by Diane Firstman
To honor Hideki Matsui, this recap of the Yanks/Angels game of 4/23/10 will be presented in 5/7/5 form:
Pre-game
Yankees and Angels
First of three at The Big A
A.J., Ervin, Ks!
Bottom 1st
A.J. Burnett wild
Walks Erick Aybar on pitch
That reached the backstop
AJ then wheels and
Catches Aybar trying steal
Who needs Posada?
Bobby Abreu
Jealous of Matsui-love
Shown by former team?
Abreu doubles
He states “No walls were hurt in
making of this hit”
Next, Torii Hunter . . .
Swisher slides for liner, but
Can’t hold it, two on
Matsui lines out
But then Kendry Morales
Chops a pitch, hang time!
Mark Teixiera waits
And waits . . . and waits for it to
Come down . . . But too late
Abreu scores run
AJ gets Juan Rivera
To fly out to right
Top 2nd
Santana is sharp
Through two frames only one hit
(A-Rod line single)
Bottom 2nd
Maicer Izturis
Brings Yankees only tsuris
Singles past A-Rod
Kendrick named “Howard”?
He flies out to warning track
Burnett not fooling
Who’s Bobby Wilson?
All Angel catchers must have
Six letters in names?
Napoli is one
Mathis is another one
Who cares? Wilson Ks
Tsuris stole second
While Wilson was striking out
But Aybar ends threat
Top 3rd
Swisher pops to short
Gardner lines hit down left field
First double of year!
Jeter mirrors Brett
Dumps double down right field line
Tying game at 1
Johnson K’s, close pitch
Teix hit on elbow (again?)
Takes first base, two on
Alex rips a hit
Past Izturis, a single
Jeter scores, 2-1.
Teix now at second
Cano drives score truck, singles
Teix charges round third…
Plate was his to have
Wilson was out front, up line
Teix plowed over him
Wilson groggy, hurt
Was assisted off the field
No weight on left leg
That made it 3-1
Posada popped out to short
Could A.J. hold lead?
Bottom 3rd
Up stepped Abreu
He doubles again, off wall
Hunter lines to third
Alex snares it, throws
Off mark, Hunter runs into
Teix no harm no foul
Now its first and third
Matsui up, AJ gets
A pitcher’s best friend
4-6-3 DP
Run scores, can Burnett escape?
No, Kendry gets plunked
Rivera doubles
High off right-centerfield wall
Tie game now . . . field goals?
Tsuris adds to woes
He doubles, Angels 4-3
Pins in A.J. dolls
Burnett finally
Gets third out of the inning
On Kendrick groundout
Top 4th
With one out, Swisher
Goes yard, deep to dead center
Second of season
After second out
Jeter singles, owns Ervin
Johnson dumps single
Yes, a hit for Nick
Breaking 0 for 21
Who needs aggressive?
Angels get revenge
On Teix, as he watches pitch
For strike three, three out
Bottom 4th
Napoli leads off
(6-letter swap of catchers)
He gets plunked . . . a trend?
Aybar, Abreu
And Hunter . . . none of them gets
Ball out of infield
Top 5th
Yankees are jealous
Of last three Angels at-bats
Go three up three down
Top 6th
Still 4-all, quiet?
Pitchers finally settled?
Nope, Granderson walks
And since we haven’t
Had one in what, three batters?
Swisher gets hit too
Gardner squares to bunt
Rizzuto turns in his grave
As Brett pops it up
Bottom 6th
Tsuris and Kendrick
Continue the recent trend
Igor? More groundouts!
Napoli obeys
Fetches another groundout
A.J. is happy!
Top 7th
Meet Kevin Jepsen
But no, Jane is not his wife
He’s the new pitcher
Bottom 7th
Pitch 103 ends
Burnett’s night, as Abreu
Works walk with one out
Rally monkeys out
David Robertson? He’s in
Abreu tries steal
Posada pegs throw
Nails Abreu, so much for
That Rally Monkey
Robertson fires
Hunter flails at the high heat
We’re still tied at 4
Top 8th
Scioscia’s set-up man
Fernando Rodney comes in
Two quick outs ensue
Gardner works a walk
Jeter works his at-bat hard,
Give Gardner a chance
Brett complies, steals base
Jeter, on Rodney’s eighth pitch
Taps back to the box
Bottom 8th
Girardi makes move
But why bring in Joba now?
Morales owns him
Matsui first up
Knocks a hard single, Willits
In to pinch-run now
Morales lifetime
4 of 6 versus Joba
Can you guess outcome?
I don’t think the ball
Has landed yet, no doubter
Rivera singles
Joba yells in glove
Joba? That won’t solve problem!
I’d blame Girardi
Top 9th
Fuentes on to close
Thames pinch-hits for Nick Johnson
Why? Need baserunners!
Three pitches, goodbye
Teix flies out to right and its
Up (down?) to A-Rod
A lazy flyout
Rally Monkeys roaming free
This one stings a bit
Summary
Burnett’s offspeed stuff
Was missing first three innings
But AJ battled
Only hit, walk, plunk
In his last three-plus innings
Robertson lights out
Santana also
Settled after shaky start
Relievers did job
Yankees held hitless
Last five and a third innings
But had some chances
These originally appeared on the blog Bronx Banter.
Posted 5/11/2010