Yanks' Latest Victory Is Another Inside Job

Yankees 9, Tigers 3

The Yankees always study other teams, hunting for players who can help, but their most important scouting last month was within their organization.

General Manager Brian Cashman and his advisers watched from the stands in Trenton and Scranton, trying to see if the future could help the present. They liked what they saw.

“That led us to stand down on some trade opportunities,” Cashman said. “I had some evaluators, who I trust as my right- and left-hand men, tell me, ‘Our bullpen right now is in Triple-A, and we should try it and see what happens.’ ”

It was a gamble to rely on rookies while trailing in a pennant race, but Cashman listened and trusted his instincts. The result was a game like yesterday’s, when the Yankees thumped the Detroit Tigers, 9-3, with three perfect innings from two rookie relievers and four runs batted in from Wilson Betemit.

Betemit was acquired in a trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers for Scott Proctor, a reliever Cashman deemed expendable because he believed Joba Chamberlain and Edwar Ramírez could thrive in the majors.

thrive v. 茁壯成長

Cashman is right so far, and the subtler moves have helped keep the Yankees in contention. They won the last three games against the Tigers this weekend, after a three-game losing streak, and they trail Boston by four in the American League East.

subtle a. 精湛的，精巧的

“I give Cash a lot of credit, because during this whole thing leading up to the end of July, you still have to evaluate,” Manager Joe Torre said. “It's not easy, especially in this town, to give the appearance of not doing anything and still helping yourself. Of course, Ramírez came out of nowhere. He had been released by the same organization twice.”

That organization is the Angels, a team the Yankees face for three games in Anaheim starting tonight. After Chamberlain retired the side on nine pitches — all strikes — in the seventh, Ramírez struck out the side in the eighth, getting each hitter on a changeup and slapping his glove with his hand in excitement.

After Betemit smashed a three-run double to center field in the eighth inning, extending the Yankees’ lead from three runs to six, Mariano Rivera took a seat in the bullpen. Ramírez went back out for the ninth and retired the last three hitters in order.

The sight of Ramírez and Chamberlain blanking a powerful lineup, a day after Kyle Farnsworth, Luis Vizcaíno and Rivera did likewise, is a change from the first half of the season, when Farnsworth, Proctor and Brian Bruney — all right-handers who rely on fastballs — were the setup men.

“They had ability, no question, but it was similar,” Torre said. “Now, we have different things we can do — sliders, changeups. I think it helps not to give the same look.”

Chien-Ming Wang (14-6) was not sharp, allowing three runs and nine hits in six innings. Wang acknowledged he was rattled by the Tigers' aggressive base running in the fifth, when he balked a runner to third, walked a hitter and allowed a double steal.

rattle v. 使...驚慌失惜

But Johnny Damon's upper-deck home run in the sixth against Jeremy Bonderman (10-6) broke a 3-3 tie and gave Chamberlain a chance to protect another lead. He has pitched in five games, all victories, allowing 2 hits and striking out 11 in 7 scoreless innings.

Yesterday, he faced three of the same hitters he saw Friday, altering his patterns to Gary Sheffield and Carlos Guillén and retiring both of them.

“It was great,” Chamberlain said. “They knew what was coming at them, and we tried to have a different plan.”

A few lockers away, Ramírez was also smiling. His first Yankees stint had ended in tears, when he broke down in a postgame interview July 20 after allowing a grand slam and four walks while retiring no hitters.

Ramírez pitched that game with two weeks of rest. With Proctor gone and one fewer pitcher on the staff, he should not get stale anymore. His confidence seems to be back, too.

stale a. 無精打采的

“When I got to Triple-A, I didn't think something negative,” Ramírez said. “I went down there to work hard every day to come back. I’m going to stay here now.”

The presence of Betemit, who essentially replaced Miguel Cairo on the roster, allows Torre to rest players he would otherwise use every day. Betemit started four of the seven games on this homestand, resting Derek Jeter, Robinson Canó and Andy Phillips. He has also played third to spell Alex Rodriguez.

spell v. 輪替

Torre has also used Shelley Duncan, a power bat off the bench, and the new backup catcher José Molina, who started all three games in Cleveland this month and helped the Yankees sweep the series.

“We knew early on that we weren't playing up to our potential, but we knew the nine guys we were throwing out on the field were pretty good,” Damon said. “You'd look around the league, and you'd pretty much take everyone. Now, we have 13 guys you would take. It's fun.”

The person having the most fun may be Cashman, whose alterations have made a difference.

“The first half was a nightmare, a horror story, and in the second half, we're trying to change the ending,” Cashman said. “Our team is playing well right now, and we've got a lot more strengths than weaknesses.”

Clemens Returns as His Old Self

Yankees 5, Tigers 2

Roger Clemens, who turned 45 this month, must have been conscious of every wrinkle on his face during the top of the fifth inning yesterday at Yankee Stadium. Staring back at him from home plate was Cameron Maybin, the highly acclaimed 20-year-old who made his major league debut Friday for the Detroit Tigers.

In a battle of the ages, if not for the ages, youth prevailed. Maybin hit his first career home run to give Detroit a lead.

prevail v. 戰勝

But Clemens never style="background: Wheat"buckled. He routinely pitched out of jams, relying on years of experience to keep the score close.

buckle v. 垮掉，讓步

The Yankees' offense took it from there, erupting for four runs in the sixth inning to secure a 5-2 victory over the Tigers.

erupt v. 噴出

“I expect him to give us a chance to win,” Manager Joe Torre said of Clemens, who tied a season high with eight strikeouts over six innings. “He did more than that today.”

The Yankees (69-54) have apparently fully rebounded from their three-game losing streak this week, beating the Tigers on consecutive days in convincing fashion.

Like a fine wine — or a 40-something pitcher, for that matter — yesterday’s victory needed some time to reach its peak. When Clemens walked off the field for his final time of the afternoon, after pitching the top of the sixth inning, the Yankees trailed, 2-1. But Bobby Abreu's two-run homer in the bottom half of the inning put them ahead for good and put Clemens (5-5) in line for the victory.

“Talk to our hitters; they're getting the job done for us,” Clemens said. “They did it again today.”

So did Clemens, who pitched well for the second consecutive time. His last outing was Aug. 7, when he hit Alex Rios in the middle of the back in a 9-2 victory in Toronto. He was ejected for throwing at Rios and suspended for five games.

But there were few signs of rust on this sunny afternoon. Clemens allowed 2 runs, 10 hits and no walks. His stuff was not overpowering, but he struck out two batters in each of the first three innings. Clemens was replaced after throwing 108 pitches, the last of which induced Curtis Granderson to pop out to shortstop with the bases loaded.

The Yankees took a lead in the second inning, when Jorge Posada hit a solo home run against the right-handed starter Chad Durbin (7-6). But Clemens gave away the lead on Ryan Raburn's sacrifice fly with the bases loaded in the fourth.

The score was still tied at 1-1 in the fifth when Maybin faced Clemens, who won the second of his seven Cy Young awards the year Maybin was born. The leadoff homer by Maybin barely sailed over the wall in center field, and it bounced backward, landing on the outfield grass.

“I'm facing a lot of guys that are younger than me these days,” Clemens said when asked about Maybin, who collected his first major league hit, a single, in the third inning.

Clemens’s fifth strikeout, against Granderson in the third inning, was his 1,000th as a Yankee. No. 1,001, also in the third, was much more impressive. With runners at first and third, Marcus Thames went down swinging for the second out. Maybin, who was on first base, attempted to steal on the play.

As Posada threw toward second, Brandon Inge, who had been on third, headed for home.

The ball, however, never reached second base. Clemens intercepted it, then chased down Inge, tagging him between third and home plate for a double play. Was it by design? It depends on who one asks.

Clemens said he and Posada worked on the play a few years ago in spring training, but that this time he just reacted spontaneously. Posada indicated that there was more planning involved.

spontaneous a. 無意識的，不由自主的

Either way, the play kept a run from scoring. But with Durbin holding the Yankees in check between Posada's homer and Abreu's, retiring 10 of 14 batters, the Yankees were unable to capitalize.

That changed in the sixth, when Derek Jeter led off with a single. The next batter, Abreu, turned Yankee Stadium into a giant pinball machine, launching a two-run homer that caromed off the left-field foul pole and landed in foul territory. The hit gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead.

carom v. 碰擊而反跳

“It was great,” Torre said of Abreu's at-bat, which included four pitches from Durbin that were fouled off.

The Yankees added two runs after Durbin left in the sixth. Robinson Canó and Andy Phillips hit run-scoring singles, putting the Yankees ahead by three runs.

The bullpen did not miss a beat after Clemens departed.

Kyle Farnsworth pitched a perfect seventh inning; he even struck out Gary Sheffield, much to the delight of the crowd of 54,802.

Sheffield, whom the Yankees traded to the Tigers in the off-season, finished 3 for 5. He was booed before and after each at-bat.

“Just an out to me,” Farnsworth said when asked about his encounter with Sheffield, who attracted headlines recently for saying that during his three seasons with the Yankees, Torre favored white players over black players.

Luis Vizcaíno allowed one hit in the eighth, and Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth for his 20th save, distancing himself from a handful of poor outings last week.

“I don't have to prove or show anything,” Rivera said. “I know what I'm capable of doing.”

Rivera is 37, which may seem young to Clemens. Like Clemens, he is much closer to the end of his career than the beginning. But they each pitched as if they were in their youth, holding yesterday's victory in place like bookends.

Like Old Times: Pettitte Rights Yanks

Yankees 6, Tigers 1

For most of the 54,290 fans in the stands at misty Yankee Stadium last night, this was the Andy Pettitte of their dreams. This was the Pettitte they remembered from the glory years, the one who took the ball in big games and delivered.

It did not always work that way, of course. Pettitte had his share of losses in his first stint with the Yankees. But his role in building a dynasty has made him a leader now. When the Yankees needed someone to snuff a burgeoning losing streak, Pettitte was their man.

burgeoning a. 增長迅速的

Pettitte worked eight innings, allowing a run and five hits in the Yankees’ 6-1 victory over the Detroit Tigers. The victory was the Yankees’ first in four games.

