Yankees Sweep Rays On Labor Day, Reduce Magic Number To 16
September 8, 2009 · Doug Rush · Jump to comments
Article Source: Bleacher Report - New York Yankees
It’s funny how things can change in a year.
Around this time last season, the Yankees were counting down their days until the end of their season while the Rays were getting ready for October baseball.
Turn the clock forward one year, and it’s the Yankees who are gearing up for playoff baseball, while the Rays season seem to be slipping every day towards a disappointing end.
Coming into Labor Day on Monday, the Rays desperately needed to win the doubleheader at Yankee Stadium against the Yankees.
In game one, it was a playoff-like pitching duel between CC Sabathia and Matt Garza.
The Yankees struck first in the first inning with an RBI double by Alex Rodriguez. The Rays countered back with a solo home run by Evan Longoria in the second.
After that, it was all Sabathia and Garza.
Garza went for seven strong innings, allowing five hits and one run, walked one and struck out seven and did not factor into the decision.
Because of Tampa’s sub-par 2009 season, Garza is only 7-9, but has pitched 177.2 innings and struck out 159 batters and is still a big-game pitcher for the Rays.
On the other side, Sabathia was just as dominant.
CC went for seven innings, allowing three hits and one run, walked four and struck out ten. Sabathia also did not factor into the decision because it was still 1-1.
Sabathia surpassed the 200 innings mark by hitting 206.1 innings with 177 strikeouts and a 3.40 ERA to go along with a 16-7 record.
Sabathia is making a strong case for the A.L. Cy Young Award while getting himself ready for a postseason run.
In the eighth inning, Phil Hughes continued his dominance as the setup man for the Yankees with a scoreless inning.
Lance Cormier was terrible for the Rays. He allows a sacrifice fly to Robinson Cano to give the Yankees the lead, Jorge Posada’s RBI double and Eric Hinske’s sacrifice fly made it 4-1 in favor of the Yankees.
Mariano Rivera returned from a short layoff with a groin injury to close out the ninth inning to get his 39th save and hold onto a 4-1 victory for the Yankees.
With this win and the Red Sox losing 5-1 to the White Sox, the Yankees lead in the A.L. East went back to 8 1/2 games.
Due to a June 5 rain out, the Yankees would play their second game of the night three hours later.
This time, it was A.J. Burnett up against Andy Sonnanstine. Both pitchers desperately needed a win.
In the top of the first, the Rays were making Burnett labor early, as he threw a lot of pitches. Longoria struck again for the Rays, hitting an RBI single to give Tampa a 1-0 lead in the first.
After not scoring in the first or second innings, the Yankees finally got to Sonnanstine.
Derek Jeter was looking to get hits, in hope of passing Lou Gehrig’s all time Yankee hit record of 2,721. Jeter had been stuck on 2,718 and went 0-for-4 in the first game. He hit into a fielder’s choice, but because of his hustling effort, was safe at first and tied the game at 1-1.
After Johnny Damon’s RBI single made it 2-1, Mark Teixeira stepped up and ripped a three-run home run to deep center field to make it 5-1 Yankees and they never looked back. The Yankees added three more runs in the inning off RBI singles from Melky Cabrera, Jerry Hairston, Jr. and Jose Molina.
Sonnanstine was awful on Monday night, going only 2 2/3 innings, allowing six hits and eight runs, walked three and only struck out one in his ninth loss of the season.
Burnett on the other hand returned to being a dominant pitcher in September.
Burnett went six strong innings, allowed four hits and one run, walked three and struck out eight to pick up the win.
Burnett is now 11-8 and picked up his first win since the end of July, which was against the same Rays in Tampa.
In the sixth inning, Teixeira hit a solo home run, his 35th of the season, Cabrera hit an infield RBI single and Hairston’s double play scored a run to make it 11-1 Yankees.
Edwar Ramirez pitched a scoreless seventh. Jonathan Albaladejo pitched a scoreless eighth. Then, rookie Michael Dunn, despite walking two batters, pitched a scoreless ninth and struck out two batters to end the game, holding onto the 11-1 lead for the Yankees.
The Yankees are now 89-50 on the season, while the Rays drop to 72-66.
The Yankees are now nine games over the Red Sox in the A.L. East and reduce their magic number to clinch the division to 16.
(In case anyone is wondering how the magic number thing works, the Yankees magic number to win the division is 16. If the Yankees win a game, the number goes down one. If the Red Sox lose a game, that number also goes down one until it reaches 0 and the Yankees win the division. It’s the same thing in all of the divisions in baseball.)
On Monday, Sabathia and Burnett pitched great games for the Yankees and stepped up against a desperate Rays team to beat them, while improving their status in the division.
The Rays are only six games above .500 and are not only falling out of the A.L. East race at 16 1/2 behind the Yankees, but are falling out of the Wild Card race. The Rays are 7 1/2 in back of the Red Sox, who are 2 1/2 up on the Rangers.
The Yankees on the other hand, are rolling towards their return to the postseason and are 39 games above .500.
As they continue to win and the Red Sox continue to stumble, the Yankees path to October is only getting clearer.
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