New York Yankees 2012 regular season review – Part 59
Just like they ended their series against the Tampa Bay Rays, the New York Yankees started their three match series against the New York Mets on a very dominating note. Using their home conditions superbly in Game 1 at Yankee Stadium in New York, NY, the
Yankees outclassed their arch rivals in almost all aspects of the game.
The pitching rotation, in particular, played a big part in deciding the outcome of the clash. Starting pitcher Hiroki Kuroda led from the front as he used his fastball and slider extremely effectively to create all sorts of problems for the Mets’ batting
lineup.
Striking out seven batters, he ensured the Yankees were in a dictating position. Overall, the Japanese born right-hander allowed just one hit in seven scoreless innings to set up an easy win for his team. Relief pitcher Cody Eppley and Ryota Igarashi also
played their part as they combined to give up just one run in two innings of relief.
"That's a guy you want to go and be aggressive because you don't want to get behind the count," Cano said. "He's got some great pitches."
"A couple of extra days and I felt fine," Santana said. "I just didn't have my feeling for a couple of my pitches. There were times when they stayed up and when you leave pitches up, you know, they're a pretty good team and in this ballpark, you keep pitches
up, they end up out of the park, and that's what happened."
For the Mets, starter Johan Santana had a horrendous time on the mound. In a game where his counterpart from New York dominated the batters, Santana gave up seven hits and six runs in just five innings to take his third loss of the season. Mets’ relievers
were also unable to control the flow of runs.
Robinson Cano hit back to back home runs in the second and the third inning to provide Yankees with a dream start. Nick Swisher, Andruw Jones and Alex Rodriguez also made useful contributions to help New York post a decent total on the board.
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