Javier Vazquez had thrown seven innings of one-hit ball yesterday, but he did so with a catch: The one hit was a two-run Vernon Wells home run in a then-scoreless game. Down to their final six outs, the Yankees would need to rally, or stick Vazquez with an awfully hard-luck loss. But maybe Vazquez’s luck really is starting to change.
The Yankees did rally in the eighth, thanks to Blue Jays manager Cito Gaston’s decision to use a dart board to determine which batters he’d pitch to and which he’d intentionally walk. At least, how else to explain the decision to walk Mark Teixeira (a man who, on June 7, is still not hitting his weight, and who’d struck out a ridiculous five times just a day earlier) to pitch to Alex Rodriguez, whose huge numbers after a Teixeira intentional walk have been well documented. Then, with first base open, he opted to pitch to Robinson Cano, perhaps the hottest hitter in the major leagues. He got away with the first decision, but not the second.
Cano’s two-run single broke a 2–2 tie to cap a four-run inning, and Vazquez went from hard-luck loser to deserved winner. After an otherwise disappointing series, and especially after what the Yankees starter went through for the first six weeks of the season, the phrase “Javier Vazquez, deserved winner” seems even more satisfying, doesn’t it?