Burnett’s Pitching, Yankee Homers Make Tigers  Sick

GAME 2
YANKEES 10, TIGERS 6
A.J. Burnett entered Saturday’s game battling a head cold but it was his pitching and the Yankees relentless power that made the Tigers sick.
Burnett pitched a solid five innings and Mark Teixeira, Russell Martin and Alex Rodriguez hit home runs as New York demolished Detroit pitching for another victory at Yankee Stadium.
Burnett (1-0) gave up three runs on five hits and a walk and he struck out six to earn the victory. The Yankees bashed Brad Penny (0-1) for eight runs on seven hits and four walks in 4 1/3 innings. Mariano Rivera retired Miguel Cabrera with the tying run on deck in the ninth to earn his second save of the season.
The Yankees have clinched the three-game season-opening series with the Tigers.
PINSTRIPE POSITIVES
  • Burnett overcame his illness to pitch a very gutty game. He was touched for a solo home run by Austin Jackson in the third inning and an RBI single by Alex Avila and an RBI groundout by Will Rhymes in the fifth inning. Burnett threw 86 pitches and 56 were strikes.
  • Teixiera is serving notice that he is not going to slump this April. In the second inning he connected for his second three-run home run in as many games. Last season he had only five RBIs in all of April. This season he has six RBIs in his first two games.
  • Martin is showing signs he may be returning to his Silver Slugger form of 2007. He blasted a three-run shot of his own in the fifth inning. He also had a solid game behind the plate blocking Burnett’s breaking pitches in the dirt.
  • In two games, Rodriguez is 3-for-5 with two doubles, a home run, three runs scored and two RBIs. He also has drawn three walks. It is just an extension of his very hot spring in which he hit .388. with six home runs and 15 RBIs.
NAGGING NEGATIVES
  • The bullpen did not exactly excel in keeping the Tigers down once the lead reached 9-3. Luis Ayala surrendered a two-run home run to Victor Martinez in the eighth inning and Boone Logan, not helped by a Eduardo Nunez throwing error, gave up a walk and a hit to begin the ninth that plated an unearned run and forced manager Joe Girardi to summon Rivera out of the bullpen.
  • Everybody in the starting lineup contributed at least one hit except for Nick Swisher, who was 0-for-4. However, Swisher did knock in a run in the first inning on a sacrifice fly.
  • Nunez was brought in the game in the seventh inning as a pinch-hitter for Derek Jeter. His  throwing error on a routine two-out grounder by Ryan Raburn allowed the sixth run to score and forced Rivera into the game with the the tying run on deck. Nunez was chosen as the backup middle infielder because he is a better hitter and base-runner than Ramiro Pena. But Pena is the superior defensive player. The Yankees missed Pena’s steady defense on that play.
BOMBER BANTER
General manager Brain Cashman lashed out at the New York Mets for the way they used left-hander Pedro Feliciano the past three seasons. Cashman called it “abusive.” Feliciano, who is currently on the Yankees’ 15-day disabled list with a left rotator cuff strain, was used in 266 games over the past three seasons with the Mets. Mets pitching coach Dan Warthen even admitted the Mets were reluctant to re-sign Feliciano, 34, because of the amount of times they used him. But he also fired back by saying that Cashman was aware of Feliciano’s use when he signed him to a two-year, $8 million deal. Feliciano has not pitched since March 9 and is not expected back until late April or early May.  . . .  Joe Garagiola Jr., Major League Baseball’s senior vice president of standards and field operations warned the Yankees on Saturday about a ban on notifying on-deck hitters of pitch types and speeds. The Yankee Stadium radar gun speeds that displays on the scoreboard was not operating properly on Thursday so Brett Weber, a coaching assistant seated in the stands used hand signals to indicate pitch speeds to Yankee on-deck hitters. Cashman downplayed the controversy, saying he expected no disciplinary action. Cashman claims there was no real advantage gained by the information Wallace was signaling.
ON DECK
The Yankees will look for an Opening Series sweep on Sunday against the shell-shocked Tigers, who have given up 16 runs on 17 hits and nine walks in two games.
The Yankees will send 24-year-old right-hander Phil Hughes (18-8, 4.19 ERA) to the mound for his 2011 debut. Hughes is 4-2 with a 3.69 ERA lifetime against the Tigers.
The Tigers will start 26-year-old right-hander Max Scherzer (12-11, 3.50 ERA). Scherzer is 1-0 with a 0.00 ERA in his career against the Yankees.
Game-time will be 1:05 p.m. EDT and will be telecast the YES Network.

Leave a comment