Ichiro’s Walk-Off Gives New York Yankees The Victory Over Texas

Remember the days when the New York Yankees relied too much on the home run ball? Remember the days when there was power up and down the lineup and most of the Yankees runs were due to the long ball? Well, if just for one night, it was like that again. The Yankees blasted four solo homers as they beat the Texas Rangers 4-3.

June 25, 2013; Bronx, NY, USA; New York Yankees outfielder

celebrates his game-winning home run with teammates in the bottom of the ninth inning against the Texas Rangers at Yankee Stadium. Mandatory Credit: John Munson/THE STAR-LEDGER via USA TODAY Sports

Leonys Martin got the scoring started with a solo homer of his own in the third. The Rangers took advantage of David Adams‘ error in the fourth. Adrian Beltre reached on that error. A.J. Pierzynski and Lance Berkman followed with singles to load the bases. Mitch Moreland‘s groundout made it 2-0.

The Yankees came right back in the bottom half when Travis Hafner hit his 12th homer of year. In the top of the fifth, Martin hit his second homer of the game. Brett Gardner then led off the bottom half of the fifth with his seventh homer of the year to make it 3-2.

Jayson Nix then led off the bottom of the sixth with his second homer of the year. He’s homered off Justin Verlander and Yu Darvish (not bad).

The score remained tied until the ninth. On a night that was billed as two top Japanese pitchers facing each other in Darvish and Hiroki Kuroda, it was Ichiro Suzuki who has the hero for the evening, hitting his fourth homer of the year in the bottom of the ninth to win the game.

Player of the Game: Ichiro

Game two of the series is at 7:05 tomorrow. Justin Grimm will face Andy Pettitte.

Notes: Reid Brignac decided to elect free agency over going to AAA Scranton. Mark Teixeira‘s wrist hasn’t responded to the cortisone shot and it’s possible he will need season-ending surgery. Alex Rodriguez joined twitter (by the way, whoever told him that was a good idea for him of all people to join twitter needs to re-evaluate what they are doing) and is in trouble with the Yankee organization. He tweeted during the game he was cleared to play in rehab games by the doctor. Yankee GM Brian Cashman, when asked about it by reporters said that A-Rod should “shut up.”