08/02: Yankees Catch Boston in Abreu's Debut
Posted by: Seamus
Bobby Abreu went 0-3 with a walk in his Yankee debut, but he did score a run in the Yankees' 5-1 victory over Toronto. Coupled with a Red Sox' loss to Cleveland, the win for the Yankees puts them in a virtual tie for first place in the A.L. East (Yankees are percentage points ahead). The White Sox also won, so the wild card race is still tied between them and Yanks/Sox.
Jaret Wright struggled a bit as it took him over 100 pitches to go 5 innings, but as he's done quite a bit this year, he worked himself out of a few jams and allowed only one run on a John McDonald double in the 2nd. The 4th inning was where all the damage was done, as the Yankee offense was quiet throughout most of the game. Alex Rodriguez swung at a 3-0 pitch and lined in to right center field for a double that scored Jeter and tied the score at 1. Abreu followed that up with an almost Paul O'Neill-esque walk to load the bases for the guy who's spot in the outfield he just took away. Bernie Williams followed with a bases clearing double to left to put the Yankees ahead 4-1. The double tied Bernie with Don Mattingly for 2nd on the all-time doubles list. A-Rod scored Jeter on a groundout to short to make it 5-1 in the 7th, and that's how it would end.
So not a bad night I suppose for a guy like Abreu. He got a lot of work out there in RF and although he was 0-3, he worked a pretty impressive walk in the 4th, pretty much persistently fouling off every strike no matter what until Burnett threw four balls. The fans were into it and he was able to get a taste of the Yankee atmosphere on his first day, not to mention helping them move up to first place. I mean not to take anything away from Philadelphia, but how many guys get to play in front of a crowd of 54,000 against the Blue Jays on a Tuesday night?
The Yankees will send Chien-Ming Wang to face former Yankee Ted Lilly tonight at 7 E.T. Wang is coming off a complete game shutout on Friday against Tampa Bay. Joe Torre said yesterday that Craig Wilson will start tonight. I don't think he said where, but either way it looks like another new Yankee will make his debut tonight.
Jaret Wright struggled a bit as it took him over 100 pitches to go 5 innings, but as he's done quite a bit this year, he worked himself out of a few jams and allowed only one run on a John McDonald double in the 2nd. The 4th inning was where all the damage was done, as the Yankee offense was quiet throughout most of the game. Alex Rodriguez swung at a 3-0 pitch and lined in to right center field for a double that scored Jeter and tied the score at 1. Abreu followed that up with an almost Paul O'Neill-esque walk to load the bases for the guy who's spot in the outfield he just took away. Bernie Williams followed with a bases clearing double to left to put the Yankees ahead 4-1. The double tied Bernie with Don Mattingly for 2nd on the all-time doubles list. A-Rod scored Jeter on a groundout to short to make it 5-1 in the 7th, and that's how it would end.
So not a bad night I suppose for a guy like Abreu. He got a lot of work out there in RF and although he was 0-3, he worked a pretty impressive walk in the 4th, pretty much persistently fouling off every strike no matter what until Burnett threw four balls. The fans were into it and he was able to get a taste of the Yankee atmosphere on his first day, not to mention helping them move up to first place. I mean not to take anything away from Philadelphia, but how many guys get to play in front of a crowd of 54,000 against the Blue Jays on a Tuesday night?
The Yankees will send Chien-Ming Wang to face former Yankee Ted Lilly tonight at 7 E.T. Wang is coming off a complete game shutout on Friday against Tampa Bay. Joe Torre said yesterday that Craig Wilson will start tonight. I don't think he said where, but either way it looks like another new Yankee will make his debut tonight.
Jason wrote: