New York Yankees 2011 MLB Regular Season journey – Part 1
The New York Yankees had a dominating 2011 regular season. Below is a review of the exciting games and their journey to the post-season.
Yankees take opening series 2-1 over Detroit Tigers
Inconsistent but valuable Spring Training has passed and the New York Yankees entered into 2011 regular season opening three-game series with the Detroit Tigers at Yankees Stadium. As the Yankees were heading to take on their old rivals, outside the park
scenario was unimaginable. Almost the entire stadium was full with the spectators in all of the three outings.
The Yankees snatched the series 2-1 and extended their opening-day game-winning streak at the Yankee Stadium to 11.
A healthy CC Sabathia was focused to overpower the determined Justin Verlander in the first outing on opening day, on March 31.
Sabathia allowed three runs on six hits, but struck-out seven batters over six innings as the Yankees overpowered the Tigers 6-3. Sabathia struggling to align his pitching but he still managed to toss 70 strikes of his 106 pitches. However, the game went
into the favour of Joba Chamberlain, who snatched his first win of the season. Rafael Soriano and Marino Rivers acted as per the expectations of the fans.
Mark Teixeira launched a three-run homer in the third. Curtis Granderson, who was in Tampa, Florida for a Minor League outing and was not sure to play in this game before he arrived at 11pm, opened his regular season account with a lead generating homer.
Derek Jeter and Nick Swisher also earned RBI singles.
Yankees’ captain Jeter was pleased to see his young batter in a destructive form.
"He played a good game for being in a situation not knowing he would be here today," Jeter said.
The confidence of the club however had boosted and it was evident with their gritty performance in the second outing. Yankees launched three homers in the second outing one each against Brad Penny, Brad Thomas and Brayan Villarreal.
Yankees scored six runs in the first two innings. Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher each earned an RBI single in the first and then Mark Teixeira added his second homer in back-to-back games. Russell Martin and Alex Rodriguez also stretched
their arms for homers and took the Yankees into a commanding 10-6 win.
Allan James Burnett was strong on the mound as he tossed five innings and struck-out six batters to take his first win of the season. Both the games were strongly defended by the pitchers and it was the plan of the Girardi to make a healthy impression over
the opposition with their first two games.
Only Phil Hughes was left and Girardi tired him in the third outing on April 3. Hughes could not carry the momentum and yielded four runs on five hits over four innings. He allowed a pair of two-run homers to Miguel Cabrera.
"Two bad pitches, Cabrera, four runs. Just bad location overall." Hughes said these words after the game.
However, the batting impetus had gained the perfect form. Jorge Posada hit two homers while Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano launched one each. Girardi had dreamt of such momentum and now he saw this without any delay.
A win in the first series was just the starting point as the club had already thought of crowning the World Series. However, there was a long journey ahead before they could even reach closer to the ALCS.
The Yankees hosted Minnesota Twins for four-game series from April 4 to 7 and what was the outcome of the matchup will be continued in the next part of this article.
Continued in Part 2
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