with one out. Travis Hafner then doubled to score a run and Vernon Wells scored another on a ground out to make it 2-0. It looked like this was to be a much more evenly matched game when the Blue Jays answered in the bottom of the first inning when Rajai Davis tripled on Andy Pettitte's first pitch. Melky Cabrera grounded out to score the runner and make it a 2-1 game.
The Yankees' hitting continued in the top of third when Hafner homered to make it 3-1, but they weren't done there. Wells singled, Ichiro Suzuki doubled and Eduardo Nunez hit a fly ball to Colby Rasmus, who proceded to throw the ball home to prevent the runner from scoring, however, the ball got away from the catcher and rolled into the Yankees dugout, allowing both runners to score and make it a 5-1 game.
The Yankees would score next in the sixth inning when Lyle Overbay homered just over the centerfield wall. Francisco Cervelli hit a ground rule double to chase Morrow from the game and Brett Gardner greeted Brett Cecil with a triple to score Cervelli. Cano then grounded out to score Gardner and make the score 8-1 in favor of the Yankees.
The Blue Jays were able to score again in the bottom of the sixth inning when Melky Cabrera singled and Jose Bautista crushed the ball over the batter's eye in centerfield to make it an 8-3 game. Vernon Wells would then answer his chorus of boos in the seventh with a solo home run to make it 9-3. Just when the Yankees seemed to have the game under wraps, Shawn Kelley surrendered a home run in the bottom of the ninth to J.P. Arencibia. Thankfully, the game was over with the next batter and the Yankees won 9-4 (though John Sterling claims it was 9-5).
Andy Pettitte was as effective as ever and you would never have realized he missed any time. He allowed three runs on six hits and only walked one batter. He lasted 7.1 innings and only threw 90 pitches, so he probably could have gone on, but I'm sure the Yankees want to save him where they can. Shawn Kelley came in to pitch the last two innings, giving up a home run and striking out two.
The Yankee offense got the job done. The hits came from Gardner, Cano (3), Hafner (2), Wells (2), Ichiro (2), Overbay, and Cervelli and Gardner, Nunez and Cervelli all walked once. It was nice to see Cano continue his hot hitting and encouraging to see Ichiro contribute for once. Maybe Ichiro will now turn back into Ichiro again.
Hiroki Kuroda takes the ball tomorrow against Mark Buehrle. The good news is the Yankees have hit well off of Mark Buehrle, the bad news is that the 2013 Yankees have been terrible against lefties.
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