“We hit a little stumbling block, and he's been that guy his whole career, especially for the Yankees,” said Jason Giambi, who homered twice. “He hasn't missed a beat. He's the guy to go to.”

stumble v. 絆倒；蹣跚而行

The victory was the Yankees' first in four games, and the 2,041st of Joe Torre's managerial career, moving him past Walter Alston into seventh place on the career list. It was fitting that Pettitte was the winner, considering his history with Torre.

“When the game is important, or a need for us, he just responds so well,” Torre said. “He may not win, but he's always kept things together, and he just pitches tough.”

The rookie Joba Chamberlain recorded the last three outs to continue the electric start to his career. The crowd chanted Chamberlain's first name before he even threw a pitch, taking quickly to a pitcher who has had only four career outings.

“There were a lot of people here going crazy,” Chamberlain said. “It makes you feel good. You use that energy to the best. Sometimes you let it the most of you and you try to do too much, but I've done a good job of slowing the game down and getting used to the role.”

Chamberlain threw 10 pitches — 7 for strikes — and hit 99 miles an hour on the radar gun three times. His second pitch hummed it at 100.

Gary Sheffield, who is 0 for 7 in this series, flied to left to lead off the ninth. After a single by Magglio Ordóñez, Chamberlain induced a pop out from Carlos Guillén, then fanned Iván Rodríguez on a slider to end the game. In six scoreless innings, Chamberlain has allowed two hits and struck out nine.

Pettitte has a long history of success in the second half. He came into the game with a .708 career winning percentage after the All-Star Game break, second only to Johan Santana among active A.L. pitchers with at least 60 decisions.

This year has been no exception. Before last night, Pettitte was 5-1 with a 3.15 earned run average in seven starts since the break. The Tigers scored four runs in the top of the first against Mike Mussina on Thursday, but against Pettitte last night, they went down in order.

“I wanted to be aggressive,” said Pettitte, who worked on his mechanics last weekend to keep from opening his lead shoulder too soon. “Maybe that's something I made a conscious effort to do — come out and be aggressive with the team struggling.”

The second hitter, the top prospect Cameron Maybin, was making his major league debut. Pettitte, who said the scouting report on Maybin was that “he likes the heater,” whiffed him with his trademark biting slider. He did so again in the third.

whiff v. 【棒】三振(打者)

That had been an odd inning, starting with a single by Ryan Rayburn that Alex Rodriguez let roll down the third-base line. It hit the bag to stay fair.

That had been an odd inning, starting with a single by Ryan Rayburn that Alex Rodriguez let roll down the third-base line. It hit the bag to stay fair.

Phillips threw there, but Inge scrambled back to second base, where no fielders were waiting. Second baseman Robinson Canó had been backing up Jeter, and right fielder Bobby Abreu did not cover the bag for him.

After a walk and Maybin’s second strikeout, up came Sheffield, a favorite target of the fans. Sheffield bounced to Jeter for an inning-ending forceout.

The Tigers were leading, 1-0, but the Yankees came right back. Canó and Phillips singled to start the Yankees’ half of the third, and after two outs, Bobby Abreu bounced a bad-hop single over the glove of shortstop Guillén.

The break scored Cano to tie the game, and Rodriguez gave the Yankees a 2-1 lead with a ground-rule double to left. Giambi bashed Nate Robertson’s first pitch of the bottom of the fourth into the seats in right center, and he homered again off Aquilino Lopez in the eighth.

Giambi has four home runs in his last 18 at-bats, and he is batting .348 (8-for-23) since coming off the disabled list on Aug. 7.

“I'm fresh right now, so I've got good bat speed,” Giambi said. “I'm just seeing the ball and hitting it well.”

A Matchup the Yanks Can't Seem to Win

Tigers 8, Yankees 5

The matchup was the same last Oct. 5, when the Detroit Tigers last played in New York. Mike Mussina faced Justin Verlander and the Yankees grabbed an early lead. Then the shadows took over and the lights went out.

The Tigers did not lose again until the World Series. Yankees Manager Joe Torre nearly lost his job. Now, after the Tigers’ 8-5 victory at Yankee Stadium last night, the teams have the same record. But it was the Yankees who fell out of the lead for a playoff spot with their third loss in a row.

“We were going really well there for a long time, and in the last three days, we've kind of made that disappear in a hurry,” starter Mike Mussina said. “We've got to get it straightened back out again or all the work we just accomplished the last month or so will wind up being a waste.”

or so adv. approximately
wind up 結果

The Yankees (67-54) fell to a half-game behind the idle Seattle Mariners in the American League wild-card standings. Verlander lasted only five and a third innings, but that was one out longer than Mussina, who gave up six earned runs and nine hits.

In their last three games, the Yankees have scored only eight runs. They struck out 11 times last night, and their status as the hottest team in the majors has gone away.

“We went through a streak where everything we did went well for us,” Manager Joe Torre said. “And you have to understand, it works the other way, too.”

The Yankees had won 30 of 42 games before last night, but there was a common theme in some of their losses: the opposing starter was among the elite. Johan Santana, John Lackey, Scott Kazmir, Roy Halladay and Érik Bédard all helped their teams beat the Yankees.

For all of their bruising offense, then, the Yankees still needed to prove they could handle better pitchers. They were frustrated last night despite their sound approach to Verlander.

bruising a. 十分激烈的，殊死的

In Verlander's first time through the order, every hitter took the first pitch. He needed 30 pitches to wade through the first inning, and his pitch count soared to 119.

wade through v. 費力地做完
soar v. 猛增，暴漲

“We had him on the ropes a couple of times, but we couldn't get that big hit,” Derek Jeter said. “We had a lot of hits sprinkled in here and there, but that’s pretty much all we could get going. That's what the good pitchers do — they bear down when they get in trouble and avoid the big innings.”

sprinkle v. 灑，撒

Mussina could not do that. He had won his last four starts and allowed three earned runs or fewer in 11 of his past 12. But this game turned ugly early, and when it did, Mussina could not restore order.

With one out and one on in the first, the former Yankee Gary Sheffield — who was booed each time up — bounced a ball to the left of third baseman Alex Rodriguez. Fielded cleanly, it might have been an inning-ending double play.

“I think so,” Rodriguez said. “Bang-bang, Sheff runs well, but that’s a play I need to make. You feel bad for Moose. If I make that play, maybe he goes out and pitches a gem.”

Mussina did not blame Rodriguez, though, and he did not question a borderline call on an outside pitch to Carlos Guillén with a 1-2 count and the bases loaded. Guillén followed with a foul ball and then a grand slam off a high changeup.

Mussina called his performance unacceptable and said his pitches were a ball-width or two away from where he wanted them to be.

“I pitched poorly from the beginning, and we never really had a chance to get back in the game,” Mussina said. “You can't win doing that. My job is to pitch better than that, and I just didn't do it.”

The Yankees got a run back in the first, but singles by Brandon Inge and Magglio Ordóñez made the score 6-1 in the second.

Bobby Abreu's two-run homer in the third — clubbed over the wall in straightaway center — did not shift the momentum. Torre's decision to pinch hit Shelley Duncan for Johnny Damon in the sixth inning for the second time this week did not work, either.

The Yankees were trailing by four with two out, and Torre said he envisioned another three-run home run like Duncan hit on Wednesday. But Duncan struck out on a 95-mile-an-hour fastball from Zach Miner.

Miner struck out the side in the seventh, and after Fernando Rodney did the same in the eighth, the last eight Yankees outs had been on strikeouts.

Though they rallied for two in the ninth, the Yankees' hitters had looked feeble against the Tigers.

feeble a. 虛弱的

In 10 months, it seemed, nothing had changed.

Mood Swings as Rivera Negates Yankees' Rally

Orioles 6, Yankees 3

The decibel level at Yankee Stadium soared like a firecracker during the top of the 10th inning yesterday. The 53,363 fans were ecstatic for two justifiable reasons. Shelley Duncan had tied the score against the Baltimore Orioles with a three-run homer in the ninth inning. And Mariano Rivera, a model of consistency this season, had just taken the mound.

ecstatic a. 狂喜的，著迷的
justifiable a. 有道理的

But it got quiet in a hurry. Rivera suffered a meltdown, allowing three runs, as the Orioles handed the Yankees a deflating 6-3 defeat.

meltdown n. 溶解

After the game, Rivera stood by his locker and made a statement that earlier in his stellar 13-year career seemed almost unfathomable.

stellar a. 主要的，顯著的
unfathomable a. 不可理解的

“I'm a human being,” Rivera said. “I'm allowed to make mistakes.”

Rivera had been having a sensational season until this week. On Monday, he blew a save for the first time in 20 opportunities. The Yankees came back to win that game, 7-6. But he was not as fortunate yesterday afternoon as the Orioles hit him hard.

sensational a. 引起轟動的

With the score tied, 3-3, Rivera allowed a leadoff double to Nick Markakis, who scored the go-ahead run when the next batter, Miguel Tejada, doubled. After recording an out, Rivera gave up a two-run home run to Aubrey Huff, erasing Duncan’s heroics.

The Yankees (67-53) remained five games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East. Boston lost to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays, 6-5, yesterday. But the Yankees have lost two consecutive games after winning 9 of 10, a troubling trend with the Detroit Tigers in town today to start a four-game series.

And they have lost four consecutive series to the Orioles for the first time since 1982, according to the Elias Sports Bureau. Several Yankees came to Rivera’s defense yesterday, saying he was so good that his mistakes were forgivable.

“He just didn't look like he hit his spots,” Manager Joe Torre said. “It looked like he made too many pitches that were fatter in the zone than he's used to doing. It's one of those things that you know it's going to happen from time to time.”

from time to time adv. occasionally, once in a while

Torre, Rivera and General Manager Brian Cashman said that Rivera, who will turn 38 in November, was not experiencing any physical problems. Around this time last season, he began having difficulties with his right forearm.

Rivera (3-4) was able to laugh off his outing Monday. But he spoke somberly yesterday.

somber a. 昏暗的；鬱悶的

“It hurts because your teammates are giving you the opportunity to pitch, the opportunity to be able to hold them and come back and score and win the game,” Rivera said. “I wasn't able to do that. It's bad.”

The Yankees went scoreless over the first eight innings. But with one swing, Duncan tied the score, 3-3. With the Yankees down to their last out, Duncan stepped to the plate with runners on second and third. He swung at an 0-1 pitch from the left-handed reliever Jamie Walker, knocking the ball over the left-field wall.

Duncan, who has six homers in 16 games since making his major league debut July 20, delighted the fans with a curtain call. He said he envisioned the homer after Alex Rodriguez and Hideki Matsui led off the inning with singles.

“I always prepare myself in innings like that,” Duncan said. “I count down the outs and play all the what is in my head. I tell myself, What’s the situation going to be like if I get a chance to come up?”

The comeback nullified a poor start by the offense, which struggled against the Orioles’ sensational starter Érik Bédard, who had won 8 of his previous 10 starts. Bédard scattered four singles in seven innings. He struck out eight to improve his season total to 207, which leads the major leagues.

nullify v. 抵消

The Yankees, who used eight right-handed batters to start the game, went hitless until Alex Rodriguez led off the fourth inning with a single up the middle. Rodriguez finished with a game-high four hits.

“He's pretty much been doing that to the whole league,” Derek Jeter said, referring to Bédard.

With Bédard pitching so well, there was little room for error by the rookie Phil Hughes, who was making his fifth start and the third since coming off the disabled list.

Hughes allowed six hits over five innings, but his pitch count soared. In the fourth inning, when the Orioles scored two runs, he made a mistake that proved costly.

With runners at second and third, Tike Redman hit a hard grounder that first baseman Andy Phillips fielded cleanly. Phillips tossed the ball to Hughes, who waited a beat before running to cover first base. The ball popped out of Hughes’s glove for an error, allowing two runs to score.

“You can live with physical stuff, leaving a couple balls up,” Hughes said. “But mental errors like that are just inexcusable, especially going against a guy like Bédard.”

Sean Henn and Edwar Ramírez, who were recalled yesterday, held the Orioles scoreless for four innings. But everything changed once Rivera got the ball.

Before ending an interview with reporters, Rivera indicated he had moved on from yesterday's debacle.

debacle n. 崩潰

“It's behind already,” Rivera said. “It's the past. What can I do?”

On Night Full of Memories, a Yankees Loss to Forget

Orioles 12, Yankees 0

If Phil Rizzuto would have been broadcasting last night's game at Yankee Stadium, his scorecard would have been covered with notations of W.W., his shorthand for wasn't watching.

notation n. 標記
shorthand n. 速記

On a night the Yankees paid tribute to Rizzuto, the Hall of Fame shortstop who died on Monday night at 89, they played a game to challenge the attention span. In another era, it would have made for hours of nonbaseball chatter by Rizzuto.

tribute n. 敬意
attention span n. The length of time during which a person can concentrate
on a subject or idea.

The Baltimore Orioles punished the Yankees, 12-0, taking advantage of four walks in three innings by the fill-in starter Jeff Karstens. It was only the second loss in 11 games for the Yankees, who face the Orioles' ace, Erik Bedard, today. They fell five games behind first-place Boston in the American League East.

“It's easy to turn the page when you have something ugly to look at,” Yankees Manager Joe Torre said.

Karstens, a long reliever, was starting in place of Roger Clemens, who is serving a suspension for hitting Toronto's Alex Rios with a pitch last Tuesday after the Blue Jays had hit Alex Rodriguez. The Blue Jays were angry with Rodriguez for yelling to distract a fielder May 30.

Rodriguez had an infield single for one of the Yankees' two hits last night. Despite drawing nine walks, the Yankees were shut out by their widest margin in nearly two years.

They had scored at least seven runs in 10 straight home games. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was their longest streak since 1938, three years before Rizzuto's major league debut. But hot hitting can work for other teams, too.

straight a. 連續的

“Since I've been here, the hitting has been contagious,” reliever Jim Brower said of opposing batters he has faced. “You get into that, and how do you get out of it? That's the trick.”

contagious a. 接觸傳染性的

Brower could not find a way after the Orioles scored five runs against Karstens. He gave up six runs (four earned) in two innings, putting the game out of reach.

out of reach a. unattainable, 達不到的

Karstens was making his first Yankees start since April 28, when a line drive by Boston's Julio Lugo broke his leg. Karstens made five more pitches that day, but he was soon added to the disabled list. He pitched well in his rehabilitation starts.

As prospects go, Karstens is not in the class of Phil Hughes, who starts today, or Ian Kennedy, who has a 1.96 earned run average at Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre. But Kennedy is not on the 40-man roster and has never pitched in the majors.

Torre said he expected Karstens to throw only 70 pitches, but he probably never guessed they would have come in just three innings. Karstens allowed five hits, including Aubrey Huff's third-inning grand slam into the upper deck, right inside the right field foul pole.

Karstens ended up throwing 74 pitches, and Torre said the Yankees could recall a fresh reliever for today's game. Brower will also need rest after throwing 50 pitches. Edwar Ramírez continues to excel at Scranton, and Karstens and Brower have minor league options.

excel at v. 勝過他人，突出

Daniel Cabrera (9-12) walked six in six and two-thirds innings, but the Yankees again could not solve him.

The last time Cabrera pitched at Yankee Stadium, last Sept. 28, he had a no-hitter until Robinson Canó singled with one out in the ninth. Rather than breaking into stardom, though, Cabrera was leading the league in walks and earned runs coming into last night's game.

But with a 96-mile-an-hour fastball and a height of 6 feet 9 inches, according to the Orioles' media guide, he was plenty imposing to the Yankees last night.

imposing a. Impressive, as by virtue of size, bearing, or power

“He's tough because he throws hard, and every time he's throwing, he seems like he's right next to you,” Canó said. “When he throws strikes, he's a good pitcher.”

Karstens is a finesse pitcher, relying on control of his average assortment of pitches. When his control is off, he is in trouble.

finesse n. 技巧
assortment n. 各色各樣的搭配

“Anytime you put base runners on without them having to hit it, I don't know the percentages, but usually, they end up scoring,” Karstens said.

Karstens overcame a walk in the first inning, but walking the first two hitters in the second led to the Orioles' first run. In the third, a double, a walk and a single loaded the bases for Huff.

After striking out against reliever Joba Chamberlain in his last at-bat Monday, Huff fared much better against a different rookie pitcher in Karstens. He lined an 0-1 pitch toward the foul pole, leaning his body to watch it stay fair for his ninth home run.

fare v. 遭遇

The Orioles kept piling up runs, which made a sign on the loge level, above third base, seem prophetic. “A Tough Yankee Loss #10,” it read — a tribute to Rizzuto that was true in more ways than one.

prophetic a. 預言的

For Hot Yanks, Blown Save Is No Problem

Yankees 7, Orioles 6

For months, the Yankees’ bench might have been the most anemic in the major leagues. Now, on many nights, it includes Jason Giambi, a slugger earning more than $20 million who is fine with pinch-hitting for the hottest team in baseball.

anemic a. 貧血的

“It's not a big deal,” Giambi said. “Just work your way in, and when you get your licks, take advantage of them.”

big deal n. 影響重大的事
lick n. 嘗試

Giambi did that last night with pivotal pinch-hit single in the Yankees' winning rally in the bottom of the ninth inning. Giambi's bouncer moved Melky Cabrera from first to third, and Derek Jeter followed with chopper off the pitcher’s glove that drove in the winning run in the Yankees' 7-6 victory over the Baltimore Orioles.

That erased the sting of Mariano Rivera’s first blown save since April 20 and lifted the Yankees to their ninth victory in 10 games. Rivera had converted 19 consecutive save opportunities, the longest streak in the majors.

sting n. 刺痛
convert v. 【運動】成功地完成

Chien-Ming Wang had stood to win, despite allowing five runs and eight hits in six innings, throwing his sinkers too hard and leaving some changeups too high. But home runs by Bobby Abreu and Wilson Betemit helped give the Yankees the lead until the Orioles peppered three singles off Rivera in the ninth.

pepper v. 嚴懲

“You're always surprised when somebody gets a hit off Mo, but like usual, I don't think many of them were hit hard,” Jeter said. “Those things happen. It feels good to pick him up once in a while.”

pick up 改善

After the Orioles' Chad Bradford retired Andy Phillips on a groundout to start the ninth, Cabrera was hit in the back with an off-speed pitch.

Shelley Duncan was due up next, in the designated hitter's slot, having batted for Johnny Damon in the sixth inning. Torre said he made that move partly because he knew he could always substitute Giambi for Duncan later.

The chance came in the ninth, with a right-hander pitching and the Orioles having already used two left-handed relievers.

“Early in the year, I couldn’t do that,” Torre said. “We really didn't have anybody on the bench to go to.”

Giambi, who had homered twice in a weekend sweep of Cleveland, yanked a sinker from Bradford off the end of the bat, bouncing it through the hole on the right side of the infield as Cabrera charged to third.

charge v. 向前衝

The Orioles brought the infield in, and Jeter tapped a fielder's choice off Bradford’s glove. Second baseman Brian Roberts made an off-balance throw to the plate, much too late to catch Cabrera, who raced in to score the winning run standing up.

The game featured the home debut of the heralded reliever Joba Chamberlain, 21, who struck out two of three hitters and reached 99 miles an hour with his fastball. He faced the 4-5-6 batters but did not know who they would be.

herald v. 預告

“To be honest, I didn't know who I was facing,” Chamberlain said. “I knew I had right-right-left. Sometimes, I like it better that way.”

Chamberlain fell behind Miguel Tejada with three balls after a first-pitch strike. But Tejada fouled off the 3-1 pitch, then swung helplessly at a slider.

After Kevin Millar grounded out on an 0-2 curveball — perhaps the first curveball Chamberlain has thrown in three outings — Aubrey Huff struck out on a slider that hit 91 m.p.h., harder than many pitchers' fastball.

The crowd chanted Chamberlain's first name, and although the Yankees still project him as a starter, he is quickly taking to the bullpen role.

“It's an adrenaline rush that you don't get too many times,” he said. “As it goes, it tends to grow on me a little bit.”

adrenaline n. 一陣興奮

Rivera followed Chamberlain to start the ninth. After Rivera needed 30 pitches to secure a four-out save Sunday, Torre was not sure he would use him. But Rivera wanted to pitch.

“He was ready to go today,” Torre said in his clubhouse office after the game. “He was up here for two innings stretching. We looked up in the ninth inning and he was standing on top of the mound, and we hadn’t even called down yet. He really hasn't been working a lot.”

Rivera surely wanted a quick ending, but Melvin Mora led off with a single and went to second when catcher Jorge Posada had no play there after fielding a chopper by Ramón Hernández.

Posada threw to first for the out, and when Tike Redman singled to shallow center, the Orioles' third-base coach, Juan Samuel, sent Mora to the plate. Cabrera has a strong arm and Posada corralled his throw, tagging out Mora in plenty of time as Redman scurried to second.

corral v. 【美】補捉
scurry v. 急跑

“He takes a lot of hits away and he keeps guys from taking the extra base,” Posada said of Cabrera. “It's really a big difference.”

Down to their last out, the Orioles came back with a single to right by Roberts. Samuel sent the runner again, and this time, Redman beat a high throw from Abreu to tie the score. Rivera recovered to get a flyout, ending the inning, and soon, he would be the winning pitcher.

beat v. 搶在...之前

With Their Confidence Showing, the Yankees Complete a Sweep

Yankees 5, Indians 3

CLEVELAND, Aug. 12 — When Andy Pettitte walked off the mound at Yankee Stadium on July 1, in the midst of a seven-run second inning, the Yankees were on their way to a loss that pushed them four games below .500.

Six weeks later, they are the hottest team in the majors, with 29 victories in their past 39 games after a weekend sweep of the Cleveland Indians, who tumbled out of first place in the American League Central. The Yankees are believers, and all the evidence is with them.

“I feel like we're the team, you know?” Pettitte said Sunday. “It doesn't surprise me. I'd be extremely disappointed if this team didn't get to the playoffs. That's just kind of the way I feel.”

An hour or so after Mariano Rivera snuffed an Indians rally in the bottom of the ninth to finish a 5-3 victory, the Baltimore Orioles came back to beat the Boston Red Sox. That cut the Yankees' deficit to four games in the A.L. East, the closest they have been since April 24.

snuff v. 【俚】扼殺，謀殺

It is no wonder that so many players watched the Red Sox game in the clubhouse late Sunday afternoon. The Orioles are coming to the Bronx on Monday, but it is Boston the Yankees are chasing. The Yankees are in a virtual tie with Seattle for the wild-card lead.

Cleveland was supposed to be a test for the Yankees, who had played weaker teams since mid-July. But the Indians are in a free fall, losing 13 of their past 20 games. Their aggressive hitting approach backfired during the weekend series.

The Yankees' pitchers went 23 innings without issuing a walk during the series, and they held the Indians to six runs over all. Three came in the last three innings Sunday, after the Yankees had built a 4-0 lead.

The Indians squandered their chance for more runs. They loaded the bases with no outs in the seventh, and with first baseman Andy Phillips playing behind the bag, Jhonny Peralta took a big lead. Pettitte and Phillips sensed an opportunity.

squander v. 浪費，揮霍

“It's something Andy and I have talked about in the past, to have a heads-up for that play,” Phillips said. “He's got such a tremendous move even when I'm holding the runner.”

For the first time this season, Pettitte threw to first without a fielder stationed at the bag. Phillips sneaked behind Peralta to snag the throw, and then chased him up the line for the out. The Indians scored on a sacrifice fly, but they were deflated.

deflated a. 洩氣的

“That was a big letdown for them, and certainly a big pick-me-up for us,” Manager Joe Torre said.

letdown n. 鬆弛，失望

The Yankees' pitching coach, Ron Guidry, was ejected after the inning for arguing balls and strikes. So when Rivera got in trouble in the ninth, it was Torre, not Guidry, who visited him on the mound.

Cleveland had scored once in the eighth, an inning Rivera had finished after Luis Vizcaíno allowed a run-scoring single. Two singles opened the ninth, and when Franklin Gutiérrez doubled to drive in a run, Torre trotted to the mound. His concern, Torre said delicately, was that “guys that you felt he should have better luck against” were getting hits. His real fear was that Rivera was hurt.

trot v. 慢跑，急行
delicately adv. 微妙地

This was the ninth time Torre had asked Rivera to get a save of more than one inning, something he had vowed not to do in spring training. “You O.K.?” Torre said he asked Rivera, who replied that he felt fine.

Rivera then proved it. He struck out Asdrubal Cabrera and Grady Sizemore before getting Casey Blake to fly to right to end the game. It was the 19th save in a row for Rivera, who seemed unfazed by the extra workload.

“I've been doing that for a long time,” he said. “You train for that and you have to be ready for that situation. I know Joe doesn't want to use me in that situation, but when we have to go for it, I am that person.”

Pettitte said he was so nervous in the ninth, he could not bear to watch the game on the clubhouse television. Jason Giambi, the designated hitter, said he was not as worried watching Rivera.

“You get spoiled,” said Giambi, who bashed a two-run homer in the fourth inning. “You don't panic. You know he might give up a few hits, but you don't think the other team is ever on top of it.”

Since his return from the disabled list last week, Giambi has eased into a part-time role without complaining. How could he? Melky Cabrera, who also homered Sunday, has established himself as an everyday starter on a team that is winning nearly every day.

“You don't want to come in and disrupt the ball club,” Giambi said. “You just want to be a part of it. Everything's great.”

Mussina Sticks It Out to Win 100 for Yanks

Yankees 11, Indians 2

CLEVELAND, Aug. 11 — Mike Mussina stared up at a television set in the visitors clubhouse last week in Toronto. The highlights of a Mets loss were showing.

“What's their record?” Mussina asked a bystander, who told him. Mussina paused. “And what's our record?” Given the answer, Mussina smiled, nodded his head and walked away.

bystander n. 旁觀者

The Yankees' rivalry with the Mets is always a background issue in New York, and Mussina has played there long enough to know that. He has also been with the Yankees long enough to collect 100 victories, which he reached in the Yankees' 11-2 victory against the Cleveland Indians on Saturday at Jacobs Field.

rivalry n. 競爭，對抗

At 65-51, the Yankees' record is one game better than the Mets'. In the standings that matter, the Yankees remained in a virtual tie with the Seattle Mariners for the lead in the American League wild-card standings. They also stayed five games behind Boston in the A.L. East.

“It's a good feeling, but it's a controlled feeling,” said Alex Rodriguez, who homered twice and drove in four runs. “We realize we have a lot of work ahead and we haven't accomplished anything yet.”

Mussina, however, accomplished something notable. He became the ninth pitcher to earn at least 100 victories for two teams, a list that includes five Hall of Famers; two other active pitchers, Randy Johnson and Greg Maddux; and Dennis Martínez.

Only Lefty Grove and Mussina have won 100 with two A.L. teams, and Mussina became the 16th pitcher with at least 100 victories as a Yankee.

“It's exciting,” said Mussina, who won his fourth start in a row. “I'm glad I've had a chance to come here and pitch well enough and pitch long enough to accomplish it. It's pretty cool, I guess. I probably won't make it to 200, so I'd better savor 100. But I hope I win a few more here before I decide to stop.”

Mussina won 147 games for the Baltimore Orioles from 1991 through 2000. He is in the first season of his second contract with the Yankees, with a record of 100-60. He is tied with Jack Quinn for 45th on the career victories list, with 247.

Mussina (8-7) matched a season high Saturday, pitching seven and two-thirds innings. He allowed two earned runs and eight hits with no walks and six strikeouts. He has not walked a hitter in his last 22 innings.

“I think he feels better about his stuff,” Manager Joe Torre said. “He's a little freer throwing in the strike zone, and he's using both sides of the plate better. He wasn't really coming in, so he probably wasn't feeling good about his stuff. But one sort of leads to the other.”

Mussina, 38, said he learned from watching the 21-year-old Phil Hughes face the Indians on Friday. Hughes throws much harder than Mussina does, but both throw curveballs and changeups. The Indians are a fastball-hitting team, Mussina said, and watching Hughes dominate them with off-speed pitches encouraged him to do the same.

Mussina allowed three earned runs or fewer in 11 of his last 12 starts. He said he had more options now when deciding which pitch to throw.

“It's hard to pitch when you don't have access to certain parts of the plate or certain pitches,” Mussina said. “The last couple of weeks, I felt like I've had command and most of my pitches going.”

After giving up a run in the first inning, Mussina pitched with a lead the rest of the way. The Yankees scored seven runs in the second inning to overwhelm Paul Byrd, who had thrown a shutout in his previous start.

The Yankees were ahead, 3-1, with two outs before Bobby Abreu stroked an 0-2 pitch to left for a two-run single. That brought up Rodriguez, who hit the first of his two-run homers and made the score 7-1. Rodriguez leads the majors with 39 homers and 114 runs batted in, and he is relaxed again after hitting his 500th home run a week ago.

“It's good to get that 500 number out of the way and just get back to playing real baseball,” he said.

Rodriguez had company in the offensive parade. José Molina set a career high with four hits, and Derek Jeter had three hits for the second game in a row.

The Yankees are batting .329 since the All-Star Game break and averaging 7.7 runs a game. They have won 10 of their last 11 series and are the hottest team in baseball.

“We knew coming into this stretch that we had to play well,” Mussina said. “The pitching staff has been the lucky recipients of our offense putting up a lot of runs, so we don't feel like every pitch is the game. Even against the better pitchers, we’re putting good at-bats on people and making it tough on them.”

recipient n. 接受者

Yanks of Future Offer Help in Present

Yankees 6, Indians 1

CLEVELAND, Aug. 10 — Joba Chamberlain has a ritual before his first pitch of a game. He stands behind the mound, his back to the catcher, his glove on the grass, his hat in his hand and his head bowed. Then he points to the sky, climbs up the dirt slope and starts to terrorize opposing hitters.

ritual n. 儀式；習慣
terrorize v. 恐嚇，脅迫


Chamberlain faced six Cleveland Indians on Friday and retired them all, four on strikeouts with his slider. He entered the game after six impressive innings by starter Phil Hughes, who held the Indians to one run and four hits, with six strikeouts.

The Yankees won for the ninth time in 11 games, pushing aside the Indians, 6-1, at Jacobs Field. Hughes and Chamberlain offered a delicious glimpse of the future for the Yankees, who are conceding nothing about the present.

