The Yankees won again last night, 11-4, thanks to a big seventh inning and some hard-to-watch Cleveland pitching. In fact, in the time it took us to type that sentence, Joe Smith walked two more batters. The two-out rally in the seventh would begin with a Robinson Cano home run, and it wouldn’t stop until Cano grounded out to short, nine batters later, to end the inning, pretty much securing Dustin Moseley’s first win as a Yankee, as well as his spot in the rotation for the time being.
By that point, the Yankees had a 9-1 lead, which they’d extend to 11-1 an inning later. Only infielder Andy Marte could stop the bleeding out of the Indians “bullpen,” tossing a 1-2-3 ninth — an inning that included giving Nick Swisher a taste of his own medicine. And the game would devolve even further from there, thanks to Chan Ho Park’s pitching and Marcus Thames’s adventures at third base. Thank goodness Alex Rodriguez didn’t hit his 600th home run last night: This game being labeled a YES Network Yankees Classic would have sullied the good name of Yankees Classics.
The games this weekend promise to be a bit tighter: a three-game set in Tampa, a battle for first place, and the first time in the history of Tropicana Field that the Rays have sold out three consecutive games. The pennant race is on, and this particular chapter begins tonight with Phil Hughes against Wade Davis.