Yankees cruise at home against the Angels
It’s hard to see major improvements when your team has the best record in baseball and arguably the game's best lineup. It’s equally hard to stay motivated when your team is primed to make the playoffs at this stage in the season, but the Yankees continue to avoid flirting with disaster.
Instead, the defending World Champions are proud of their team’s success and got back to their winning ways in Wednesday's 10-6 win over the Angels. Not like there were many doubters, but New York felt it was necessary to answer two questions heading into their game against Anaheim.
The Yankees wanted to address and finally put an end to all the talk about the Yanks struggling against the California team. Mike Scioscia's Angels is the only team with an edge over the Yankees (53-44) since the start of the new millennium.
Secondly, the Yankees wanted to showcase just how potent they can be in spite of unusually long slumps for Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira. Although these valuable players are in a rut and New York has been plagued with injuries, they continue to produce and guys are stepping in when needed.
They are that good and have the depth to overcome these adversities as shown on Wednesday. The top three hitters in the Yankees' order led an early onslaught against Angels’ starter Joel Pineiro.
Pineiro allowed eight hits in nine at-bats in just four innings and could not have expected this poor performance. "It was completely the opposite," Pineiro said, referring to his April 14 victory at Yankee Stadium. Unlike that day, on Wednesday he wasn't able to keep his pitches low enough to stay out of danger. "Everything was down that day, and everything was up today."
Jeter and Teixeira, each having subpar seasons by their standards, managed to regain a little confidence in their game and had three hits apiece. Jeter scored three times and Teixeira drove in three runs, much to the comfort of the New York fans. In between, Nick Swisher had two hits and scored a run.
"That's what Jeet [Jeter] and I try to do," Swisher said. "We just try to get on base. We've got those big boys behind us to drive us in. The way Tex is swinging the bat now, it's got a chance to be a lot of fun."
Since the Yankees' series finale against the Rays on Sunday, Jeter is 5-for-14 with five runs.
"He's [Jeter] made some minor adjustments and he's swinging the bat better, and that's a great sign," said manager Joe Girardi. "It's good to see everyone contributing at the top."
Jeter didn't elaborate much on his adjustments ("nothing drastic," he said) and attributed much of the difference to luck. He hit line drives at fielders last week and blooped singles into holes in this one.
"I don't necessarily change things just based off results," Jeter said. "When the results are there, you feel better. I'll enjoy my evening tonight."
Jeter’s turnaround in the past three games has added a dimension to the offence as the Yankees have crossed the plate 21 times in those contests.
The top of the order spurred the Yankees to a 6-0 lead, which almost wasn't enough for Javier Vazquez. Vazquez cruised through the first four innings, tossing just 37 pitches to record 12 outs. He did however allow six hits to his final eight batters, four of which went for extra bases.
When Vazquez departed in the sixth following Hideki Matsui's two-run homer to right, it was a one-run game.
"I didn't think I had great stuff out there today, but I located well early," said Vazquez, who received the win despite his early exit. "I didn't locate as well later in the game."
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