Yanks rout Tribe but still almost lose

The Yanks almost blew a nine-run lead over the final two frames, including surrendering four runs in the ninth, but held on to beat the Indians, 11-7. This game had pretty much everything: 15 Yankee hits, two home runs, a bullpen-clearing brawl and lots of offense. Every Yankee starter had at least one hit except for Swish Dog, who drew two walks and drove in a run.

The offense got things going quickly, scoring three runs in the first inning. Grandy then hit a homer in the second before Carmona threw a pitch at Tex’ upper body. The beaning, obviously, didn’t sit well with the team and the benches cleared; Girardi even got into it with Tribe skipper Manny Acta. Tex was pissed to say the least. It was good seeing some emotion from the team, but I have to wonder why nobody said boo when the Sox beaned five Yankees over two games…

Regardless, Tex got the last laugh as he had a three-run double (his first double since May 28 — 29 games), two walks and scored twice. It was, though, his seventh hit by pitch of the season after getting hit just 13 times all of last year.

Posada seems to have been revived as of late; he went 3-for-5 with an RBI but did get caught trying to stretch a single into a double. He now has hits in 10 of his last 16 at-bats and, since asking out of the lineup against Beantown, is 16-for-50 (.320). However, he still hasn’t hit a home run since April 23 (104 at-bats).

A-Rod absolutely murdered a pitch for his 625th career dinger, reports said it traveled 460 feet, while Gardy and Cano combined to go 5-for-9 with two RBI and a run scored. Jeet went 1-for-5 with a double and scored twice, and is now nine hits away from 3,000.

SuperNova threw a pretty good game after a few clunkers. He went seven innings and gave up two runs on four hits with six strikeouts to three walks. He said that he felt as strong in the seventh inning as he did early on, which is good. Hopefully he keeps this going and puts up some more strong starts.

The bullpen did its darnedest to give the lead away. Kevin Whelan, who was *brought up before the game, walked in a run while getting only two outs in the eighth. He had walked only six batters in 27 innings in Scranton, but walked four in six batters during his Major League debut tonight. I know it’s an unfair comparison, but Mo has walked four batters in 24 1/3 innings this season.

*Chris Dickerson was sent down to make room

Amauri Sanit then came on and struck out O-Dog to end the eighth before giving up four runs (three of which were charged to him) on as many hits in the ninth. Lance Pendleton walked in a run and Mo gave up a two-run single. The final score really isn’t indicative of how bad the Yanks beat them all game. It would have been a shame if they blew it, Nova really pitched well and deserved the win.

For what it’s worth: the Injuns had scored four runs or fewer in 14 of their last 18 games and two runs or fewer in 10 of their last 15 games coming in.

The clubs will play the second tilt of this four-game set tomorrow at 1:05 with Cy Colon going against Mitch Talbot.

It was announced before the game that Joba will undergo Tommy John surgery on Thursday. The procedure will be performed by Dr. James Andrews. It usually takes at least a year to recover so best case scenario he’s back by next All-Star break, but most likely we won’t see him until 2013. Get well soon Joba!

LET’S GO YANKS!!!