Patience Pays

Patience is a virtue in life, love and especially in baseball. Plate patience paid off for the pinstriped New York Yankees Tuesday night in Oakland. The Bombers began a nine game road trip by winning their fifth straight game, a 7-3 walk-fest over the hometown Athletics. The Yankees drew ten walks and pitcher Javier Vasquez picked up his first victory of the season hurling five innings of six hit ball. Vasquez’s velocity was shaky but the hurler relied on off-speed pitches and six strikeouts in defeating the AL West’s top team.
Nick Swisher smoked a single against his former squad in the first innings to give the Yankees a 3-0 early lead. Mark Teixeira doubled with two outs for the defending World Champions to plate the first base runner against Oakland’s Gio Gonzalez. The A’s youthful lefty walked Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano on full counts to load the bases before Jorge Posada’s RBI single scored Teixeira. Posada slapped a hard bouncer to first base, but Daric Barton could only knock it down as the Yankees’ backstop reached safely. Swisher’s two run smack to center field cleared the bases, save for Posada at third. Gonzalez got Curtis Granderson to fly out for the final out of the lengthy three run first inning and retired 11 of the next 12 batters he faced. The Yankees continued to work the count against Oakland’s pitchers. Five of the seven Bomber runs resulted from walks. Not to be upstaged in the field, New York’s defense turned three double plays in the victory.
New York’s offense added to their advantage by tallying three runs in the fifth. Rodriguez took Craig Breslow deep with a three run blast on a 1-2 count. The ominous third base slugger trotted around the bases for the second time in five career at-bats against the Oakland reliever. The Yankee starter kept his mechanics in check until the middle innings. In the bottom half of the fifth Vasquez served up a Travis Buck homer as the A’s finally nudged a substantial hit off the crisp righty. A’s fifth hitting catcher, Kurt Suzuki, contributed a titanic two-run tater in the sixth to cut New York’s lead in half. Bombers’ skipper, Joe Girardi, removed his pitcher from the game after 23 batters and replaced him with Boone Logan. Logan, in his major league debut, was somewhat bumpy after getting out of the sixth. Eric Chavez grounded out and Adam Rosales was fanned to end the frame. Rosales was inserted for the injured second baseman, Mark Ellis. Nick Johnson scored in the top of the seventh on a Posada fielder’s choice to pad the Yankees lead to four.
Logan’s seventh inning was a completely different story than his sixth inning stand. The 25 year old allowed back-to-back two out singles and walked Ryan Sweeney to load the bags. Girardi yanked his reliever and summoned Joba Chamberlain for the jam. Chamberlain bailed the Bombers out to keep the lead at four runs. Damaso Marte and Mariano Rivera saw mound time in preserving the 7-3 score and the win for New York. The patient Bronx Bombers boast a 10-3 record, while Oakland fell to 9-6 on the season.

Parting Points: Song of the day- “Patience” by Nick Lachey (or, if you prefer, Take That’s version)

“I hope you look at me through patient eyes”- PM Dawn