The New York Yankees finished up a sweep of the defending World Series Champions, Chicago White Sox, with a 6-4 victory on a Sunday afternoon in the Bronx. Jaret Wright provided 5.1 innings of decent pitching, allowing 3 ER and 8 H, while walking 2 and striking out 1. It certainly wasnt a performance remotely similar to his outing prior to the All Star break against the Devil Rays, but the Sox are a much better team than Tampa, and Wright has always pitched well against the Devil Rays in his career as a Yankee. (6-1 career against the Rays) Backed up by another solid outing from the bullpen, and some strong defense, Wright put the Yankees in an opportunity to sweep the White Sox and thats exactly what they did. Ron Villone worked 0.2 IP without allowing a run, although he did give up two hits in his limited duty in the seventh. Mike Myers came in to face the left-handed Jim Thome, with runners on first and second with nobody out, and Myers got Thome to pop out on the first pitch that Myers threw, and that was all Torre wanted from him. Kyle Farnsworth then came in and also got the job done, getting Konero and Dye to fly out, without allowing a single run to score, cleaning up the mess that Villone started in the top half of the seventh inning. Farnsworth came back out for the eighth inning, but after allowing a solo homerun, and two singles, Torre would have to call on Mariano Rivera to get a two-inning save. Juan Uribe was up and he popped out to second base. Mo then proceded to induce the inning ending double-play ball from Scott Podsednik to end the threat, leaving the score at 6-4. Rivera then came back on for the top of the ninth and allowed a deep double off the bat of Iguchi, and then walked Jim Thome, setting up the White Sox once again for another possible comeback. Rivera got Konerko to ground into another White Sox double-play, and then struck out Jermaine Dye swinging to end the game. This was Mariano Riveras 400th career save, which makes him only the fourth player of all-time to reach that plateau. His ERA stands at 2.02, but his innings are really too high for my liking. He stands at 51.0 IP for the year, and he seemed to struggle this past series against the White Sox. He didnt blow any saves this weekend, but Im not sure what to attribute his sketchy outings this weekend to. He pitched in the All Star game so I dont think he was rusty. I think it was probably the White Sox hitters simply getting the best of him early on, but then Mo buckled down, realizing that the Yankees needed these games, and absolutely would not allow the Sox to beat him on anything but his best stuff. |
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