Nearly 6 Hours & 18 Total Pitchers Used By The Two Teams, Yankees Win Their 7th Straight.
In game two of this much important meeting between two AL teams pushing for playoff positioning, we saw the Oakland Athletics back in town for the second game of three against the Yankees in the Bronx. Both skippers here juggled back and forth with their lineup the entire game as we saw 8 runs scored before the 5th inning with the score 4-4. Yankees SS Derek Jeter would single to center extending his hitting streak to 16 games.
In the 13 of extra innings with the game still tied at 5 from the 7th inning, the Oakland bats would come alive with back to back homers by Jonny Gomes and Yoenis Cespedes to drive in 3 runs giving their team a 3 run lead. Two batters later, Chris Carter would hit the third home run of the inning, giving the Athletics a commanding 4 run lead in the before the middle of the 13th but things were just started. With a three singles in a row by Ichiro Suzuki, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano; the top of the lineup would give confidence and momentum to the middle of the lineup to come up big for a potential rally.
Oakland right hander, Pat Neshek would throw a wild pitch with Suzuki as A-Rod and Cano both advanced. This was immediately followed by a sac fly from Eduardo Nunez to bring in A-Rod for a score then Raul Ibanez homering to right bringing in Cano to tie the game. In the 14th, the Athletics become victim of their worst error of the day as the bases were loaded. Eduardo Nunez would single to first with A’s first baseman Brandon Moss on a missed ground ball as Cano would score to give the Yankees a big victory in this thriller.
The rubber match-up later Sunday afternoon features Hiroki Kuroda (14-10) as he faces A.J. Griffin (6-1). Both teams can’t really afford to lose this game as the Orioles have been on the Yankees backs winning 6 in a row their own. The Athletics have been fortunate the Rangers have lost their last two games keeping them within 4 games of reach while the Angels of Anaheim have been in their rear-view mirror just back a game and half now in standings. The Hunt for October is well underway and its panic mode for those teams in the AL that haven’t secured their postseason bids yet with the season ending in 10 days from now.