Nick Swisher is perfectly suited for the All-Star Game’s “Final Vote” process: He’s game for whatever wacky campaign skit the Yankees would like to put him in — here, Nick, grab this surfboard — and he’s an active Twitter user, so he can count on the support of his 1.2 million followers (not to mention a whole bunch of random famous people). But last night, on his final campaign stop before voting ends this afternoon, Swisher made a convincing argument for his inclusion, not with his mouth, or with his iPhone, but with his bat.
He collected three hits — a single, a double, and a home run — and added a walk in a 6–2 Yankees win that completed a sweep of Oakland. Mark Teixeira — who’s finally starting to resemble Mark Teixeira — actually delivered the biggest blow with a three-run homer in the fourth, which alone would have been enough support for A.J. Burnett, who allowed two runs over seven innings. (It’s a good sign for a team when two runs over seven innings qualifies as the statistically weakest outing by a starting pitcher in a given series.)
Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter provided the night’s levity with their gigglefest after Rodriguez fell down attempting to grab a catchable foul pop-up. These are the kinds of things you can do when you’re 22 games over .500 and can claim the best record in baseball.