“How good can they be?” Andy Pettitte said of Hughes and Chamberlain. “Stay healthy, don't get too much in your head, and their stuff is incredible. It's exciting to see them come up here, throwing strikes and being very aggressive. You don't only like their stuff, you like their makeup, too. And we’re going to need them.”

On a night when the Boston Red Sox' new setup man, Eric Gagné, blew a four-run lead in a loss in Baltimore, Chamberlain helped the Yankees move within five games of first place in the American League East. They are in a virtual tie with Seattle atop the wild-card standings.

The Yankees added no help for their bullpen at the trading deadline, but by promoting Chamberlain, they might have found the power arm they had sought to set up closer Mariano Rivera. Pettitte said that Chamberlain had him thinking of 1996, when Rivera would throw two innings to set up John Wetteland.

Hughes was making his fourth career start, and Chamberlain his second career relief appearance. They are two of the four youngest pitchers in the majors, each 21 years old but seemingly unfazed by a pennant race.

unfazed a. 【美】【口】不膽怯的

“I think age is just a number,” Chamberlain said. “You have to keep that mind frame. Being 21 years old is part of it. They're having confidence to give us the ball, and that’s all we can ask. We have to go out and prove ourselves every time.”

Hughes and Chamberlain are injecting the Yankees with youthful vigor, but that would be meaningless without winning results. Teammates are comparing their influence to that of Robinson Canó and Melky Cabrera.

vigor n. 精力，活力

“Hopefully, they are the pitching, American version of Melky and Robby,” Alex Rodriguez said. “Those are guys you can build on for the present and the future.”

Chamberlain threw at recorded speeds up to 99 miles an hour, but the slider was his finisher. He has six strikeouts in four shutout innings this week. Hughes worked efficiently through the Indians’ order, walking one to win for the first time since his abbreviated no-hit bid in Texas on May 1, when he strained his hamstring.

“I'm not sitting here talking about any kind of injury,” Hughes said. “It's definitely a good feeling. It's a big series for us.”

It also was a big series for the Indians and their fans. Cleveland (65-50) ranks near the bottom of the A.L. in attendance, but every seat was taken Friday — including one by the Cavaliers star LeBron James — and the team shop sold commemorative pins for the series.

commemorative v. 紀念的

The Yankees did not give fans much to cheer. Only one Cleveland hitter advanced past second base, when Josh Barfield homered in the fifth, and the Yankees led after the second inning.

The lead helped Hughes pitch aggressively, and he threw 66 strikes in 95 pitches. He allowed six runs in four and two-thirds innings in his previous start, but he moved to the center of the rubber this time to command both sides of the plate.

His curveball and changeup were sharp, and he kept the Indians guessing. When Kenny Lofton batted in the third, he was fooled badly by an off-speed pitch, lunging early to chop a foul ball off the dugout fence behind him. He would strike out, looking, on a 94-m.p.h. fastball.

lunge v. 衝，撞

“He really pitched tonight,” said the bench coach Don Mattingly, who was the manager while Joe Torre served a one-game suspension. “He kept changing speeds and kept them off balance.”

The Yankees went ahead in the second on a leadoff home run by Rodriguez, who ripped Fausto Carmona’s 94-m.p.h. fastball to center field. Derek Jeter later added three hits, contributing to three scoring rallies.

Seventeen of Rodriguez's previous 18 homers have come in Yankees victories, and this one was the 501st of his career. Rodriguez has still not pried his 500th home run ball from the fan who caught it last Saturday.

“I finally got it,” he joked, holding Friday's home run ball aloft. “Five-oh-one.”

aloft adv. 在高處

When the Yankees Need His Best, Wang Delivers His Worst

Blue Jays 15, Yankees 4

TORONTO, Aug. 8 — To beat Roy Halladay on Wednesday, the Yankees' Chien-Ming Wang needed to be exceptional. There may be no pitcher who is tougher on the Yankees than Halladay.

“When you have Halladay on the mound, you know you have to control it,” Yankees Manager Joe Torre said. “You know you have to keep them down. When we couldn’t do that, you realized it was a tall order.”

Wang suffered through the worst performance of his career, lasting just two and two-thirds innings in a 15-4 rout by the Toronto Blue Jays. It was the shortest of Wang's 71 career starts, and he allowed a career-high eight runs.

Halladay worked seven innings and struck out eight, improving to 10-4 in his career against the Yankees.

For the Yankees, who had won five in a row, it was a dreary way to start a challenging chunk of their schedule. Starting Friday in Cleveland, the Yankees play 17 of 20 games against four of the best teams in the American League.

chunk n. 相當大的部分(或數量)

After a three-game series with the Indians, the Yankees play host to the fourth-place Baltimore Orioles for three games and then the Detroit Tigers for four. They follow that with a seven-game trip to Anaheim and Detroit before playing three games at home against Boston.

“Right now, we're probably as good a team as we've been all year,” Torre said. “We'll see how good that is when we test ourselves against the better teams.”

Despite the blowout, the Yankees left town with another series victory. They were 21-8 in a stretch against games teams that were under .500 at the All-Star Game break.

“We played well, we have some momentum and we have some guys swinging very hot bats right now,” Johnny Damon said. “I think we're feeling pretty good about our chances.”

momentum n. 氣勢

The Yankees stand only a half-game behind the Seattle Mariners for the lead in the A.L. wild-card race, an encouraging place to be. But on a small scale, it was startling to see Wang struggle so badly. He had worked at least six innings in each of his previous 12 starts, and was 10-1 in his last 13.

startling a. 令人吃驚的

The effectiveness of Wang's sinker is muted, to some degree, by playing on artificial turf, where ground balls get through the infield quicker. In 10 career starts on turf, Wang has a 5.17 earned run average; his E.R.A. on grass is 3.64.

turf n. 草皮

But this game was less about the playing surface than Wang’s location. He was consistently up in the strike zone with his sinker, and when he went to a slider, as he did against Vernon Wells in the third, he often hung it.

Wells slammed that pitch to left for a double, one of five hits off Wang in a five-run inning. That followed a three-run first in which Matt Stairs and Alex Rios doubled. Wang allowed no home runs, but the Blue Jays collected five doubles off him, among their nine hits.

“Everything was down the middle,” Wang said, adding later, “The low ball was too low, in the dirt.”

Wang said he was not bothered by his troublesome fingernail, which has split because of the pressure he applies on his sinker. He said his arm angle was too low, and he could not remember a start so bad since a game for Class AA Trenton in 2004.

Wang left after 59 pitches, his career-low for a start, throwing 31 balls. The doubles kept coming against Jeff Karstens and Ron Villone, and when Frank Thomas smacked one off the top of the wall in left-center field in the seventh inning, it tied a Toronto club record for doubles in a game: nine.

By then, some of the Yankees were gone. Alex Rodriguez took a day to rest his sore left calf; Derek Jeter and Jorge Posada were removed in the seventh; and Bobby Abreu was ejected for arguing a called third strike in the fourth.

Torre said the plate umpire, Derryl Cousins, had a “short fuse” in ejecting Abreu, since Abreu did not swear at him. Abreu, who slammed his bat in the dugout, told a different story.

swear at 詛咒

“It was a bad word,” he said, smiling sheepishly. “It was in English.”

Rodriguez Is Hit, but Clemens Delivers Final Blow

Yankees 9, Blue Jays 2

TORONTO, Aug. 7 — Retaliating for a teammate is part of the persona of Roger Clemens, the consummate gunslinger in double-knits. But he does not seem to relish the task, and he put it off on Tuesday until the seventh inning, with his 90th pitch.

consummate a. 完美的；熟練的
gunslinger n. 帶槍的人
relish v. 享受，喜愛


When retaliation came, though, it was unmistakable. It hummed in at 92 miles an hour and thumped into the back of the Toronto Blue Jays' Alex Rios, earning an immediate ejection for Clemens and Manager Joe Torre, who saw the end of a 9-2 Yankees victory from the clubhouse at Rogers Center.

thump v. 重擊(+into)

“I've been in those situations before,” Clemens said, “and they're never good.”

Clemens was answering the Blue Jays' actions toward Alex Rodriguez, who was hit in the calf by a fastball from Josh Towers in the third inning, causing the benches and bullpens to clear twice before Towers's next pitch.

The Yankees had a seven-run lead when Clemens hit Rios, and they went on to win, getting two doubles and a triple from Melky Cabrera and four runs batted in from Bobby Abreu.

It was the Yankees' eighth victory in nine games, and Joba Chamberlain finished it with two scoreless innings, striking out two and hitting 100 m.p.h. on the television radar gun. It was a wild night to make a major league debut.

“Yeah, you can say that,” said Chamberlain, who counted 27 missed calls and 41 text messages on his cellphone after the game. “But you only get one first time, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.”

Chamberlain threw his second warm-up pitch to the backstop and fell behind his first hitter, Ray Olmedo, two balls and no strikes. But he recovered to fan Olmedo on an 88-mile-an-hour slider, and after a groundout, a walk and a single, he broke Vernon Wells’s bat with a fastball on a lazy fly out to left.

In the ninth, Chamberlain struck out Curtis Thigpen with a slider and walked Hector Luna on four pitches. When Aaron Hill grounded to second to start a game-ending double play, Chamberlain punched the air and pointed to the sky.

“He's electric,” Torre said. “It just looked like his slider was mean, really.”

electric a. 令人震驚的
mean a. 【美】【俚】出色的，很棒的


There were two out in the top of the third when Bobby Abreu tripled home Johnny Damon to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Rodriguez came up next, and Towers's first pitch drilled him in the calf. It eventually caused Rodriguez to leave the game, Torre said.

drill v. 鑽孔

“He got me pretty good,” Rodriguez said. “We'll see how I wake up in the morning.”

The Blue Jays did not throw near Rodriguez when they faced the Yankees last month in New York, a possible sign that they held no grudge over the incident on May 30 when Rodriguez distracted Toronto’s Howie Clark from catching a pop-up by yelling as he rounded the bases. (Clark was sent to the minors on Tuesday.)

grudge n. 怨恨，嫌隙

Jesse Litsch threw behind Rodriguez with his first pitch to him on Monday, and though Rodriguez did not react, he took a hard slide later in the game. This time, it seemed, he had had enough.

