Yankees double Jays
Published Saturday July 4th, 2009
Toronto's loss is start of four-game series between teams that continues today
NEW YORK - After he was knocked out in the third inning at Fenway Park in early June, A.J. Burnett vowed to improve.
Has he ever.
Burnett scattered six hits over seven innings to win for the third time in four starts as the Yankees opened their weekend series with a 4-2 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday.
"When you're clicking, everything just flows," Burnett said. "When you're clicking on pitches, you don't even think about anything. You know, it's just all confidence out there."
Robinson Cano homered leading off the second and Alex Rodriguez starting the eighth. The Yankees, who wore jarring red caps as part of Major League Baseball's Fourth of July weekend celebration, rebounded from Thursday night's 8-4 loss to Seattle for their eighth win in nine games following a 1-5 slide.
"It was good to have a day game and get back at it really quickly," said Rodriguez, whose 567th homer -- his fifth in eight games -- left him two shy of Rafael Palmeiro for 10th place.
It was the start of an unusual stretch of four straight day games between New York and Toronto, a series that includes today's observance of the 70th anniversary of Lou Gehrig's famous farewell speech.
Burnett had lost 5-1 to his former team and Roy Halladay at Toronto on May 12.
"Completely different," he said. "Not even close. I didn't even pay attention to who got in the box today. The first time was kind of weird."
Burnett (7-4) allowed both runs, struck out seven and walked two. He got his first three strikeouts on 96 mph fastballs, then rung up his final four with curveballs in the low 80s.
Since the loss at Boston, he's allowed three earned runs in 27 1-3 innings (0.99 earned-run average).
"It's not so much speed, it's the location," Yankees manager Joe Girardi said.
Phil Coke and Phil Hughes split the eighth, with Hughes retiring Vernon Wells on an inning-ending grounder with a runner on second. For now, Hughes has supplanted struggling Brian Bruney as Mariano Rivera's primary setup man.
"I'm just going to continue to go out there and throw when I'm called upon. I don't really care, man. Everybody's caught up in what inning," Bruney said. "It doesn't matter."
Bruney has allowed three runs in 4 2-3 innings since returning from the disabled list.
In other Major League Baseball action last night:
Mariners 7 Red Sox 6
(11 innings)
At Boston, Rob Johnson doubled home two runs in the 11th inning as Seattle beat the Red Sox.
George Kottaras hit his first major-league homer in the bottom of the 11th for the Red Sox, who tied the game 5-5 with two runs in the eighth inning.
Seattle's Ronny Cedeno hit a tie-breaking, two-run homer in a three-run fourth, three batters after a fan in the front row snatched a foul pop that third baseman Kevin Youkilis was attempting to make a play on.
Indians 15 Athletics 3
At Cleveland, Shin-Soo Choo homered twice and drove in a career-high seven runs as the Indians snapped a five-game losing streak.
Choo had an RBI single, two-run double, three-run homer and capped his night with a solo shot, his 12th. It was Choo's second career multi-homer game and the most RBIs by a Cleveland player since Grady Sizemore drove in seven last Aug. 21 against Kansas City.
Cardinals 7 Reds 4
At Cincinnati, Albert Pujols hit his club-record fourth grand slam of the season, and Jarrett Hoffpauir drove in the go-ahead runs in the ninth inning with his first career hit as St. Louis beat the Reds.
Hoffpauir, playing his first major league game after being recalled Wednesday from triple-A Memphis, capitalized on shortstop Paul Janish's two-out error with a bases-loaded single off Daniel Ray Herrera (1-4) to snap a 4-4 tie.
Pirates 7 Marlins 4
At Miami, Brandon Moss and Ramon Vazquez homered and Charlie Morton pitched six shutout innings for Pittsburgh.
Hanley Ramirez failed to drive in a run for the first time in 11 games for Florida, which was coming off a three-game sweep of Washington.
Morton (1-1) gave up one hit, walked four and struck out four as the Pirates beat Florida for the fourth straight time and improved to 14-8 against the NL East.
Braves 9 Nationals 8
At Washington, pinch-hitter Brooks Conrad hit a go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh inning and Atlanta won its season-high fifth straight.
Conrad, a 29-year-old rookie whose contract was purchased from Triple-A Gwinnett to replace the injured Kelly Johnson, crushed a fastball from Jesus Colome (1-1) for his first career homer.
Phillies 7 Mets 2
At Philadelphia, Rodrigo Lopez took a three-hitter into the seventh inning in his first outing in two years, helping the Phillies snap a six-game home losing streak.
Lopez (1-0) allowed two runs and six hits in 6 1-3 innings to earn his first win since beating the Phillies on July 7, 2007, when he played for Colorado. The right-hander hadn't pitched in the majors since having elbow ligament replacement surgery 23 months ago.
Cubs 2 Brewers 1 (10 innings)
At Chicago, Jake Fox drew a bases-loaded walk from Mark DiFelice to force in the winning run with two outs in the 10th inning.
Ryan Theriot singled off second baseman Craig Counsell's glove with one out in the 10th and went to second on a wild pitch from DiFelice (4-1). After Theriot moved up on a fly ball, the Brewers intentionally walked Milton Bradley. With a 3-0 count on pinch-hitter Geovany Soto, DeFelice walked him intentionally to load the bases.
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