THE YANKEES COME ALIVE TO ROAR IN THE BRONX

A pitching duel between the top two offenses in the American League? That is exactly what happened tonight between the Yankees and the Texas Rangers. The teams that rank #1 and #2 in runs scored, slugging, and OPS, were unable to push a run across home plate until the bottom of the seventh. The Rangers were unable to get a runner to second base until the top of the seventh when Elvis Andrus got the Rangers' first hit of the game, and the Yankees did not have much life in their bats until the bottom of the seventh.

 

Hiroki Kuroda, the de facto ace of the staff because of injuries to CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte, had a fantastic performance tonight. He threw the first complete-game shutout of the season for Yankees for his 11th win. He was so dominant, he carried a no-hitter into the seventh, recorded 17 of the 21 put outs in the field to ground balls, and struck out 5. It is worth noting that he allowed only four base runners to the team that leads the majors in batting average. His pitches had excellent movement, he varied his velocity well, and his location was near-perfect.

Matt Harrison did well for his part in the game. He pitched 6 1/3 innings, and held the Yankees scoreless during his time on the mound. He looked a little shaky at the beginning of the game, with all three walks attributed to him coming in the 2nd and 3rd innings. He settled down after that, giving up five hits in all, and retiring eight Yankees in a row at one point. Unfortunately for him, he handed the ball and an inherited runner over to Alexi Ogando.

Ogando's outing started with a 2-run home run to Nick Swisher. That was the 201st home run of his career, his 16th of the season, and his second in as many nights. Swisher's bat is going to be key in facing a team that is arguably the biggest concern that the Yankees will have in the postseason. Mark Teixeira followed Swisher, taking a 99 mph offering from Ogando over the right field wall for his 23rd home run of the season.

Tonight's game was critical to the morale and mindset of the Yankees. Winning the first two games of this series showed that they could play well against a legitimate playoff team. Further, the fact that their pitching is holding down a red-hot Rangers team, which scored about 6.5 runs per game in August coming into this series, at a time when key pitchers are unable to play due to injury, and to hold them to two runs over two games, is huge. Finally, in a stretch where the Yankees are only getting 2 more days off until the end of the month, resting the bullpen the way Kuroda did tonight and David Phelps / Derek Lowe did last night will be critical going into September.

Final Score: Yankees 3 - Rangers 0

--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon



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