M’s surrender lead
NEW YORK – Less than a week ago, J.J. Putz would have thrown Hideki Matsui out at first instead of shot-Putzing the ball over his first baseman’s head. Or Ichiro Suzuki would have run down Jose Molina’s drive into the right-centerfield gap instead of hesitating and watching it fall at his feet for a go-ahead double.
Less than a week ago the Yankees had hit “rock bottom,” according to manager Joe Girardi.
Today, the Yankees are back to .500 (25-25) after winning their fifth straight by beating Seattle Sunday, 6-5, with a four-run, eighth-inning rally.
“Great win,” Girardi said. “It’s been a nice streak and we need to keep it going. We just need to keep pushing and keep doing what we’re doing.”
The pixie dust that was sprinkled on the Yankees in the eighth didn’t hurt. The rally was helped by Putz’s wild throw and Ichiro’s late start. But good teams a) make their own breaks, and b) capitalize on other teams’ mistakes. The Yankees did both against the Mariners, who fell to 0-6 vs. the Yankees and 18-33 overall.
It didn’t seem that way going into the eighth, when the Yankees were trailing 5-2 thanks to a solo home run by Ichiro and a pair of two-run innings against Chien-Ming Wang.
Derek Jeter started the inning by walking against reliever Sean Green. Embattled Seattle manager John McLaren called on lefthander Arthur Rhodes to face Bobby Abreu and Abreu whacked a 3-and-2 pitch into the right-centerfield gap for a run-scoring double.
Next was Putz, the Mariners’ closer who came in for a potential six-out save. You do those things when you’ve lost five in a row. But Putz walked Alex Rodriguez to put the tying run on base.
Jason Giambi struck out before Matsui pinch hit for Shelley Duncan. Matsui rolled over a ball and hit it to the first-base side of the mound. Putz dived and caught it, but had trouble getting it out of his glove. From a prone position, he flung it far over the head of the 6-7 Richie Sexson at first as Abreu scored to make it 5-4.
It was scored a single and an error. Rodriguez moved to third and Matsui stayed at first.
Rodriguez scored the tying run on Robinson Cano’s deep sacrifice fly to center and Matsui tagged up and took second.
Molina then hit a drive to right-center that the super fast Ichiro probably puts in his hip pocket nine times out of 10. But it was a sunny day and Ichiro was playing in a few steps.
The ball fell between Ichiro and rightfielder Wladimir Balentien as Matsui scored easily to give the Yankees their first lead of the afternoon at exactly the right time.