Rodriguez took a few steps toward the mound, holding his bat below his waist but pointing it at Towers. Rodriguez jawed at Towers, who yelled something back, prompting an expletive from Rodriguez.

jaw v. 【口】嘮叨
expletive n. 咒罵詞


Ángel Hernández, the plate umpire, got between Rodriguez and catcher Gregg Zaun. The dugouts and bullpens emptied, and players and coaches quickly swarmed around Rodriguez, Zaun and Towers.

swarm v. 群集

“They got fired up,” Rodriguez said. “We looked like a football team out there.”

There was a lot of heated talk, but no punches, little shoving and no ejections. Everyone returned to their seats and Rodriguez took first base. Yet before Towers’s next pitch, with Rodriguez standing at first, the dugouts and bullpens cleared again.

shove v. 推擠

This skirmish was between Towers and Tony Peña, the first-base coach. Peña said later he was simply mad that Rodriguez had been hit. Referring to Towers, he cursed and said, “Tell him to get some people out.”

skirmish n. 小衝突
curse v. 咒罵，詛咒


That seemed like a reaction to comments Towers had just made to Toronto reporters, referring to Peña's abbreviated stint as the manager of the Kansas City Royals.

“It was Tony Peña running his mouth,” Towers said. “I was like: What is this guy running his mouth for? This dude is a quitter. He managed a team and quit in the middle of the season because he couldn't hack it. He's going to run his mouth to me?”

dude n. 【美】【俚】男人，男孩
quitter n. 輕易放棄工作的人
hack v. 【美】【口】對付，處理


There were still no ejections, but the umpires spoke with Towers, who promptly gave up a two-run double to Jorge Posada. Melky Cabrera tripled and scored in the fourth, making it 4-0, and the way Clemens was pitching, it was essentially a rout.

rout n. 潰敗

Clemens allowed two hits and one run, striking out six with a lively fastball and a plunging splitter. But now he may face a suspension for protecting Rodriguez.

plunging a. 突進的

“I don't have any control over that,” Clemens said. “Obviously, I hope not. It is what it is.”

Yankees’ Two Young Catalysts Cook Up Another Victory

Yankees 5, Blue Jays 4

catalyst n. 催化劑，刺激
cook up 編造


TORONTO, Aug. 6 — Robinson Canó had already doubled in the tying and go-ahead runs in the sixth inning Monday. As he crossed the plate on a single by Melky Cabrera, he clapped his hands in delight. Sure enough, at first base a moment later, Cabrera clapped, too.

“They're always together,” Derek Jeter said. “You don't see one of them without the other.”

It was just another installment of Me and My Shadow, playing almost every day to the amusement of the veterans on the Yankees. Canó and Cabrera charged the surging Yankees again in a 5-4 victory over the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Center, lifting the team to the brink of the lead in the American League wild-card race.

amusement n. 娛樂
brink n. 邊緣


“We're battling, we're fighting,” said closer Mariano Rivera, who struck out Alex Rios, Vernon Wells and Frank Thomas in the ninth inning. “We're giving everything that we have to win the game. We did today.”

The Yankees have won seven of their past eight games, improving their record to 62-50, a half-game behind the Detroit Tigers, who defeated Tampa Bay by 6-4 last night. The Seattle Mariners (60-49) are idle.

After striking out in his first two at-bats, Canó doubled to left-center on a curveball from the left-handed reliever Scott Downs. The Yankees had been trailing by a run, but Canó ’s hit gave them a 4-3 lead. When Cabrera singled him home, it was his third hit of the game.

Jason Giambi is about to rejoin the Yankees, which could nudge an outfielder like Johnny Damon or Hideki Matsui out of the designated hitter role. But Cabrera is not losing his starting job in center. He has a 12-game hitting streak, with a .412 average in those games.

nudge v. 推進，刺激

“I'm not saying we won't give him a day off here and there,” Manager Joe Torre said, “but it would really be tough to replace what he does for us.”

Part of what makes Cabrera tough to replace is that he gives the Yankees a switch-hitter with pop at the bottom of the order and a strong arm on defense that runners rarely challenge. Another part is intangible, but possibly as important.

intangible a. 無形的；模糊的

“You'll see guys sort of dragging, and they see them bouncing around and say, ‘Shoot, I can do that, too,’ ” said the third-base coach Larry Bowa, referring to Canó and Cabrera.

“There's no question it helps. They're still going to make some mistakes, but what they bring to the table outnumbers what they do wrong.”

outnumber v. 數目上超過

Canó said he and Cabrera only talked baseball after losses, so they can find ways to improve. After a game in Chicago in June, when the Yankees were well under .500, Canó and Cabrera resolved to get on base more often. Canó said they decided to be realistic about what the team needed.

“We're not here to hit home runs,” Canó said. “We're not going to prove that we're Babe Ruth or anything. Just go out there, get on base for A-Rod and Posada and Matsui, let them hit the home runs. Just swing at pitches we can drive, not like we were at the beginning, when we were swinging at everything and trying to hit the ball out of the park.”

Canó is batting .456 (41 for 90) in his last 23 games, coming on strong in the second half the way he did last season. He and Cabrera are playing with the boundless energy of teenagers, Alex Rodriguez said, as they compete against each other and the opposition.

“You see them doing their handshakes and jumping up and down,” Andy Pettitte said. “There's no doubt that they feed off each other. To watch them play, I don’t think either one of them wants to be outdone each day. It’s almost a competition like a staff — when guys are dealing, you want to pitch good also.”

Pettitte (8-7) pitched well enough to win Monday, working five and two-thirds innings, allowing three runs and six hits, and striking out seven. He has lost the groove he had early this season, but has won four of his past six starts.

“You realize it's going to be a battle, and I'm not going to give in and give these games up,” Pettitte said. “I don't care how many pitches I have to throw, I'll throw 'em.”

Pettitte needed 114 to get as far as he did, leaving two on with two out for the newcomer Jim Brower, who got a lineout from Reed Johnson to end the sixth inning. After Rios singled to lead off the seventh, Luis Vizcaíno came in to work two crucial innings before Rivera’s overpowering ninth.

“It's amazing he still throws that hard, and the ball's back to cutting, with command,” Pettitte said of Rivera. “That's why he's the best there is.”

Mussina and Offense Combine to Finish Sweep

Yankees 8, Royals 5

When Mike Mussina climbed the mound and fired his first pitch yesterday, more than 54,000 fans at Yankee Stadium cheered. But in some ways, Mussina appeared much less relevant than usual.

relevant a. 有關的，切題的；關係重大的

The Yankees have been scoring runs seemingly at will these days. So what did it matter if Mussina's fastball was a little sluggish or his slider did not slide?

sluggish a. 懶散的；遲鈍的；蕭條的

As it turned out, Mussina had a fine outing, as did the offense. The Yankees scored early and often, completing a three-game sweep of the Kansas City Royals with an 8-5 victory.

turn out 結果是；證明是

“The way our offense is going, if the starter can put up a couple zeros, we're going to go out there and put some pressure on the other side, whether we get one run, two runs, five runs, six runs,” Mussina said.

put up 建造

The Yankees (61-50) have scored 74 runs in their last seven games. They have won six of those games. In their only loss during that stretch, against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday, they scored nine runs. The offensive outburst has put the Yankees a season-high 11 games above .500 and into the thick of the playoff race, a half game out of the wild-card race.

thick n. 最激烈的時候

On a sun-splashed afternoon, the Yankees rattled starter Gil Meche in the second, scoring four runs with two outs. Melky Cabrera made the first dent with a run-scoring single. The next batter, Derek Jeter, walked with the bases loaded. Bobby Abreu then singled home two runs.

rattle v. 【口】使...驚惶失惜；使...發出咯咯聲
dent n. 凹痕


Given an early lead, Mussina kept his pitch count down, holding the Royals (48-62) scoreless for the first five innings.

The lead only grew in the third as Hideki Matsui led off with a towering home run that landed in the seats immediately behind the right-field wall. It was his 100th major league homer. The fans cheered Matsui, who joined the Yankees in 2003 after 10 seasons in Japan, until he reciprocated with a curtain call.

towering a. 高大的；傑出的
reciprocate v. 報答，交換


“I'm just happy to be able to reach that,” Matsui said through an interpreter.

It was the second consecutive day the fans at Yankee Stadium witnessed a milestone, after Alex Rodriguez hit his 500th home run in Saturday's 16-8 victory. Rodriguez was the designated hitter yesterday; Wilson Betemit played third and Johnny Damon had the day off. Rodriguez was 0 for 4 with two strikeouts.

Rodriguez's sacrifice fly in the fourth inning gave the Yankees a 6-0 lead. The Royals finally scored in the sixth inning as Ross Gload belted a two-run homer against Mussina. The Yankees responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning to take an 8-2 lead.

Mussina (7-7) was replaced after allowing a single to start the seventh inning. He surrendered nine hits and two runs, struck out three and walked none.

After an inconsistent start to the season, Mussina seems to be in a solid place. He has won his last three starts, giving him 246 for his career. Yesterday he became the pitcher with the most victories in major league history without a 20-victory season.

Brian Bruney relieved Mussina and gave up one run. Mike Myers allowed two runs, one earned, in the eighth. So Torre went to Mariano Rivera for a four-out save. But it was the Yankees' bats that saved the day.

“Not to say that there's not going to be a starter out there who's going to shut us down,” Torre said. “That goes for any team. You get a quality start and certainly they dominate the game, so to speak. But our offense right now is just about where we want it to be.”

Rodriguez’s 500th Homer Proves Worth the Wait

Yankees 16, Royals 8

Alex Rodriguez said he was starting to become embarrassed by the anticipation: the fans standing as he strode to every at-bat, the flashbulbs piercing the sky during night games, the good wishes being showered on him as he tried game after game to hit his 500th home run.

stride v. 邁大步地；跨
pierce v. (亮光)照進，穿透；刺穿


Yesterday afternoon at Yankee Stadium, the pattern did not change. The theme song from “The Natural” flooded through the speakers as Rodriguez walked to the plate in the first inning of the Yankees' game against the Kansas City Royals. Fans who flocked here on a broiling summer afternoon stood and cheered.

flock v. 聚集

This time, Rodriguez fulfilled the expectations, unfurling a big swing at the first pitch he saw and driving the ball deep to left field. He stood at home plate and watched it stay to the right of the foul pole, then threw his arms in the air as “The Natural” music started again and the fans' roar serenaded him around the bases.

unfurl v. 展開，展露
roar n. 吼，喧鬧聲；大笑聲
serenade v. 對...唱(或奏)小夜曲


“It was pretty awesome,” Rodriguez said after the game. “I felt a little embarrassed that every time I came up, 56,000 people stand up. But it was awesome. You kind of get a high school reception when you hit a home run and all the guys are out of the dugout. Pretty cool.”

