New York Yankees crush Texas Rangers 8-2 in series opener – MLB Update
New York Yankees crushed the Texas Rangers 8-2 at Yankee Stadium in New York on Monday, August 13 in the opening game of their four match series of the 2012 Major League Baseball regular season.
Yankees used their home conditions superbly to dominate their opponents in almost all areas of the game. The batting line-up in particular played a key role in deciding the outcome of the clash as it put up a decent total on the board.
New York’s pitching rotation also created all sorts of problems for the Rangers’ batters. Starting pitcher David Phelps should be given credit for producing a masterful performance against one of the top offensive teams in the League.
Phelps used his sliders and fastballs to great effect, allowing just two runs in five solid innings. With his win, the starter also improved his record to 3-3 and it will be interesting to see if he can produce similar performance on his next start.
Relief pitcher Derek Lowe also had an excellent time on the mound as he pitched four scoreless inning for his side to make his first save of the season.
"I really wanted to get him through the fifth inning. I thought it was important for him," Joe Girardi said. "It's important for us, too."
"I had to get back to hiding the ball a little better," Lowe said. "I'm not going to do jumping jacks because you pitch one good game because you're in this for the long haul."
After the Rangers took an early 2-0 lead, Nick Swisher connected for a grand slam in the third inning to give Yankees a crucial 4-2 lead.
"To have those two guys step up to do what they did today, to give those guys like D-Rob (David Robertson) and (Rafael) Soriano a full day off and not have to warm up and anything that's big," said Nick Swisher.
Curtis Granderson and Derek Jeter made valuable contributions in the third and the seventh while Eric Chavez homered to right-centre in the sixth to give the Yankees an impassable 7-2 lead. Swisher earned an RBI single to centre in the seventh to end an
extremely positive outing.
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