GREENE WINS & THE PLAY ON WORDS BEGIN

I read a ton of clever Greene "play of words" today. "Greene with envy" may have been my favorite.

Greene with Envy today...Great performance today by Shane Greene. I eagerly await his next performance! @Yankees @BleednYankeeBlu
— Luc Jacobson (@LucJacobson) July 12, 2014

Good work Luc.

I created the book above, and then realized that it had nothing to do with Shane Greene or Green Eggs & Ham specifically.  I just got carried away... lost in it. The truth is... when Greene pitches, he ends games in wins! Whatever man, I'm giddy. Actually, I think Yankeeland is giddy as well.  We won today with a guy no one really thought about as quote "dominant", but Greene has great stuff and impressed.

He has a ton of confidence...  he deserves a ton of credit for stepping up while the Yankees are down.  He's 2-0. He's picked up the Yanks as well as us fans.  I like that.

Today Greene went 7.1 innings, gave up 4 hits and zero runs.  Actually, the O's were shut out on a gorgeous day in Baltimore.  How do I know it was truly gorgeous there, while I was here? Jenn tweeted this to me...

Catching the Yanks in Baltimore. This is really quite a nice ballpark! Go #Yankees! @tclaro @Yankees @BleednYankeeBlu pic.twitter.com/ICNUnX6skm
— Jenn Westcott (@westcottjm7) July 12, 2014

I like when the BYB readers help me out. I makes my recaps so much more fun. Thanks Jenn.

Anyway, Greene combined with the pen, were lights out. David Robertson then shut down the O's and got the save... his 23rd of the season.

The Yankee bats went like this:

In the 3rd, Mark Teixeira doubled and knocked in Brett Gardner.  Derek Jeter ended up being tagged out at home. Give credit to Nick Markakis who relayed to Ryan Flaherty to Nick Hundley. Great play. 

In the 7th, Derek Jeter singled knocking in Kelly Johnson.  Shortly after that, Jacoby Ellsbury doubled... and Jeet scored.

Look, we didn't blow anyone out of the water with a 10 run 6th or anything, but we are scoring and we had enough today with the brilliance of Shane Greene and company.  Yankeeland is happy... I am too...

Greene ends with wins! Right? Maybe? No... OK, whatever... but we do feel good at least.

Final: Yankees 3 - Orioles 0

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IBANEZ HOMERS TWICE IN ANOTHER MAGICAL POSTSEASON WIN!

Momentum and major advantage in the 2012 ALDS were hanging in the balance as the Orioles and Yankees squared off in game three of this playoff series that was tied at 1-1 after two games in Baltimore.  If Charles Dickens was still around to recap the early innings of this game, he might have titled his story "A Tale of Two Pitchers."

 

Oriole rookie starter Miguel Gonzalez was dominant through seven innings and Hiroki Kuroda was almost as strong for the Yankees, but he teetered on the brink in innings three through five of his eight innings of work. 

The Orioles produced a run in the third on a HR off the bat of Ryan Flaherty.  They followed with a major threat in the fourth by sending six batters to the plate.  A hit, a walk, and hit batsman loaded the bases with Orioles, but Kuroda was able to retire Flaherty this time on a come-backer to the mound.  That was a significant moment in the game that could have been disastrous for the Yankees.  Kuroda yielded a second HR leading off the fifth.  This time Oriole youngster Manny Machado ripped a Kuroda pitch to left field for the Birds' second run of the game and a 2-1 Baltimore lead.

The Yankees had scored in the bottom of the third on a Russell Martin double and Derek Jeter RBI triple to center.  Oriole outfielder Adam Jones broke in on Jeter's ball and could not recover as the wind seemed to push the Jeter fly ball just out of his reach.  Martin's run produced a 1-1 tie after three innings.  Otherwise, the Yankee offense struggled against Gonzalez.  During his seven innings of work, Martin and Jeter each had two hits.  Unfortunately, the rest of the Yankee lineup went 1 for 20 against the Oriole starter!  Gonzalez really hit his stride in innings six and seven as he struck out five of the last six Yankee hitters he faced.  Gonzalez did not allow a run after the third inning.

Kuroda was almost as good.  He retired the last eleven batters he faced and allowed zero runs after the fifth. 

With one out in the ninth, things looked shaky for the Yankees.  Trailing 2-1 with Oriole relief ace Jim Johnson on the mound, the Birds were two outs away from their second win of the series.  At that juncture, Yankee manager Joe Girardi made a major decision.  He sent Raul Ibanez to the plate to pinch-hit for Alex Rodriguez.  Some of the media mavens acted shocked by Girardi's move in the post-game interviews, but it was an imminently logical move.  Girardi got the left-handed Ibanez up to bat for the struggling Rodriguez and got the lefty-righty match-up that Joe loves to see in the Stadium.

Girardi's move paid off in spades!  Ina very dramatic moment, Ibanez homered to tie the game at 2-2!  Both bullpens were strong in innings ten and eleven and David Robertson remained strong for the Yankees in inning twelve.  The Orioles were not so lucky.  Raul Ibanez led off the twelfth for New York and was facing lefty Brian Matusz who was beginning his second inning of work.

Ibanez produced a result that forever more labeled this Yankee win as the Raul Ibanez game.  In an even more dramatic moment than the ninth, Raul Ibanez slammed a second HR to right, this one into the second deck, that secured the Yankees second win in this ALDS series and staked the Yankees to a 2-1 lead heading into game four tomorrow.

In an odd twist, the Yankees finished the game without both Rodriguez and Jeter.  Jeter departed after the eighth inning with a foot injury that was evidently sustained on a foul ball off his foot early in the game.  Jeter assured Yankee fans that he would be available tomorrow but he was hobbled by a noticeable limp when he departed in the eighth.  Regardless, the Yankees have a chance to close out the series tomorrow as Phil Hughes takes the mound against the Orioles and Joe Saunders.

Wednesday's happy final:  New York 3  Baltimore 2.  New York leads the ALDS by two games to one.    

--Frank Gentry, BYB Writer

Twitter: @yankeefrank23

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