Cleveland Indians defeat New York Yankees 5-3 – MLB Updates
The American League’s Cleveland Indians overpowered their league rivals and the current AL leader New York Yankees 5-3 in the rubber game of the three-game series, at Progressive Field, Cleveland on Wednesday, July 6 to take the series by 2-1.
The Indians’ starter and their batters combined to write this stunning defeat for the Yankees. Their starter Justin Masterson tossed a perfect eight innings in which he allowed only three hits and walked two. He tossed 73 strikes of 112 pitches to take six
batters and to earn his seventh win of the season with 2.66 ERA.
After beating the Cincinnati Reds on Friday, it was the second-straight win for the Masterson. Before his win against the Reds, Masterson has been struggling to get his momentum since April 26. However, his rebound has created some relief in his pitching
force and skill, remarked an expert.
The solid foundation that Masterson has laid down, the Indians’ batting line-up that had made just 22 runs in Masterson’s 11 struggling outing from April 26 to July 1, took full advantage and blistered five runs. They made two runs each in the first and
the eighth inning and one run in the seventh inning.
Travis Hafner and Carlos Santana each made an RBI single in the bottom of the first inning while Lonnie Chisenhall launched a 412-feet long one-run homer in the seventh inning. In the eighth, Carlos Santana achieved his second run of the game on a walk by
the Yankees’ reliever Sergio Mitre. Then Grady Sizemore hit a sacrifice fly to centre-field to set his team to a 5-0 shutout.
The Yankees however did not let them enjoy a lock-out as their right-fielder Nick Swisher, Jorge Posada and Russell each scored an RBI single to reduce the losing margin to 5-3.
The Yankees’ ace Phil Hughes made his return in a promising way, though he remained unable to get his win but he pitched some devastating fastballs over his five innings spell. After allowing two runs in the first innings, Hughes made exceptional rebound
and held the Indians in his later five innings. His performance shows how devastating he can be in the coming days, commented an expert.
Derek Jeter made his 2997th hit of his career and now is three runs shy to be one amongst those 28 players in the Major League history, who has scored 3000 or more hits in their career. He entered the field four times, in which he also struck
out, flied out and walked.
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