Yanks Capitalize on Blue Jays' Pitching Miscues

capitalize on 利用
miscue n. 【口】失策

There was a palpable emotional swing at Yankee Stadium last night, the kind that makes it seem as if the Yankees are finally in a pennant race to stay.

palpable a. 可觸知的，極其明暸的
pennant n. 冠軍旗

Two outs from what could have been a bitter defeat, the Yankees tied the Toronto Blue Jays on a balk. They won in the 10th inning, 3-2, when a one-out single by Robinson Canó scored Alex Rodriguez. It was the Yankees' 10th victory in their last 13 games, and they are three games above .500 for the first time in a month.

“I don't think we're the same club,” Manager Joe Torre said. “We just seem to be playing with something in mind right now. I think we played hard, but I don't think we went the extra mile a lot of times early on.”

There was an urgency to last night's game, the Yankees said, because of the opportunity it presented. They were facing Roy Halladay, who is probably tougher on them than any other starter. A loss would have been understandable, but a victory could make a statement.

After losing this month to Dan Haren, Johan Santana and Scott Kazmir, the Yankees still needed to prove they could outlast a team with an elite starter. Andy Pettitte matched Halladay for seven strong innings, and the Yankees won the kind of tight game they have lost far too often.

outlast v. 較...持久

“We needed this game desperately; we knew that coming in,” said Rodriguez, who singled to drive in the Yankees' only run against Halladay and made two dazzling plays in the field. “We needed to get this win, especially against a Halladay.”

desperately adv. 不顧一切地，拼命地
dazzling a. 耀眼的

The victory was only the eighth for the Yankees in 22 one-run games this season. They overcame another shaky outing by Kyle Farnsworth, who allowed two hits and made an error on a pickoff throw in the eighth, turning a 1-1 tie into a 2-1 deficit.

shaky a. 不穩固的，不可靠的
deficit n. 不足額，赤字

The Yankees scratched out a run off closer Jeremy Accardo to tie the score in the ninth. Andy Phillips led off with a single, and pinch runner Miguel Cairo stole second. When Melky Cabrera followed with a hard single off first baseman Lyle Overbay, the third-base coach Larry Bowa excitedly waved Cairo home.

scratch v. 刪去，消掉

Bowa charged down the line, just behind Cairo; he saw Alex Rios's throw nail a tumbling Cairo at the plate. But Cabrera had made it to second. Then he stole third.

nail v. 【棒】把(跑者)刺殺出局
tumbling n. 翻滾

“He's got great baseball instincts, that kid,” Torre said. “He's not afraid.”

After Johnny Damon walked, Accardo tried to step off the rubber, but instead balked home the tying run and moved Damon to second. He was stranded there, but Brian Bruney and Luis Vizcaíno held Toronto in the ninth and the 10th, setting up the Yankees' winning rally against Casey Janssen.

strand v. 使...擱淺，使...處於困境

Rodriguez led off. He had angered the Blue Jays in May when he shouted to distract a fielder, and there was some thought that a pitcher might retaliate by hitting him. But when Janssen plunked Rodriguez on the elbow pad with a curveball, he slapped his glove in dismay. This was not what the Blue Jays wanted.

distract v. 使...分心，使...錯亂
retaliate v. 報復
dismay n. 沮喪

Rodriguez edged off first and took second when Janssen threw a curveball in the dirt for a wild pitch. Hideki Matsui struck out, although it looked as if he might have won the game with a long fly ball that went just foul. Janssen then walked Jorge Posoda intentionally.

“I didn't get offended,” Canó said. “You've got a guy hitting .330 and a guy hitting .270, you want the guy hitting .270.”

That guy was Canó, who said he was still mad at himself for taking a first-pitch fastball down the middle from Halladay with the bases loaded and two out in the first. Canó grounded into a force play to end that threat, and he said he decided to swing at the first strike he saw from Janssen.

It came on the first pitch, a fastball, and Canó rifled it down the left-field line. Left fielder Reed Johnson had no play on it, turning and trotting off the field as Rodriguez, his uniform caked in dirt, romped home with the winning run.

trot v. 【口】走
romp v. 輕快地跑(走)

As Canó did a postgame television interview on the field, Cabrera sneaked up behind him, yanked off his helmet and doused him with a bottle of water.

sneak up 偷溜上來
yank v. 猛拉
douse v. 把...浸入水中

“When you win, its fun,” Canó said. “You can see everybodys happy, and you get more confidence.”

With a 47-44 record and their deficit down to eight behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East standings, the Yankees seem likely to grow even more confident. They are 5-1 to start their stretch of 29 games against teams below .500, an obvious chance to gain ground quickly.

Torre said he traced the start of the turnaround to a game that did not even count yet in the standings — June 28 in Baltimore, where the Yankees came back in the eighth inning to take a lead over the Orioles in a driving rain. The game was suspended, but the team's fight was evident.