A friend of mine who lives in Tampa went to the Yankees/Devil Rays game this afternoon. Here’s what he had to say about the game…..
In front of a pack house at the Trop–estimated by RB to be 20,000 Yankees fans and 15,000 Devil Rays fans. The Yanks fans were a lot louder too!
It was a fantastic game. The Rays got out to a quick start, jumping on Mussina. They scored 2 runs in the
first inning and 1 the next inning, while the Yankee bats were stagnant. A-Rod continued his terrible ways
as of late by watching a fastball down the middle blow by him. Edwin Jackson looked good early on.
Moose hung in there on the mound just enough to enable the Yanks to mount a comeback. The combination of Edwin tiring on the mound in my opinion, and Yankee determination opened things up for the Bronx Bombers.
The game moved into a seesaw affair starting in the 5th inning. In the fifth, Robinson Cano started things off with a nice hit. Andy Phillips then came to the plate and was very aggressive, hitting the snot out of the ball–a triple. I was impressed with him today. He didn’t back down at the plate, and made two fabulous plays at first, one a game-saver. He looks like the real deal to me. The heck with that back-stabber Giambi. He’s DONE.
After back-up catcher Will Nieves knocked Philips in, the Yanks were down 3-2. Then came Jeter to the plate. As usual, the crowd went ballastic, blowing the roof off the place in support. Jeter could run for
mayor in St. Petersburg and win easily. He doesn’t even have a residence in that dump either–it’s in
Tampa. Well, Jetes blasted a 2-run homer to right field. The crowd could barely contain itself. The
Yanks were up 4-3.
The Yanks trailed, 5-4, with one out in the eighth, when a Robinson Cano hit a solid sacrifice fly to deep
left field, scoring Alex Rodriguez to tie the game. Alex finally got a hit, but is 1-10 as of late, and
looks bothered by something–hopefully not all the media talk about his contract. He botched a weak hit
to him earler in the game. Once again, Andy Phillips came up big, smoking a single to left and advanced to
second as teammate Hideki Matsui beat the throw home for the go-ahead run. Derek Jeter then showed why he is all-world by beating out a bases-loaded single for an insurance run before the inning was over.
Joe Torre pulled a bone-head move by brining in lame Kyle Farnsworth in the 8th. The result was a run and string of nervous energy by the 20,000+ fans. Luckily, the Rays couldn’t muster anything else, leaving the Yanks up 7-6.
Mariano came in the 9th and made it interesting. If it were not for a great double play by A-Rod on 3rd to
Phillips on first, who knows what would have happened. But the end result was a save and 7-6 Yankees
victory! The boys are now +1 above .500 since June 22 with an 8-game homestand on deck.
