Matsui's Birthday Grand Slam Lifts Yankees Over Athletics
ideki Matsui hit a grand slam on his 34th birthday to help Andy Pettitte move into a tie for fourth place on the New York Yankees career wins list with a 4-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday night.
Pettitte (6-5) bounced back from giving up a career high-tying 10 runs last Saturday against Kansas City to shut down the A's and tie Ron Guidry with his 170th victory with New York. Pettitte allowed one run and five hits in a season-high eight innings.
That's the kind of performance the Yankees had been missing from Pettitte of late. After opening the season with three wins in his first four starts, Pettitte has struggled the past seven weeks. Expected to be an anchor of the staff, he was 2-4 with a 6.20 ERA in nine starts heading into this game and a big reason why the Yankees have been so inconsistent this season.
The worst of those starts came last Saturday, when the Royals battered him for 10 runs in 6 2-3 innings before New York rallied to a 12-11 win.
There proved to be no carry-over from that game. Pettitte helped the Yankees (34-33) move back over .500 by winning their first road series since taking two of three from the Chicago White Sox on April 22-24.
In a curious situation in the ninth inning, Pettitte came out to warm up even though closer Mariano Rivera had started running in from the bullpen. After Pettitte warmed up, manager Joe Girardi came out and replaced him with Rivera, who earned his 18th save in 18 chances.
Rivera has saved 52 of Pettitte's wins, three shy of tying the record held by Dennis Eckersley for Bob Welch with Oakland, according to the Elias Sports Bureau.
Joe Blanton (3-9) held the Yankees scoreless through five innings, allowing only one runner to reach third base. Derek Jeter then opened the sixth with an infield single that second baseman Mark Ellis knocked down but couldn't control. Blanton then uncharacteristically walked Bobby Abreu and Alex Rodriguez to load the bases and appeared upset with umpire Paul Nauert's strike zone.
Matsui then drove a 1-1 pitch over the right-field wall for his seventh home run of the season to give the Yankees a 4-1 lead.
That proved to be more than enough to deal Blanton another loss at the Coliseum. He allowed four runs and six hits in 6 2-3 innings to drop to 1-7 in 10 starts here this season.
Oakland got on the board first on an RBI single by Carlos Gonzalez in the second inning, but that's all the A's could manage in what is becoming a familiar pattern. Oakland has been held to less than two runs 11 times in the past 40 games. Oakland has scored more than half of its runs (89 of 173) in just eight games in that stretch.
Notes:@ Matsui has five career grand slams. ... The A's have lost eight of their last 10 series. ... The Yankees hadn't won a series in Oakland since September 2005. ... The A's signed second-round pick Tyson Ross to a contract Thursday. The right-hander, who starred in college at California and grew up in the Bay Area, threw a bullpen session at the Coliseum before the game.
06/13/2008 12:44 AM
By JOSH DUBOW
AP Sports Writer
OAKLAND, Calif.
New York Yankees' Hideki Matsui, of Japan, right, is congratulated by teammate Derek Jeter, left, after Matsui hit a grand slam homerun off Oakland Athletics' Joe Blanton during the sixth inning of a baseball game Thursday, June 12, 2008, in Oakland, Calif.
(AP Photo/Ben Margot)
ideki Matsui hit a grand slam on his 34th birthday to help Andy Pettitte move into a tie for fourth place on the New York Yankees career wins list with a 4-1 victory over the Oakland Athletics on Thursday night.
