Teixeira and Girardi went through their dance Thursday night, and it was decided Teixeira would start at first base Friday night against Rays left-hander Blake Snell.
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“He was outstanding”, Cash said.
Headley hit his 14th home run and Brett Gardner had an RBI single among his three hits for the Yankees, who fell four games behind first-place Boston in the AL East and two back of Baltimore for the league’s second wild card. “It’s incredible what these kids have been able to do for us”, Girardi said. “We’re hungry right now”.
The Yankees are 11 games over.500, building on what already was a season high, and have won nine of 11 and 13 of 17.
Ellsbury tagged a familiar target when he lined his eighth home run, a shot into the right-center field seats.
But Masahiro Tanaka, whose 7 ¹/₃ innings length in the game was a welcomed relief for the Yankees taxed bullpen, said it is more than energy. Teixeira went out and got it, pulling it just to the right of the 385 sign on the Yankees’ bullpen. He needs 90-120 minutes with trainers to prepare for a start, a routine that includes acupuncture, soft tissue massage, laser therapy, ultrasound and hot rub.
“He has really stepped it up”, Yankees manager Joe Girardi said of Tanaka.
“I have to watch his knee”.
“I’m not dumb enough to claim that”, Mottola said.
Five hours later, when Stephen Souza Jr. struck out with the tying runs on base in the ninth, the Rays had lost to the Yankees, 7-5.
“In my mind, I’m like, he’s going fastballs away, ” Teixeira said.
With New York ahead 3-2 in the fourth, the 36-year-old Teixeira drove Kevin Jepsen’s 94 miles per hour fastball into the Yankees’ bullpen in right-center for his 12th home run this season, the 406th of his career, and his 11th big league slam. “I knew if he threw me a strike out over the plate, I could have that kind of a swing”.
There were stoppages of 21 minutes in the fourth inning and 22 minutes in the sixth caused by brief light rain. As a downpour began in the ninth, umpires halted play with a 2-2 count on Brad Miller after singles by Kevin Kiermaier and Evan Longoria off Dellin Betances put runners at the corners. The complete game was his second in his last four starts with the Pirates, as he beat the Houston Astros 7-1 on August 24, and the fifth of his career. Catcher Bobby Wilson moved wide as reliever Enny Romero lobbed in his first pitch at 52 miles per hour, but the ball drifted close to the plate and Sanchez socked it to the warning track for a sacrifice fly. “I hope not”, he said.
In Pittsburgh, starter Ivan Nova remained unbeaten with the Pirates and Kang Jung-ho hit a two-run double to key a three-run first inning.
The much-maligned Adam Warren came in, and settled things down. Tyler Clippard, who knows a little something about an awesome run, off a September a year ago with the crosstown Mets, tossed a scoreless eighth inning. Yankees 7, Rays 5. On the first pitch from Michael Pineda, Sanchez attempted a rarely seen and even more rarely successful pickoff play across the diamond.
The Yankees drew 30,194 after 27,532 on Tuesday and 27,631 on Thursday. Before the homestand, NY had topped 30,000 for every home game since September 2004. We can taste it a little bit. “Some of these kids will build a reputation where people are going to get really excited”. But part of it is school, too. “I was upset that it all happened, of course. So you feel good every time he takes the mound”.
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MINOR MATTERS: Jake DePew doubled in Palmetto’s Granden Goetzman to give Double-A Montgomery a 4-3 walkoff win to stay alive in the best-of-five Southern League North Division playoff series against Jackson (Mariners); Game 4 is tonight.
