In a matchup of two of the best lefthanders in baseball Johan Santana was in top form, CC Sabathia wasn’t and that was the difference in the Mets 6-4 victory.
Sabathia only managed to last five innings while allowing six runs (five earned) and ten hits to go with six strikeouts. Three of the runs allowed came off the bat of Jason Bay who had homers in consecutive at bats off of CC before getting hit in the back with a curveball. Sabathia’s struggles contrasted with Santana’s dominance. Until he ran into trouble in the eighth, Santana kept the Yankees off balance the entire night. Thanks to a solid relief appearance by Pedro Feliciano, Santana went 7-2/3 innings with five strikeouts and allowed only one run.
Ryota Igrashi came in and made a mess of things by giving up two hits and a walk in the ninth while only recording one out. Juan Miranda’s RBI single made it a 6-2 ballgame and chased Igrashi from the game. K-Rod came in to face Derek Jeter and sailed a curveball right over his head on his first pitch before surrendering a RBI double to make it 6-3. Brett Gardner got a run in with a groundout he almost beat out for a hit and Mark Teixeira reached on a high-chopper to second that was a hit.
That brought A-Rod up with the tying runs on base and two outs. The count went full before Alex fouled off two pitches and on the 8th pitch of the at bat, K-Rod dropped in a curveball that A-Rod swung over giving the Mets their second-straight win and the first round of the subway series. The Empire State Building will be blue and orange Monday night.
