The Yankees not only had to overcome the absence of Alex Rodriguez yesterday against the Twins, they needed to make up for the handicap that Kei Igawa has developed into.
Thanks to homers by Melky Cabrera, Robinson Cano and the game-winner from Hideki Matsui that complemented superb bullpen work, the Yankees copped a 7-6 win witnessed by 52,471 at a muggy Yankee Stadium.
Rodriguez, who had his left hamstring tested in the Carl Pavano Memorial MRI tube earlier in the day, sat out the slugfest. The Yankees only wish they could find a way to idle Igawa, a $46 million bust.
Though Matsui’s two-run blast traveled three-fourths the way up into the right-field bleachers in the eighth inning, he wasn’t the only Japanese player to connect. Frustrated about his five-inning effort in which he allowed five runs, seven hits and three walks, Igawa took a bat to both sides of his locker and did considerable damage to the wood.
That boorish act will cost Igawa money but his brutal outing didn’t doom the Yankees, who took three of four from the Twins, one of the five teams ahead of them in the wild-card race. The Tigers lead the Yankees by 8½ games.
“After winning the first two games, it was enormously important for us to win the game today,” said Joe Torre, who inserted Matsui into Rodriguez’s cleanup spot.
Igawa, whose ERA is a bloated 7.14, put the Yankees in a 2-0 ditch in the first that was erased by five Yankees runs in the second. Cano homered with the bases clear and two outs. Andy Phillips, whom Torre anointed his regular first baseman, doubled and scored on Miguel Cairo’s double. Johnny Damon drew a walk and Cabrera launched a 0-2 pitch from Kevin Slowey over the right-field fence for a three-run homer.
After working around a one-out walk in the third, Igawa gave up three runs and the lead in the fourth.
“It was not good,” Igawa said.
Fortunately for the Yankees, the bullpen provided four shutout innings. The most tension was produced by Mariano Rivera in the ninth when he surrendered singles to Luis Rodriguez and Jason Kubel leading off the inning. With runners on first and third, Rivera fanned Jason Bartlett with a 0-2 fastball as pinch-runner Jason Tyner swiped second. Rivera traded a run for an out by getting Joe Mauer to hit a 93-mph fastball to Derek Jeter. With Tyner on second representing the potential tying run, Rivera punched out a check-swinging Michael Cuddyer on a 3-2 fastball clocked at 95 mph.
It was Rivera’s 424th save and tied him with ex-Met John Franco for third place on the all-time save list.
The MRI exam on Rodriguez’s leg was negative. Torre plans to play him at third base tonight. Though the Yankees shouldn’t make a habit of playing without the most lethal bat in baseball, they survived it for a day.
“His presence is important to the lineup,” said Matsui, who fouled off a 3-0 pitch before homering on a 3-1 fastball from sidearming right-hander Pat Neshek. “Him not being there, it was great for everybody else to contribute to a win.”
“We knew we had to pick it up and go at it harder, and that’s what we did,” said Cabrera, who went 3-for-5 and is riding a 10-for-21 (.476) hot streak that has raised his average to .272.
Now, the Angels arrive in The Bronx. They are a team that gives the Yankees fits anywhere. But Rodriguez is expected back and, most importantly, Igawa will not get anywhere near the mound.
