New York Yankees starting pitcher Vidal Nuno throws a pitch to the New York Mets in the first inning of their MLB inter-league game at Yankee Stadium in New York on Thursday. (Reuters) New York Yankees starting pitcher Vidal Nuno throws a pitch to the New York Mets in the first inning of their MLB inter-league game at Yankee Stadium in New York on Thursday. (Reuters)
Reuters/Los Angeles
Baltimore pitcher Freddy Garcia threw eight shutout innings as the Orioles beat the Washington Nationals 2-0 on Thursday as Major League Baseball (MLB) scheduled a number of several interleague local derbies.
Garcia struck out six and allowed just three hits as the Orioles improved to 30-24 to maintain touch with Boston and the New York Yankees in the American League East while the Nationals dropped to 27-27.
In New York, Dillon Gee struck out a career-high 12 batters and allowed just the single run to help the Mets to a 3-1 win over the Yankees and their fifth successive victory.
The Yankees have now lost five games in a row. The San Francisco Giants’ Pablo Sandoval and Brandon Belt drove in two runs each during the sixth inning to record a 5-2 win and snap the Oakland Athletics (31-24) six-game winning streak. “It’s always fun to win this series, especially for our fans,” Mets captain David Wright said. “It gives our fans some bragging rights.”
Marlon Byrd had a two-run, second-deck homer in the second off rookie Vidal Nuno (1-2), John Buck hit a slow-rolling RBI single off third base in the eighth and Gee made that stand up with a start that may have saved his job. “You’re playing as hard as you always do, but you know it’s something special for the fans,” Byrd said. “We can’t go on the road and let up. We have to keep going hard, like we did here.”
The Yankees were outscored 16-7 in the sweep and went 5 for 23 (.218) with runners in scoring position. Mets starters were 4-0 with a 1.91 ERA.
“Does it mean any more that it’s against the Yankees? Had we been playing better, yeah, it would have been huge. But right now we’ve just got to win some games, and it didn’t matter who it was,” Mets manager Terry Collins said. “It establishes a mood in the clubhouse that, you know what, we’re not that bad.”
Since the start of interleague play in 1997, the only Subway Series sweep had been by the Yankees, when they went 6-0 in 2003. “It’s hard when you lose to your crosstown rivals,” Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. “You don’t want to be part of a team that gets swept by your crosstown rivals. Over time, it’s going to happen, but you don’t want to be the team that it happens to.”
The Yankees began the week leading the AL East at 30-20. And the Mets, who had never won four straight over the Yankees, were fourth in the NL East at 18-29. But the Met extended a winning streak to five for the first time since May 5-9 last year. And the Yankees have lost five in a row in a single season for the first time since a six-game slide from May 11-16, 2011.
In the battle of Ohio, the Cleveland Indians (29-24) rode a seven-run fourth inning to a 7-1 win over Cincinnati (33-21).
Chicago Cubs (22-30) pitcher Travis Wood gave up just two runs and hammered a grand slam to help his side to their fourth successive win, a 8-3 triumph against the cross-town rival White Sox (24-27).
The Texas Rangers (33-20) got back on track after a three game slide with a 9-5 win over the Arizona Diamondbacks (30-23) in a battle of division leaders. Mitch Morland belted a two-run homer as the home side leapt ahead early with all their runs scored between the second and fifth innings.
Jacoby Ellsbury set a franchise record with five stolen bases as the Boston Red Sox beat Philadelphia 9-2. Pittsburgh (34-20) needed 11 innings but Russell Martin produced a game ending single to help the Pirates to a 1-0 win over the Detroit Tigers (29-23). In Los Angeles, the Angels (25-29) prevailed 3-2 in a close encounter with the Dodgers
(22-30).