In the afternoon game, the Yankees took the field with an infield of Lyle Overbay, Robinson Cano, Jayson Nix and David Adams; an outfield of Vernon Wells, Brett Gardner and Ichiro Suzuki; rookie DH Thomas Neal; and a battery of Chris Stewart and Hiroki Kuroda. Later in the game, Nix was moved to 3rd base, and Reid Brignac was put in at short.
This is a lineup capable of taking on a free-spending team like Magic Johnson's Dodgers?
Apparently, yes: Neal led off the bottom of the 2nd with a single to right. Ichiro beat out an infield single to 2nd. Adams bunted them over. And Overbay doubled them home. Ichiro hit one out to right in the 6th. With 1 out in the 7th, Nix and Cano singled, and Wells reached on a throwing error that allowed Nix to score. Neal was hit with a pitch, and Ichiro singled Cano and Wells home.
Kuroda pitched pretty well for 6 innings, but let in a couple of runs in the 7th. Preston Claiborne allowed 2 more in the 8th, causing his career ERA to shoot up all the way to 1.69. But Mariano Rivera nailed it down.
Yankees 6, Dodgers 4. WP: Kuroda (7-5). SV: Rivera (25). LP: Hyun-Jin Ryu (6-3).
The nightcap didn't go so well. Phil Hughes did not compwetewy impwode again, but he was bad enough, allowing 2 runs in the 1st, 1 in the 3rd, and 2 more in the 5th.
None of which made much difference, since the Yankees went back into "Hey, let's forget we're the Bronx Bombers and just not hit" mode. Here's all the Yankee baserunners: An Overbay single in the 3rd, singles by Nix and Cano in the 4th (but Cano thrown out trying to stretch it to a double, killing the closest thing the team had to a rally), and Nix hit with a pitch in the 9th, getting to 2nd on defensive indifference. That's it: 4 baserunners.
"Well, Mike," you may be thinking, "maybe you should give credit to the Dodger pitcher."
That would be the mature thing to do. Except, in this case, the pitcher was Chris Capuano. Decent pitcher for the Milwaukee Brewers a few years back, but a bust as a Met in 2011. Give him credit? Uh, that would be a no.
Dodgers 6, Yankees 0. WP: Capuano (2-4). No save. LP: Hughes (3-6), who is looking more and more expendable all the time.
I still wouldn't have put him in a trade package for Johan Santana. Since Santana became a Met, Hughes has won 50 games, Santana 46. Hughes has a World Series ring; Santana has not appeared in a postseason game since 2006.
So the L.A. team, known as Dem Bums when they were in Brooklyn, but now just bums, heads out of town. And the Yankees start a 4-game home series with the Tampa Bay Rays tonight. Andy Pettitte starts against Matt Moore.
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