TOP OF THE RIVALRY. ICHIRO & KURODA DO DAMAGE

Hiroki Kuroda answered his near perfect game in grand style last night against the rival Red Sox. He has been nothing but a second ace for the Yankees this season. Incredible! He has had a special second half for the Yanks and has filled in for top ace CC Sabathia various times. Kuroda yet again was sharp:
8IP, 4H, 1 R.

Derek Jeter started off the bottom of the 1st with a double and later in the inning Curtis Granderson scored him with a RBI double. Small ball, I love that! Next at bat for Jeter he had another double and Swisher would follow him with a walk. They would both advance on a double steal and Jeter later scored on a pass ball. Ichiro showed off his power in the 4th by launching a home run in the second deck in right for a home run to put the Yankees up 3-0. Eric Chavez and Raul Ibanez foiled a bases loaded rally in the 5th via a pop-out and fly-out. Ichiro would come back in style his next at bat with his second home run of the game to give the Yankees a 4-0 lead. Ichiro would greet the crowd with a curtain call. Kuroda's shutout would come to an end in the 7th as Adrian Gonzalez broke it up with a home run to right. He would bounce back to get out of the 7th inning and would work a 1-2-3 8th inning to get his 12th win of the season. Rafael Soriano came in and did his job. It got sketchy to start it off as Carl Crawford started the inning off with a single. But Soriano got Dustin Pedroia to hit into a double play and then he got Gonzalez to strike out to end the game.

Key Players of the Game: Hiroki Kuroda and Ichiro will take home the BYB co-players of the game as Kuroda worked 8 strong and Ichiro blasted 2 home runs.

Key Point of the Game: Eric Chavez popping out with the bases loaded is my key point of the game. If he had gotten an RBI the lead could of been a lot bigger then it was. We're not slamming him, we love Chavez, but it's a big moment.

Final:  Yankees 4 - Red Sox 1

W: Hiroki Kuroda (12-8) L: Josh Beckett (5-11) S: Soriano (31)

Finally, and this is just damn cool so we need to mention it; Our Friends over at the Facebook page House of Champions became stars last night in the post game.  Jessica Noonan and Rudy Laurens had their Facebook comments read on the YES Network.  here's the screen grab below:

Congrats guys! You gotta love the Yankees family.

--Sam Thaler, BYB Contributor
Twitter: @samt1836


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