Sabathia’s 15th season win helps the Yankees hold down the Royals
The New York Yankees brought their winning ways to Kauffman Stadium, Kansas City, against the Royals last night as they bested their opponents in a 4 -3 thump. The match was the first of the 4 game series and marked a great chance for both teams to get their first confrontation to a winning start.
Going into the game, Kansas City were without a win in the last 4 games, losing 3-0 to the Los Angeles Angels in their last series. The match against the Yankees in the series marked a tough contest to compete in as the Royals were looking for a breather in the form of an evenly matched competitor. However, with all the odds cast against them, the team fielded a strong pitcher in the form of Bruce Chen. The inexperienced pitcher had a great time in the season, belting 7 wins and 5 losses before the match, last night. However, the player wasn’t the one to walk away with the win as his 5 innings of play saw 92 pitches, 2 strike outs, 5 hits, 3 runs (1 Homer) and 2 walks.
The Yankees, however, were coming in with a win over Western Division leaders, Texas Rangers. They fielded, recently absent, Mark Teixeira and American League Championship’s 2009 Most Valuable Player, Carsten Charles Sabathia. The left hand, 6 foot 7 inches giant pitcher was a revelation for Joe Girardi, last year as he helped the team attain the World Series title. Being used sparingly, the ball thrower was given his 20th game of the season and having won 14 games, the skilled player was looking to avail 15 wins to equal David Price’s tally for the season. Last night, that mark was achieved as the ace man played for 8.2 innings, pitching 110 times, while striking out 3 players, allowing 10 hits, 3 runs and 2 walks. This exhibition of effective strike zone firing got New York to contain their rivals and score a 1 run win.
The match began with some decent pitching, as both sides contained each other well. However, the trend changed when the Yankees got on the scoring cards with Robinson Cano, who ran home free off Curtis Granderson’s single to the centre, in the top of the 2nd. Another run came by in the top of the 3rd as Mark Teixeira made his mark on the game with a sacrifice fly to the centre, as Derek Jeter scored from a sprint from 3rd base.
The Kansas City team was further put on the sword as recently acquired Austin Kearns got on the scoring sheet with a whopping 402 feet homer to the right in the top of the 4th. At that time, the Yankees were 3-0 up and it seemed like the Royals were now going to lose their rhythm altogether. However, with some chance, the team replied in the bottom of the 4th. Alex Gordon was first on the scoring sheet for the home team as a single down the centre from Mike Aviles got him through the last base for the ball club.
The home fans were let down in the top of the 7th, as an Alex Rodriguez grounder to the third, got the visitors their lead of 3 runs back on the board. Derek Jeter scored again for the team, changing the score line to 4 New York, Kansas City 1. Nevertheless, the match was far from won by the champions. They got a scare in the bottom of the 9th when reliever, David Robertson came on to ball. The Royals added two runs from Alex Gordon and Mitch Maier off a Willie Bloomquist double down the deep right centre.
The runs brought on a final score of 4 New York, Kansas City 3. To some degree, fans could agree that reliever, Robertson almost lost the game for the Yankees and though the match provided a fine display of ball throwing from Sabathia, the game turned on itself with his replacement coming into the match. Critics say that this was a closely contested match but many will look to stick around for future games when these teams meet again for game two of the four match series. One can only wonder when the Royals will change their results, as they tend to be pulled down further into a losing streak.
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