Los Angeles Angels defeat New York Yankees 6-4 in series-opener – MLB Update
The Los Angeles Angels won the stunning competition with the American League’s tough team New York Yankees 6-4 in the first outing of the three-game series at Yankee Stadium, on Tuesday, August 9.
Bobby Abreu showed to the criticisers his class with a game deciding hit against the Yankees’ closer Mariano Rivera in the top of the ninth inning. The 37-year-old giant slugger entered the plate with bases load and hammered a 377-feet long two-run homer
to finalise the game at a 6-4 win.
"It's unbelievable," Abreu said. "You never expect as a hitter you're going to hit a homer against Mariano."
Bobby had already launched a game opening homer against the Yankees’ starter Allan James Burnett in the sixth inning. He played his first multi-homer game this season and sixteenth of his career. A former Yankee, Abreu had a pleasant time with his ex-team
mates when rain stopped the batting practice in the golf cart outside the Angels’ clubhouse.
Rivera, who lost his second game of the season due to this hit, was not worried at all, but this hit made him think about his tossing technique.
The Angels were trailing 1-0 until the sixth inning, but as Bobby opened the game, their batters including Jeff Mathis and Peter Bourjos joined hands with Abreu to pile up four lead taking runs in the sixth.
Curtis Granderson launched a dazzling one-run homer for the Yankees in the first inning and was eager to participate in some more runs. After Abreu has taken the Angels into a 6-4 lead, Granderson strived hard to steal an RBI double but got out by the Angels’
Jordan Walden. Walden tossed a perfect ninth to get his 26th win of the season.
"I was trying to get to second base. The odds are you never really see too many teams do that too many times in an inning," Granderson said. "So the odds are he's probably not going to do it again. There are two strikes and I don't have too many options
to get to second base."
Derek Jeter became the cause of the tie in the seventh inning when he singled to centre to allow Erik Nunez and Brett Gardner to score.
The Yankees’ starter Dan Haren allowed four runs on six hits in just over six innings while the Angels’ Burnett performed in similar fashion as he also allowed four runs but on seven hits and in six innings.
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