OAKLAND GOES ONE BETTER
Scutaro’s ninth inning RBI single does in Bombers 4-3




By: Russ Rose
Special to Yankees Talk Shop
April 5, 2006

One night after putting on a monster offensive show the Oakland Athletics, behind Rich Harden and the bullpen, brought the Yankees back to earth with a 4-3 win on Marco Scutaro’s ninth inning, RBI game-winning, single.



The game started as a pitcher’s duel as Harden and Yankee starter Mike Mussina traded zeros in the first two innings. Harden had his fastball and changeup working to perfection, while Mussina countered with an array of knuckle curves mixed in with a few fastballs.

The Yankees struck first in the third inning as Harden, with two outs, walked Derek Jeter. It appeared that home plate umpire Kerwin Danley was squeezing Harden by not calling close pitches on the corners. Harden faced Gary Sheffield who hit a laser shot over the head of left fielder Nick Swisher for a double. The hit scored Jeter all the way from first base and the Yankees took the lead 1-0. The inning ended badly as Alex Rodriguez, who hit a line single to left, got caught trying to advance to second after a throw to home plate by Swisher. Catcher Jason Kendall fired the ball to second baseman Mark Ellis who tagged out Rodriguez to end the inning

As has been his trademark throughout his career Mussina served up a fat pitch to Swisher in the bottom of the frame and Swisher hammered it over the right field wall to tie the score. Moose got into more trouble as he gave up three consecutive singles to Marco Scutaro, Mark Ellis and Mark Kotsay, which scored Scutaro to give Oakland a 2-1 lead.

The Yankees evened up the score in the fourth inning as Jorge Posada grounded out to shortstop, which scored Jason Giambi from third base.

In the top of the sixth inning Rodriguez led off with a single to center. He advanced to third on successive groundouts by Jason Giambi and Hideki Matsui. Posada came to the plate and delivered a single to right to score Rodriguez.

Mussina went back to the mound in the bottom of the sixth with a 3-2 lead. However, as he did in the third Mussina gave up a home run ball to third baseman Eric Chavez to tie the score at three.

The Yankees had their chances to pull ahead in the seventh when leadoff hitter Johnny Damon singled and was sacrificed to second by Jeter. However, neither Sheffield nor Rodriguez could advance Damon. Rodriguez struck out to end the inning.

In the eighth inning the Yankees mustered a chance at scoring a go-ahead run, but with two outs Hideki Matsui was stranded at second base when DH Bernie Williams lined out to left field to end the inning. In the ninth inning the Bombers knocked on the door of opportunity one more time when Damon got himself into scoring position with a one-out double to right field. Unfortunately, the Yankees short-circuited again when Jeter grounded out, Sheffield walked, and Rodriguez hit into a fielder’s choice to the shortstop kill the scoring prospect.

Manager Joe Torre called on reliever Scott Procter to hold the A’s in the bottom of the ninth, but the right-hander had a rough inning. He walked leadoff Milton Bradley, allowed Kendall to sacrifice Bradley to second, walked Swisher, and then gave up the game winning single to Scutaro.

Procter who had just returned from being with his wife and newborn daughter, who underwent surgery to repair the aortic arch in her heart, said there were no excuses for not getting the job done. Although Procter failed to hold the A’s the Yankees certainly weren’t blaming him. The offense had more than their fair share of chances to score runs and didn’t execute properly. The Yankees were 1 for 15 in run scoring chances. That won’t get it done.

The Yankees close out their three-game series with Oakland tonight at 10:05 EDT, sending Chien-Ming Wang (8-5, 4.02 – 2005) to the mound to square of against Oakland’s Dan Haren (14-12, 3.73 – 2005). They travel to Anaheim to take on the Angels in a three-game weekend series before heading home to open their first home stand against the Kansas City Royals on Tuesday.



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