WISE BITES YANKS BACK. YANKEES LOSE 9-6

It was an emotional roller coaster of a game, with the lead going back and forth between the Yankees and the White Sox in the middle innings. However, the Yankee bullpen just could not keep the White Sox from scoring.

(In Photo: Dewayne Wise, right)
The game started out promising. Gavin Floyd had a rough outing, as the Yankee hitters got to him early. He allowed three runs in the first two innings as the Yankees were patient at the plate and played small ball. In the first, Derek Jeter singled, Nick Swisher singled, and Mark Teixeira singled in Jeter for the first run. After a Curtis Granderson walk, Eric Chavez hit into a fielder's choice to score the second run. They picked it up again in the second, with a Swisher single, a Robinson Cano single, a Teixeira walk, and a Granderson single brought Swisher. By the time he got pulled in the third, the Yankees had a 3-0 lead and Floyd faced 16 batters, retiring only six of them. Of the other 10 hitters, five got a single, 4 walked, and one was hit by a pitch.

The White Sox were not to be outdone, however. Starter Freddy Garcia looked brilliant for the first four innings. He struck out seven by that point, giving up only two hits and two walks while holding the Sox scoreless. But the wheels came off in the fifth, as Garcia just lost it.  He struck out Alexei Ramirez to lead off the inning, but that was the last batter he would retire.

After giving up a 2-run home run to former Yankee Dewayne Wise, Garcia gave up a single to Kevin Youkilis and walks to Adam Dunn and  Paul Konerko before finally being pulled for Cody Eppley. Eppley retired the only batter he faced - Alex Rios - but Youkilis scored on the play. Clay Rapada came in for one batter - A.J. Pierzynski - who singled in Dunn. Joba Chamberlain came in and gave up a single to Dayan Viciedo that scored Rios, and finally retired Alexei Ramirez to end the inning. The White Sox took a 5-3 lead, with all five runs charged to Garcia.

The Yankees came right back in the 6th, as Derek Jeter hit his 11th home run of the season over the left field wall, and the Yankees were within one. After a Nick Swisher walk and a pair of wild pitches from pitcher Hector Santiago, Mark Teixeira hit a bloop single to tie the game at 5. Then, with two outs and men on first and second, Casey McGehee put them ahead 6-5 with an RBI single that scored Robinson Cano.

Joba Chamberlain's struggles continued in the bottom of the sixth, as Gordon Beckham led off with a game-tying home run to make it 6-6. After striking out Dewayne Wise, he hit Youkilis in the back. I will let you decide if that was a good thing or not. Nevertheless, he was promptly pulled for Boone Logan, who struck out Adam Dunn and got Paul Konerko to ground out to end a potential rally.

Logan stuck around for the 7th inning, and gave up a go-ahead 2-run home run to Alexei Ramirez. The White Sox kept pouring it on, as Adam Dunn extended the lead to 9-6 with a homer in the eighth.

 Honorable mentions:

• The Captain, Derek Jeter, had a 4-hit night. This takes his season total to 167, which leads the majors. He also tied Eddie Murray on the all-time hit list with 3255. Wasn't his career in decline??? Ha!!
• Nick Swisher reached base four times, scoring twice.

• Mark Teixeira also had two hits and a walk, driving in 2 runs.
• Ichiro Suzuki got a base hit for the 22nd time in his 24 starts since joining the Yankees. Clearly, this trade is paying dividends.

Playing another division leader is always a good test to see how we might fare in October. This game was no exception. Where we gave up runs we also scored right back, showing that fighting spirit. However, the pitching really failed us tonight. Starters will occasionally have a bad night, and Freddy certainly had one, but more troubling is that every single pitcher out of the bullpen surrendered runs tonight. If I were tuning up for the playoffs, this would be my biggest area of concern. Nevertheless, tomorrow is another day and another game.

Final Score: White Sox 9, Yankees 6

--Ike Dimitriadis, BYB Writer
Twitter: @KingAgamemnon



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