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10.1
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY. SEPTEMBER 17. 2009
SPORTS
3B
MLB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
New York Yankees' Hidei Matsui follows through on an eighth-inning two-run home run at a Yankee Stadium on Wednesday. Players from both teams were suspended for their involvement in a fight during a game the night before.
New York beats Toronto, but not literally this time
ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEW YORK — This time the Yankees fought back with their bats.
Hideki Matsui hit a tying, two-run homer in the eighth inning off Scott Downs, Francisco Cervelli hit a winning single in the ninth and New York beat the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 Wednesday night.
A day after brawling in the Bronx, the Blue Jays and Yankees made it through nine innings calmly on the first chilly night of late summer.
New York was held to four hits through seven innings, then tied it on Matsui's 25th homer, a drive over the manual scoreboard on the right-field wall.
Brett Gardner singled off Jason Frasor (6-3) leading on the ninth, stole second, took third on Derek
Jeter's grounder and scored on Cervelli's shrank single to left.
Mariano Rivera (3-2) pitched a one-hit ninth for the win.
Approaching a return to the playoffs after a one-year absence, New York (94-53) finished its next-to-last homestand of the regular season by overcoming three wild pitches and an error by the shortstop Jeter, who allowed a grounder to go through his legs.
Toronto lost two pitchers to injury. Brian Tallet cut short his start after bruising his right foot on Robinson Cano's comebacker leading off the second. He finished the inning and was replaced by Shawn Camp starting the third.
Camp hit Melky Cabrera above the right knee with an 80 mph breaking ball in the fourth, but both benches remained calm.
Downs also left early. Three
batters after Matsui's homer, he came out with a 1-0 count to Cabrera, who hit an inning-ending flyout against Frasor.
Much of the focus was on events of a night earlier.
Jorge Posada and Shelley Duncan of the Yankees and Jesse Carlson of the Blue Jays each were suspended for three games by Major League Baseball for their role in Tuesday's fight.
While Posada and Carlson accepted their penalties, Duncan appealed and remained eligible to play.
After a pair of Toronto players were hit by pitches Tuesday night, Carlson threw a fastball behind Posada in the eighth inning of the Blue Jays' 10-4 win. Moments later, Posada bumped Carlson after scoring a run, and the dugouts and bullpens emptied.
Tigers honor Hall of Fame broadcaster, beat Royals
Kansas City Royals' Mike Jacobs strikes out against Detroit Tigers' Brandon Lyon in the eighth inning Wednesday in Detroit. Jacobs went 1-for-4 in a 4-3 loss to the Tigers.
MLB
ASSOCIATED PRESS
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DETROIT — The Detroit Tigers gave their fans plenty to cheer about Wednesday night.
First the team honored longtime radio announcer Ernie Harwell, then the Tigers went out and beat the Kansas City Royals 4-3 to maintain their lead in the AL Central.
Placido Polanco singled home the go-ahead run with two outs in the sixth inning as the Tigers, seeking their first division title since 1987, reduced their magic number to 13. Detroit leads Minnesota by $4\frac{1}{2}$ games.
"I think he really said some nice words," reliever Zach Miner said of Harwell, who spoke to the team before the game. "I think everyone kind of took it to heart and kind of realized that it's a game."
"That's just the way we've played games all year," said Detroit shortstop Adam Everett, who drove in two runs, including the tying run in the sixth. "I don't know how to explain it. They've been beating us up pretty good and to get a win, and win in that fashion, was big for us."
The victory ended the Tigers' five-game skid against Kansas City.
The 91-year-old Hall of Fame broadcaster was in the Detroit booth from 1960 to 2002.
Detroit saluted Harwell, who recently said he has inoperable cancer, during the third inning. The team showed a three-minute video tribute then the Hall of Fame announcer gave a thank-you speech to an appreciative and tearful crowd of 25,400.
Miner (7-5) and three other relievers kept the Royals scoreless over the final five innings. Fernando Rodney worked the
Everett and Curtis Granderson each drove in a run in Detroit's two-run fourth and Everett added his tying RBI single off starter Lenny DiNardo (0-1) in the sixth. Reliever Jamey Wright gave up Polanco's hit with two outs.
ninth to earn his 33rd save in 34 chances.
Kansas City had runners at second and third to start the eighth after Bobby Seay gave consecutive singles, but Brandon Lyon came on to induce a grounder to the mound and a strikeout before getting Alberto Callaspo to pop up to first.
The Royals lost their lead basrunner three times, including in the third when Yuniesky Betancourt was thrown out at the plate by Ryan Raburn. Tigers catcher Gerald Laird later caught his majors-best 34th runner trying to steal, when Willie Bloomquist failed to swipe second.
"Obviously what Lyon did tonight was game-saving,"
Levland said.
"Situational hitting and defense — were weren't at either one and it cost us," Kansas City manager Trey Hillman said.
Mater and Miguel Olivo had RBI singles and Alex Gordon added a sacrifice fly against starter Eddie Bonine.