Yankees 14 – Rangers 13
Yankee fans can wail about injuries to Gary Sheffield, Hideki Matsui and Jason Giambi.
What, you think the Yankees are the only team that gets hurt?
“During 162 games you take what comes,” Joe Torre said yesterday.
“We still rely on our pitching.” Working without his three sluggers, Torre asked Shawn Chacon the to give his revamped lineup a chance against the muscular Rangers last night. Instead, Chacon was shelled and didn’t make it out of the second inning.
After going down nine runs in the second inning the Yankees crawled back on a three-run homer by Derek Jeter, a clutch two-run single by Miguel Cairo and a tworun homer by Jorge Posada with two outs in the bottom of the ninth that carried the Yankees to a pulsating, 14-13, victory in front of 40,757 at Yankee Stadium.
Posada smoked a 3-1 pitch from closer Akinori Otsuka over the right-field wall for his sixth homer.
The blast made a winner out of Mariano Rivera (1-2), who had given up a run in the top of the ninth and was two strikes away from a loss.
Torre’s lineup was able to escape a 9-0 ditch after Rangers batted twice to take an 11-10 lead in the sixth. However, Scott Proctor flushed that by giving up a two-run homer to Brad Wilkerson in the seventh.
Errors on consecutive plays by first baseman Mark Teixeira and catcher Rod Barajas to start the seventh put Johnny Damon on third and Derek Jeter aont first with no outs and Alex Rodriguez against Rick Bauer. A-Rod’s dribbler moved Jeter to second but failed to score Damon.
Posada’s fly to left plated Damon to tie the score, 12-12, and move Jeter to third. Bauer was replaced by lefty Ron Mahay to face Robinson Cano. He walked but Williams forced Cano at second to end the inning.
Rivera gave up a run in ninth when Rod Barajas’ broken-bat double scored pinch-runner Adrian Brown with the deciding run.
Rangers first baseman Mark Teixeira went 4-for-5.
Chacon lasted but 1 1/3 innings, gave up eight runs (seven earned), six hits, walked two, hit a batter and was heavily booed when replaced by Aaron Small.
Jeter’s three-run homer in the sixth cut the deficit to 10-8 and put Chacon within two runs of spitting out an “L.” Williams’ RBI double made it a one-run game and Miguel Cairo’s two-out, two-run single put the Yankees ahead, 11-10.
Proctor, easily the Yankees’ best reliever this year, walked Kevin Mench on four pitches to start the seventh and Wilkerson hit the next pitch into the right-field bleachers for a 12-11 lead.
The Yankees scored one in the second, two in third and two more in the fifth when they cut the deficit to 10-5 and denied Ranger starter John Koronka the victory.
Koronka was removed with two outs and two in the fourth, one out away from qualifying for what would have been is fifth win in six decisions. Instead, Buck Showalter called for righty Scott Feldman to face Miguel Cairo and he fanned for the final out.
The crowd buzzed in the sixth when Teixeira attempted to separate Posada’s head from his shoulders at the plate.
Teixeira was on first with his fourth hit when Blalock doubled into the right-field corner where Melky Cabrera bobbled the ball.
Jeter took Cabrera’s throw and fired a two-hopper to Posada who was blocking the plate. The ball arrived ahead of Teixeira and with Posada blocking the dish Teixeira had one chance and that was to lower his left shoulder into Posada’s head. The blow knocked Posada back but he held onto the ball and Teixeira was called out as the crowd roared.
It was Cabrera’s second assist of the game and fourth in the last three tilts.
Small provided 4 1/3 innings out of the pen in which he gave up two runs and six hits.
When Jeter walked to start the fifth it was the first free pass drawn by the Yankees since the fourth inning of Saturday’s tilt when Damon walked.
