The Yankees found all sorts of ways to pull out victories during their 10-game winning streak and seemed to be on their way to finding yet another one last night, but let opportunities slip by.
The Yankees fell to the Braves, 4-3, failing to match their longest unbeaten stretch in 50 years — and getting two runners thrown out at home in the process.
BOX SCORE
PHOTOS: YANKS LOSE TO BRAVES
“When you win 10 in a row … you have breaks go your way,” Mark Teixeira said. “None of the breaks went our way.”
No one knows that more than Teixeira, who was nailed trying to score on Nick Swisher’s single to right in the fifth by Jason Heyward and then nearly had his foot crushed by a Heyward shot in the sixth that drove in the winning run.
Charles Wenzelberg/New York Post
HOME DONE: Curtis Granderson is tagged out at home by Braves catcher Brian McCann as he tries to score on Mark Teixeira’s groundball to third baseman Chipper Jones in the seventh inning.
Both plays epitomized what had gone right for the Yankees as they stormed into first place — and what didn’t go right last night.
Teixeira walked with two outs in the fifth against Tim Hudson, who then also walked Raul Ibanez. Swisher followed with a bullet to right, but a perfect throw from Heyward easily nailed Teixeira.
“Heyward has a really good arm,” Teixeira said. “We were just hoping in that situation he made a poor throw and he didn’t. He made a great throw.”
After Hiroki Kuroda nearly pitched his way out of trouble following a leadoff double in the sixth, Heyward sent a screamer toward Teixeira that was too fast for him to lay a glove on. The ball rolled away, allowing Martin Prado to score what proved to be the winning run.
Oh, but the Yankees had plenty of other chances. With runners on second and third and one out in the seventh, Teixeira grounded to third, but Chipper Jones fired home and got Curtis Granderson at the plate to prevent him from tying the game.
And don’t forget the second, when the Yankees took a 2-0 lead on Swisher’s two-run double with no outs, but the Yankees stalled after that.
Those waiting for a ninth-inning comeback were out of luck. Craig Kimbrel, last season’s NL Rookie of the Year, put the Yankees away with ease, striking out Derek Jeter and Granderson before getting Alex Rodriguez on a pop out to end it.
“Their closer is really good,” Teixeira said. “We don’t see him very much. We saw him once in Atlanta and he was lights-out, and he was lights-out tonight.”
Kuroda, who had been lights-out in his previous four starts (3-0, 1.29 ERA), did not continue the trend.
He was hurt by Heyward’s triple to start the third and then gave up two more runs in the fourth. The damage would have been worse if Granderson had not gunned down Heyward at third to prevent further scoring.
The seven-inning, four-run outing wasn’t bad, but it dropped Kuroda to 6-7 as the righty became the first Yankee to lose a game since CC Sabathia on June 7.
”I really didn’t want to give up that last run,” Kuroda said through a translator. “If I kept them to three runs, I think we’d win the game.”
Perhaps.
“Every loss is frustrating to me, but it’s even more frustrating when you have an opportunity and don’t come through,” Russell Martin said. “It was just one of those days. We’re not going to win every game for the rest of the year. Hopefully we just start another streak.”
dan.martin@nypost.com
Follow @NYP_Sports
Mark Teixeira, Teixeira, The Yankees, Curtis Granderson, Jason Heyward, Heyward, Heyward, Hiroki Kuroda, Nick Swisher, Chipper Jones, Braves
No comments:
Post a Comment