Rodriguez's home run gave the Yankees a 3-0 lead in a game they would win, 16-8. He hit it against Royals starter Kyle Davies, becoming the youngest player to hit 500 homers, at the age of 32 years 8 days. Rodriguez is the 22nd player to hit 500, he is the fifth active player to do so, and he joins Babe Ruth and Mickey Mantle as the third player to hit it as a Yankee.

Rodriguez did it in dramatic fashion.

“It was great,” Yankees Manager Joe Torre said. “He stood there and watched it. We all did. You just felt it was coming.”

George Steinbrenner, the Yankees principal owner, congratulated Rodriguez in a telephone call after game. His spokesman, Howard Rubenstein, said Steinbrenner told Rodriguez, “I'm very proud and happy that you did it at Yankee Stadium in front of our hometown fans.”

Rodriguez and the Yankees had been waiting since July 25 for him to move from 499 to 500, a stretch of 29 at-bats during which Rodriguez said he went through a range of emotions. He was alternately tight and flustered and determined. The past few days, Rodriguez said, he started to concentrate on his mechanics and forget about it.

flustere v. 使...慌亂，做...緊張不安

That is not easy to do when a stadium full of fans stands and howls every time you leave the dugout.

howl v. 嗥叫，怒吼，號啕大哭，大笑

“Well, I've conceded the fact that you can't will yourself to hit a home run,” he said. “I tried hard for about four or five days.”

He did acknowledge that he wanted badly to do it at home, in front of the fans who have become a source of support only one season after tormenting him with boos. The transformation has been astounding and complete.

badly adv. 【口】很，非常

“You wish you can go out there and shake every fan's hand and thank them,” he said. “But the only way to thank them is to hit the home run at home and do it in a winning situation.”

The Yankees did win, and win big. They pounded 21 hits, and six players had three hits or more, including Rodriguez, Derek Jeter and Robinson Canó, who had four.

The Yankees improved their recor to 18-7 since the All-Star Game break, using victories over some of the league’s weakest teams to get closer to the first-place Boston Red Sox. They were six and a half games behind them in the American League East before the Red Sox played at Seattle late Saturday.

But all of the other dramas paled in comparison to Rodriguez's blast. The fans had clearly come to witness his milestone. They started chanting his nickname during warm-ups.

pale v. 相形見絀

With Jeter and Bobby Abreu on base in front of him, Rodriguez did not hesitate on the first pitch. After hitting the ball, he circled the bases in triumph, hugged Jeter and Abreu at the plate, then turned to blow a kiss to the crowd. He thought he was aiming it at his wife, Cynthia, and his daughter, but he realized they were not yet in their seats.

hesitate v. 猶豫

Cynthia Rodriguez said sheepishly after the game that she arrived late. “I was running into the stadium when he hit it,” she said. “I saw him running the bases. I did see him cross home plate.”

sheepish a. 羞怯的

Rodriguez received plenty of love from his adoptive Yankees family. This season, as he has piled up his major league-leading 36 homers and 108 runs batted in, he has reveled in their support.

The season has not passed without controversy, from the drama of Rodriguez not saying whether he will opt out of his contract after this season, to pictures of him and a mystery woman being published in New York newspapers, to his wife being photographed at Yankee Stadium wearing a T-shirt with a vulgar phrase on it.

This year, the difference has been that he has not let it affect his play or, seemingly, his emotions.

“New York's a special place,” Rodriguez said. “I've had my trials and tribulations here in New York. I've learned from them. I've had some great times and I've had some good times and I've had some tough times. Today kind of brings it full circle. Maybe there's a happy ending for me somewhere.”

He left that answer open-ended about his future. For now, a celebration of the present was enough.

Younger Players Give Yanks a Spark

Yankees 7, Royals 1

Chien-Ming Wang and Robinson Canó will always be linked by their entry into the major leagues early in 2005. Their instant production helped save that sagging season and caused an epiphany for the Yankees’ management.

sag v. 下陷；(精神)萎靡；(物價)下降，蕭條
epiphany n. 引發頓悟的景色、經驗

“All of a sudden,” Manager Joe Torre said, “you realized that from within our organization, you knew you had impact players, as opposed to just using them as trade bait.”

bait n. 餌；誘餌

The Yankees had built a dynasty around a core of homegrown talent, and the sudden emergence of Wang and Canó was a revelation for a team that had won division titles but somehow lost its way. Yankee Stadium is still a haven for the old and overpaid, but the team is steadily getting younger and livelier.

revelation n. 被揭露的真相；出乎意料的事
haven n. 避風港


Wang and Canó led the Yankees to a 7-1 victory against the Kansas City Royals last night, and three other homegrown Yankees — Melky Cabrera, Shelley Duncan and Andy Phillips — had at least two hits apiece. The victory lifted the team to nine games above .500, at 59-50, with the rookie Phil Hughes scheduled to return to the mound today.

apiece adv. 每個，每人

“There are so many great players in this organization, players that no one has ever heard of,” Duncan said. “A lot of times people will get caught up in things scouts say and only hear two or three names. But there are a lot of players in this organization, and it's evident by every team’s record. Guys play hard, and it's always fun when you get to see your peers you played with through the system come up and have success.”

The Yankees would be thrilled to see Hughes repeat Wang’s performance. Wang is 10-1 in his last 13 starts, and his 31 victories since May 7, 2006, are the most of any pitcher in the majors in that span. In seven innings last night, he allowed one run and seven hits.

thrill v. 使...興奮；使...顫抖
span n. 一段時間


Canó homered, singled and scored twice, and Cabrera had two doubles, including one that bounced off the lower leg of pitcher Ryan Braun and landed behind the Yankees’ dugout, driving in two runs.

Alex Rodriguez went 1 for 3 with a double, a walk and a sacrifice fly, but he remains stuck on 499 home runs. He has not homered since July 25 in Kansas City, a span of 29 at-bats, including one in the completion of a suspended game on July 27.

The pursuit of his 500th home run is not quite an afterthought, but it is not the focus of the games anymore.

“It's going to come, because of the fact that he's playing the game of baseball, as opposed to just trying to hit a home run,” Torre said. “He's very comfortable and seems a lot more relaxed, personality-wise.”

The Yankees have two more games against Kansas City before three in Toronto. That will finish a stretch of 29 consecutive games (including the suspended game) against teams with records below .500.

So far, the Yankees have done what they hoped to do, going 17-7 in this stretch and becoming playoff contenders again. They are two and a half games behind Detroit for the lead in the American League wild-card race.

Wang is the most dependable starter on a decorated Yankees staff. He has worked at least six innings in 19 of 20 starts this season, and his earned run average, 3.49, is better than it was last season, when he was the runner-up to Minnesota’s Johan Santana for the A.L. Cy Young award.

Still, Wang was not pleased with his previous two outings, when he allowed more hits than he had innings pitched, and more walks than strikeouts. Last night’s game was an improvement.

“Today, I had better control, and speed was better,” Wang said. “I tried not to think too much and throw to the catcher's target.”

Wang thrives with his sinker, which tails away from a left-handed hitter. Recently, he has worked on throwing harder fastballs in on left-handers, to keep them from leaning in for a good look at the sinker.

thrive v. 成旺，興旺；茁壯成長

“It's tough for him to throw sinkers in to left-handers, because it always comes back out over the plate,” the pitching coach Ron Guidry said. “And we talked about, ‘Go in, but go in with your four-seamer, your best fastball, at 94-95-95.’ That gets them away from hanging out, because they can't do that anymore.”

After the Royals singled three times to score a run in the third, Wang held them to two hits over the next four innings, leaving after a leadoff double in the eighth.

The Yankees had a 6-1 lead by then, with Canó instrumental in all three rallies. He homered off Odalis Pérez in the second inning, singled and scored in the fourth and walked to lead off the three-run sixth.

instrumental a. 有幫助的

Two innings later, Canó ranged far across the second-base bag for a Billy Butler grounder, snagging it and whipping a sidearm throw to first for the out. Canó is hitting .462 since July 15, and his costly error Thursday is all but forgotten.

snag v. 加以阻撓
whip v. 猛然挪動(拔出、拿取)
sidearm a. 【棒】側投的


“He's a special player,” Torre said. “That's all I can say. He's a real special player.”

Yankees Tire After Matching an Eight-Run Inning

White Sox 13, Yankees 9

Dozens of reporters surrounded Alex Rodriguez long after a draining game at Yankee Stadium. He had two hits yesterday, although not his 500th home run, and the first question was whether he felt better about his at-bats.

“Yeah,” Rodriguez said, the word hanging there like some of the 90 pitches that were thrown in an hourlong second inning. “We're all tired, aren't we?”

The Yankees had nothing to show for the 3 hours 59 minutes they spent in the broiling heat. They recovered quickly from the eight runs Roger Clemens allowed in the second, but they could not summon enough offense to outscore the Chicago White Sox, who took a 13-9 victory.

The loss was the Yankees’ first since Saturday and cost them a game in the American League East and the wild-card standings. They are eight games behind Boston in the division and three behind Cleveland for the wild card.

“I've had plenty of tough starts in my career,” Clemens said. “They don't get any easier.”

Actually, Clemens had never had a start quite like this. According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time in his 701 career starts that he allowed nine hits in an inning. He had not allowed eight runs in an inning since June 26, 1987, the week that his teammate Phil Hughes turned 1.

What truly made this game bizarre, though, was what happened in the bottom of the second. The Yankees scored eight runs against Jon Garland, knocking him out the same way Chicago had chased Clemens.

