Tonight was a classic Yankees win (and God bless ESPN for broadcasting the game for those poor souls who live in Boston and can't get regular Yankees games on TV).
Mariano Rivera recorded his 500th career save; Chien-Ming Wang finally won a game for the first time in over a year; and the Yankees' defense powered the team to a 4-2 win over the hapless New York Mets.
Mariano Rivera tossed his 18th save in 19 chances, coming in during the eighth inning to whiff a batter, then closing it out in the bottom of the ninth. In between his trips to the mound, however, the batting order came around to give him his third regular-season hitting chance ever. Mo worked the count and drew a walk against a reliever who has been anointed as a next great one (Mets' closer Francisco Rodriguez), pushing a bases-loaded runner home to give the Yanks another run.
Chien-Ming Wang, the poor former-ace for the Yankees, finally got a W tonight. He'd been 0-6 so far this season, and even when he wasn't allowing what led to a 34.50 ERA (his first seven starts, runs allowed: 7, 8, 8, 5, 4, 3, 3), he just had bad luck getting the right situations for a statistical "win." Tonight, however, he was crisp, keeping the bases clean and not breaking his ankle when running out grounders.
But the real winner in tonight's game was the New York defense. In fact, the difference in the game was how much better the Yankees' defense was than the Mets' defense. Forget your All-Star closers (we'll even let K-Rod slink away without judgment here) and high-caliber batting orders.
This game was won in the diamond.
As the commentators murmured about Derek Jeter getting older and whether he'd have to be shifted away from shortstop, he once again showed that, no matter what the future holds, that is not the case right now. Flu bug or not, he was classic Jeter tonight, turning solid plays.
To his right, Alex Rodriguez showed his worth as a fielder. He made a couple diving plays and scooped up a key bunt for a force-out to keep New York in the game.
And Mark Teixeira keeps earning his dough at first, no question about it.
In contrast, the Mets avoided any Castillo-like game-ending error blunders (although there was a dropped Jorge Posada fly late in the game that was gratuitously ruled a base hit), but they were instead just mediocre in the infield. In the first inning, all three runs were because of less-than-great plays by Mets infielders, and although no errors were tagged on the blue-and-oranges, rudimentary conversions by the players would have kept those runs from scoring. Alas, tonight the Mets had strung enough together to win (they out-hit the Yankees 5-4), yet those unfortunate plays derailed what they needed to overcome a depleted batting order and the extremely bad luck the Mets have attracted recently.
Better luck next time.
The Yankees (43-32) are riding a five-game winning streak, have the third-best record in the league, and sit just three back of the American League East-leading Boston Red Sox. Next up, the Bombers face Seattle (39-36) at home, where they'll try to keep increasing space in their tight division. Tampa Bay (42-35) and Toronto (41-36) are nipping at their heels.
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