Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter honor Steinbrenner with a New York
Yankees win over Tampa Bay Rays
The New York Yankees honored the late George Steinbrenner at their stadium’s monument park, yesterday as the team prepared to take on Tampa Bay Rays in their series’ opener at the Tropicana Field.
George was given an honorable tribute that involved setting up a 7 by 5 foot monument behind the Yankees Stadium fence. He joined the ranks of Miller Higgins, Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and Joe DiMaggio on the platform. The former NYY owner had
earlier passed away on 13th July, 2010 at the age of 80. Known for his performance based incentives and punishment schemes, the former head of the Yankees’ board usually took no advice when it came to firing a failing manager.
Derek Jeter and the rest of the squad had a good view of the historic moment while they later went into the game against the Rays, focused and prepared. The Yankees had been on the task to best their opponents in the league. Unfortunately, the recent series
loss to the Baltimore Orioles saw a cut down on the ball club’s long term objective. Their visit to Tampa Bay wasn’t going to be an easy affair altogether. The fact that many saw the team leading by just half a game point meant that pressure was present in
the camp.
But, even then that never seemed to be creeping up in the game as everyone from the squad displayed their individual prowess. The new pitcher, Ivan Nova, delivered a stunning performance, given his recent rise to the league with the Yanks. The 23-year-old
delivered 79 pitches while conceding 3 hits and 3 runs in his 5.2 innings of play.
Meanwhile, Tampa Bay appeared to have an entirely different motive, altogether as they walked into the encounter, looking for a much needed win with the purpose being to head the American League East Division. But that never happened due to the fact that
Matt Garza, who had starred for the side on the mound for the 30th time in the season, wasn’t able to end his losing streak to the Yankees. His figures went up to 9 losses in a row while the hosts crashed out, trailing a 2 run lead. The ball thrower
conceded 8 hits and 7 runs in his 5 innings.
It looked as if the Yanks were up to the task of giving the hosts a hard run for their bid with the action taking a heated turn during the bottom 3rd. Curtis Granderson had a point to prove in the fixture and the intent was made clear to the Rays
when the hitter pounced on Garza to get himself off to a run, guiding Francisco Cervelli in for one too. This got the visitors to two runs but much more came in the bottom 5th as Cervelli scored again off Alex Rodriguez, this time. Rod had a bases
full situation to deal with. He banged a sacrifice fly to the left for the run. Derek got on the score sheet in the inning when Nick Swisher walked.
The Yanks were now 4 – 0 up and the Tampa Bay Rays made it 4-all in the top 6th, courtesy of good hitting. Nova got a scare in the inning as the novice ball thrower saw his catcher interfere in a Carl Crawford single, which led to Jason Bartlett
scoring the first for Tampa Bay. John Jaso made it 2 for the ball club off Evan Longoria’s grounder into second play. Boone Logan came in to fill the pitching plate and got a sharp reply from the hosts as Ben Zobrist crossed the last base off Dan Johnson’s
single. B. J. Upton then got a walk in the latter half of the inning, which resulted in Johnson’s score.
With this, both teams were leveled and things looked a bit dynamic. The Yankees scored 4 in the bottom 6th and Jeter started the rout with a Runs Batted In single to the centre. Brett Gardner scored from the hit and this got the team back up.
However, that wasn’t going to end the night as Granderson homered 396 feet to the right. The stunning hit got Cervelli and Jeter to three runs.
Now, as the Yankees led the match with 4 runs, the Rays replied in the top 7th when Longoria’s sacrifice fly hit to the centre got Jaso to score. Longoria pioneered another run but it came too late while the Rays crashed at 8 – 6 by the end of
the game. Zobrist scored the last run off Evan’s single to the shallow right.
Finally, the game ended with Jeter tying Mickey Mantle for the 3rd most runs in Yankees’ history. For Granderson, the game meant that he made it iconic for Steinbrenner, who would have always loved a game like this.
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