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A-Rod, Nady bail out Rivera as Yankees snap four-g
PA SportsTicker
Wed, 13 Aug 2008 04:24:00 GMT |
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MINNEAPOLIS (Ticker) -- Alex Rodriguez had seen enough of the
unexpected. It was time for him to deliver as many of the New
York Yankees faithful expect him.
Rodriguez snapped a tie with a solo homer in the 12th inning and
Xavier Nady added a two-run shot as the Yankees snapped a
four-game skid with a 9-6 victory over the Minnesota Twins on
Tuesday.
Johnny Damon had three hits, including his 24th career leadoff
homer for New York (64-56), which trails Boston (69-51) by 5 1/2
games in the wild card race. The Red Sox beat Texas on Tuesday,
and the Yankees avoided falling farther behind thanks to
Rodriguez.
With one out, the reigning American League MVP connected for his
27th homer, a 426-foot blast to center field off of reliever
Matt Guerrier (6-6).
Two batters later, Nady followed with his
19th of the season and sixth as a Yankee. He also had a two-run
double in the fourth, giving him 17 RBI in 16 games since being
acquired from Pittsburgh.
"I think we hit into five double plays today. (Mariano Rivera)
gives up three runs, you see things when you're going through
struggles like we are right now that you never really see
before," Rodriguez said. "You really come to expect the
unexpected. To that point, you know you just have to battle
back."
The three-run 12th made a winner of Jose Veras (3-1), who struck
out two in two perfect innings. Edwar Ramirez tossed a perfect
12th to earn his first save in three chances.
Before his homer, Rodriguez was 0-for-5 and 5-for-32 on the road
trip. For his career, he is hitting .333 with 41 home runs
against Minnesota - the most homers for Rodriguez against any
team.
"I hit the ball good all night," Rodriguez said. "I liked the
way I've been taking my pitches, what counts. I have been
hitting a lot of rockets to third base. (Hitting coach) Kevin
Long just said, really focus on hitting the ball up the middle
and focus on hitting the ball in the air that way."
The blast bailed out closer Rivera, who blew his first save in
29 chances - the third-longest streak in history to open a
season. He had converted 57 of his last 59 save opportunities
dating to last season.
The Twins trailed, 6-3, before rallying in the eighth. Mark
Redmond led off the frame with a double and pinch hitter Randy
Ruiz chased Damaso Marte with a single. Rivera entered and
Delmon Young greeted him by belting an 0-2 fastball over the
right field wall for a game-tying, three-run homer.
"Delmon hitting the big three-run homer, that was pretty doggone
exciting," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "It's just
unfortunate that we couldn't come up with another run after
that."
"I made a mistake, the ball caught too much of the plate,"
Rivera said. "Hopefully, it goes foul. It didn't go foul, we
still have to battle."
Young's homer spoiled another great outing from Mike Mussina,
who allowed three runs and eight hits in seven innings.
Yankees captain Derek Jeter had three hits, including an RBI
single in the fifth inning, but was lifted in the ninth inning
for a pinch runner. New York manager Joe Girardi said Jeter had
a bruised in-step after fouling a ball off his left foot. The
shortstop is expected to play in the finale of the three-game
series on Wednesday.
Adam Everett drove in two runs for the Twins (66-53), who fell
one-half game behind the Chicago White Sox (66-52) in the
American League Central.
"Seems like every time we get in first, the next day we wind up
losing and they win and they are back in first place," Everett
said. "We have ran into some tough luck and some pretty good
teams as well. We still have a lot of season left."
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