You're welcome, Tampa.
Cody Ransom smacked two homers, Brett Gardner drove in four and Bobby Abreu collected his 100th RBI of the season as the
Yanks thrashed the Red Sox 19-8 on a miserable, soggy night in Boston. Johnny Damon ripped his 17th dinger of the season and Robinson Cano finished with 5 ribbies. Alfredo Aceves started, but couldn't go the required five innings so the recipient of the offensive outburst was David Robertson. Robertson pitched two scoreless innings to improve to 4-0 on the year.
The Bombers win gave the Tampa Bay Rays their first-ever AL East Championship. Congrats guys, you deserved it.
Rain tried, tried and tried to end this game prematurely (two delays halted play for over two hours), but they got all nine innings in (eventually).
Derek Jeter was in the starting lineup for the first time since Sunday's Yankee Stadium finale, but left in the third inning with a sore hand. The Captain will most likely miss the final two games of the year.
And it turns out that
Mariano Rivera was pitching with a bum right shoulder all season. The Sandman may opt for a minor arthroscopic procedure to relieve inflammation and calcification.
"If I don't get surgery, then I have to deal with what I've been doing for
the last two years," Rivera said. "It's a decision that I have to make. I'm the
one who is pitching. If the best thing for me is to get the surgery, then I
will."
Rivera could continue to take cortisone injections to alleviate the soreness, but the surgery seems very low-risk. The rehab time for the procedure is a few weeks so everything should be hunky-dory by the time spring training rolls around.
Sidney Ponson (8-5, 5.21 ERA) will go against Daisuke Matsuzaka (18-2, 2.80 ERA) Saturday afternoon, weather permitting. Dice-K was scheduled to pitch Friday night, but the rain delay canceled those plans. David Pauley took his place as the emergency starter and was lit up.
If the Yanks win their final two games it will give them 90 wins on the season.
Yeah, I know. Big deal.
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