According to Elias, it was the highest-scoring second inning in major league history. And only once before had both teams scored eight runs in an inning: on May 8, 2004, when the Detroit Tigers scored 8 in the top of the fifth, and the Texas Rangers scored 10 in the bottom.

The Yankees’ comeback spared Clemens the loss, but he was consistently up in the strike zone, and the White Sox sizzled hits through the thick air. Some were hit hard, others were not, and Robinson Canó booted a potential double-play ball that led to five unearned runs. It was one of two errors by Canó.

“Robby's played his tail off,” Clemens said. “You can't worry about that. That's going to happen. Every day guys are busting their butt. I don't put a lot of stock in that. Just take a deep breath, execute and get out of it.”

For Clemens, the inning simply would not end. He dropped to his knees to field a ball and threw out a runner at the plate. But when he tried to get Jim Thome to roll his wrists and tap a grounder to second on a 1-2 splitter, Thome reached out and singled softly to the left side, driving in two runs.

After a double by Paul Konerko, another soft hit — a bouncer up the middle by A. J. Pierzynski — drove in two more runs to make the score 8-0. Jermaine Dye's bloop double, his second of the inning, ended Clemens's day.

Clemens was the first of several players to leave the game prematurely. Three White Sox — Thome, Álex Cintrón and Darin Erstad — left with minor injuries. The Yankees' Jorge Posada bruised his left knee in a collision with Danny Richar in the seventh. Posada tried to catch the eighth but had trouble squatting.

prematurely adv. 過早地
bruise v. 使...受瘀傷，使...青腫
squat v. 蹲


“The knees banged together,” said Posada, who is due to get a day off soon. “It's not going to be bad.”

Posada had two doubles in the second, which also included a three-run homer by Wilson Betemit in his first at-bat with the Yankees. Betemit, a switch-hitter batting left-handed, crushed a ball to center field. He then took a curtain call.

The ball carried well to center all game, and Yankees Manager Joe Torre said he thought that might have surprised center fielder Melky Cabrera, who let Dye's first double of the second inning glance off his glove at the warning track.

But there was no doubt about Dye's eighth-inning blast, which crashed off a billboard right below the black bleachers in straightaway center. It was Dye's second home run of the game and it came off a 99-mile-an-hour fastball from Kyle Farnsworth, who also allowed a home run to Konerko.

blast n. 狠狠的一擊
billboard n. 廣告牌
bleachers n. 【美】露天看台


Farnsworth, who was kept at the trading deadline despite his erratic performance, refused to take questions after the game. It was a tiring day for him, too.

No Defense These Days for Yankee Offense

Yankees 8, White Sox 1

The Yankees hit five more home runs last night in an 8-1 victory against the Chicago White Sox at Yankee Stadium, but none were by Alex Rodriguez, who leads the majors with 35 but remained stalled at 499 for his career.

“You kind of want to join the parade a little,” said Rodriguez, who went hitless in four at-bats to extend his slump to 0 for 21 since homering last Wednesday in Kansas City. “I'll hit it sometime before the year ends.”

A night after the Yankees tagged White Sox pitchers for eight homers, Jorge Posada (two), Robinson Canó, Shelley Duncan and Derek Jeter connected in support of Andy Pettitte. The team tied a franchise record for home runs in consecutive games, set in 1939 in a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Athletics.

“The ball's been flying out,” said Pettitte (7-7), who went seven innings, giving up one run and six hits. “It makes it a lot easier as a pitcher when you have a cushion.”

The Yankees have won three games in a row and 16 of their last 22. They remain seven games behind first-place Boston in the American League East after the Red Sox' 5-4 victory against Baltimore. But they gained a game in the wild-card race, pulling within two of Cleveland, which lost to Texas last night.

Manager Joe Torre said that the pressure Rodriguez has faced to hit the milestone home run was not the same as what a player feels to get a hit in a close game.

Over the last two nights, Rodriguez has usually come to the plate with his team well ahead, so that fans chant his name and take photographs as the umpires exchange standard baseballs for specially marked ones to identify them as souvenirs.

souvenir n. 紀念品

“The whole marked ball situation is a little goofy,” Rodriguez said. Regarding the fans and the surroundings, he added: “It's hard to ignore them. That's not a distraction. It's a festive atmosphere every time I go up to the plate.”

goofy a. 愚笨的
festive a. 歡樂的，節慶的


The Yankees took a 6-1 lead after scoring three runs in the second inning and three in the fourth off starter John Danks (6-8).

After the White Sox had taken a 1-0 lead when Scott Podsednik tripled home Jermaine Dye in the second, Posada responded with a two-run shot to left in the bottom of the inning. The Yankees made it 3-1 when Melky Cabrera doubled home Canó.

They got three more in the fourth, the first on a solo shot by Canó, leading off the inning. Andy Phillips then reached on an error and came home on Duncan’s homer to left-center, making it 6-1.

Duncan, batting ninth as the designated hitter, has five home runs in eight games this season. “I truly feel this is the best lineup in baseball by far,” Duncan said. “It's so much fun to be a part of it.”

Pettitte faced a challenge in the fifth. The first two batters he faced hit singles. He got the next two batters out, then walked Paul Konerko to load the bases. But he retired A. J. Pierzynski on a fly to short left to end the threat.

From that point, Pettitte seemed to get stronger. He retired the side in order in the sixth and took the mound for the seventh despite having thrown 106 pitches. He needed only 11 more, the last a swinging strike by Josh Field, for another 1-2-3 inning.

“Andy got better as the game went along,” Posada said. “He was fighting with himself early, and all of a sudden something clicked. He really settled down. He got a lot of pitches down. He's a battler.”

Much of the focus last night was on Rodriguez, who flied out to left in the first and third and grounded out to short in the fifth.

He came to the plate in the seventh, after Jeter hit a solo homer off reliever Ryan Bukvich, increasing the Yankees’ lead to 7-1.

Rodriguez dug in with Bobby Abreu on first base. The first pitch by Bukvich was low and outside as flashbulbs went off and many fans in the capacity crowd of 53,342 stood.

With the count full and the fans chanting “Let's go, A-Rod,” Bukvich threw a fastball that Rodriguez pulled on the ground to third base.

“The guys are picking me up,” Rodriguez said. “It would be a lot more frustrating if we weren't winning. It's the way it goes. You really can't sweat it too much.”

A Home Run Parade That Rodriguez Is Unable to Join

Yankees 16, White Sox

The Yankees have played 16,218 games since their first season in 1903. Never have they hit more home runs than they did last night at Yankee Stadium. Seven players slugged a total of eight homers in a 16-3 rout of the Chicago White Sox, tying a club record set in 1939.

Babe Ruth was the career home run leader then. Hank Aaron was 5 years old. Barry Bonds came along much later. Alex Rodriguez may one day top them all, but he has to reach 500 first. And that pursuit has become excruciating.

pursuit n. 追蹤；追求
excruciating a. 極痛苦的，令人苦惱的


Rodriguez flied out five times and is hitless in 17 at-bats since swatting his 499th career homer last Wednesday. The fans squealed whenever he batted last night, snapping photographs and hoping for history. They got history, just not the kind they expected.

squeal v. 發出長而尖的叫聲

“It's not one of those games you play with dice,” Manager Joe Torre said. “This is real people out there. I'm sure if you polled everybody in baseball who didn't see the game and saw eight home runs being hit, they would have guessed that Alex hit two or three of them. But that’s the game.”

Rodriguez, who played seven innings, was dressed and gone by the time Torre spoke. Outside the clubhouse as he left, he said he was not disappointed. Four of his outs were to center or right, usually a good sign for a right-handed hitter.

“When you hit the ball well, that's all you're looking for,” Rodriguez said.

Still, if he had homered off Gavin Floyd in the seventh, he would have lifted the Yankees to a single-game team record in home runs. But he lined out to center, then gave his bat to a boy in the stands behind the dugout.

By then, Rodriguez was hitting behind Shelley Duncan, who took over in right field for Bobby Abreu, who smashed a three-run homer in the first off the former Yankee José Contreras. Duncan homered in the seventh, his fourth home run in the four games in which he has had an at-bat at Yankee Stadium.

“This is the only lineup in baseball that can come to the field every day and something extremely exciting can happen like that, one through nine,” said Duncan, who is quickly becoming a folk hero in the Bronx. “It's so much fun to watch, just being a part of it in the dugout.”

The game began three hours after the trading deadline passed, and the Yankees did not add Eric Gagné, a reliever they could have had if they had parted with center fielder Melky Cabrera.

Cabrera showed why he was worth keeping. He raced to the warning track to rob Josh Fields of an extra-base hit in the first inning, and punctuated the Yankees' five-run third inning with a homer, punching the air as he rounded first base.

“He's really contributed a huge amount to this club — with his defense, with his energy, with his ability to get on base and run,” said Mike Mussina, who worked six innings to lift his record to 6-7. “It's just another aspect we have to have. I'm really glad he's still with us.”

Home runs by Abreu and Hideki Matsui gave the Yankees a 4-0 lead in the first. Mussina gave three back on a home run by Juan Uribe in the second, but Robinson Canó drove Contreras from the game with a three-run homer in the third, and the rout was under way.

Matsui homered again in the sixth, giving him 13 for the month. He hit .345 in July, with 28 runs batted in and 31 runs scored, making a compelling case to be named the American League’s player of the month.

compelling a. 令人注目的

Then again, Canó and Abreu will also have a chance. Canó finished July with a .385 average, 6 homers and 24 R.B.I. Abreu batted .353 for the month, with 5 home runs and 29 R.B.I.

Even Johnny Damon, who also homered last night, is batting .400 (16 for 40) since a hitless streak of 20 at-bats, the longest of his career, ended July 20. It is no coincidence that the Yankees’ left-handed hitters have fueled the team's surge.

surge n. 波濤，大浪

The Yankees went 19-9 in July and are now three games behind Cleveland for the wild-card lead and seven games behind Boston in the American League East.

It was such a good night that Kyle Farnsworth managed a 1-2-3 inning, only his fifth in 45 appearances. Farnsworth complained Sunday that he was being underused, and Torre met with him yesterday.

“He's going to be better with regular work, and we're going to make it a point to do that,” Torre said. “He's got very good stuff. He needs to go out on a regular basis and get tuned up.”