NewsPerfect 'pen-manship: Yanks earn sweep
Five relievers help Bombers go 7-0 vs. Twins in season set
By Anthony DiComo / MLB.com
07/09/09 6:33 PM ET
MINNEAPOLIS -- Though the Yankees entered Thursday afternoon's game aware that they would need plenty of bullpen help -- strict pitch counts will do that -- they did not fret. Their bullpen has been automatic to a level unseen for some time, and Thursday was no different.On this day, five Yankees relievers combined to fire 5 2/3 shutout innings of relief. And yet they could not consider it a patchwork effort, because they could not see the seams.
David Robertson called it "just a good combination," while Phil Hughes referred to the bullpen as "pretty good." But after those two and three others deflated the remaining air out of the Twins in a 6-4 win at the Metrodome, it seemed fitting to address them in more superlative terms.
"I tell you what," outfielder Brett Gardner said. "They've been unbelievable."
In two of the three wins in this series sweep, the bullpen played a significant role. But Thursday's finale took that to a new level, when spot starter Alfredo Aceves -- on a limit of 65 pitches -- left after just 3 1/3 innings.
The Yankees were winning at the time, as they were for all 27 innings of their final three games at the Metrodome. But their offense was all but done scoring, and to cobble together 5 2/3 near-perfect innings of relief is no easy task.
First the Yankees turned to Robertson, who struggled with his control but who retired the league's leading hitter, Joe Mauer, with the bases loaded in the fourth. Then came Jonathan Albaladejo, the game's eventual winner, who fired 1 2/3 shutout innings of his own.
From there, Yankees manager Joe Girardi was able to turn to a familiar formula. Phil Coke came on to face a string of three left-handed batters, retiring two of them. And then Hughes, easily the most electric Yankee of the past two weeks, retired four Twins in quick succession.
"I love it," said closer Mariano Rivera, who nailed down the final three outs for the save. "It looks like he's done it for years."
Hughes was a bit more humble, sending credit in every direction but his own. Yet the Yankees, so impressed with what Hughes has done since joining the bullpen, have all but resigned themselves to keeping him there for the rest of the season.
Hughes will likely be a starter again in the future -- probably a pretty good one, too. But for now, he is content to play the role of one of the hottest setup men in baseball.
"I'm not the best pitcher in the world," Hughes said. "But I think I'm pretty good."
A pretty good reliever on a pretty good team. In sweeping the Twins, the Yankees also took all seven games of the season series from one of the best clubs in the American League. They played their final game in the Metrodome in style, winning one last time before the Twins move into their new digs -- Target Field -- across town next season. And they reaffirmed their status as one of the hottest teams in baseball, winning for the 13th time in 15 games.
And with Boston's 6-8 loss to the Royals on Thursday night at Fenway Park, the Yankees (51-34) and Red Sox (51-34) are now tied atop the AL East.
The Yankees are officially on their best run of the season, during a stretch of the schedule that easily could have tripped them up. Games in Minneapolis and Anaheim are no joke, but the Yankees are flicking this portion of the schedule aside, winning games even without playing their best ball.
In Wednesday's game, Bombers pitchers walked four batters and threw three wild pitches. In Thursday's finale, the Yankees issued another five free passes, committed an error and allowed an unearned run. And still they won as if the outcome were never in doubt, never even relinquishing the lead.
"That's why I signed here," first baseman Mark Teixeira said. "We have a chance to win every game."
It's a chance made greater when Teixeira hits for power, as he did in the fifth inning on Wednesday. For the first time in 95 at-bats -- a span of almost a month -- Teixeira went yard, shooting a Francisco Liriano fastball over the wall in left. It was the final run for the Yankees, and a bit of insurance that they would not need.
Scoring three runs on a single hit in the second inning, the Yankees jacked up Liriano's pitch count when they loaded the bases on a walk, a hit batsman and an error. Cody Ransom then walked to force in a run, before Gardner drove in another on a fielder's choice and Derek Jeter singled home the third.
The Yankees then added two more in the fourth inning, this time doing it the more traditional way: they banged out four hits, including RBI singles from Ransom and Gardner.
Soon after, a Twins bullpen that proved every bit as stout as its counterpart entered the game, silencing the Yankees. But it was too late. A stone wall had been erected.
"Our bullpen's been great," Teixeira said. "And you have to have a good bullpen to win."
Anthony DiComo is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
