This Week In Yankees Baseball- Martin Prado Produces

Well hello there, everybody. Welcome to This Week In Yankees Baseball. An exciting come from behind 4-3 victory over the White Sox on Friday night has Yankees´ fans clinging to the hope for the final playoff spot.

“I can describe it as one of the biggest moments of my career,” said Martin Prado, who drove home the deciding run in the ninth inning with a single to center field off Daniel Webb. “Just getting a win for the Yankees means a lot for anyone,¨ he said according to MLB.com. How about that!

That was followed by Joe Torre Day on Saturday. The Yankees honored Torre by retiring his number 6, and with a plaque in Monument Park. Yankees manager Joe Girardi has had the privilege of playing and coaching with Torre.

“I’ve always said I think that one of Joe’s greatest qualities was that he had the ability in that room to make us feel that everything would be all right if we just stuck together and did our jobs,” Girardi said, according to MLB.com. “He was good at keeping the noise out and letting us focus on our jobs. You think about a lot of the things that we went through. You can talk about 1996 when we had a 12-game lead. It got down to 2 1/2 games on Sept. 10 and Joe said everything was going to be all right. We were down 2-0 in the World Series and just got crushed in the first game. Joe said, ‘Let’s just go to Atlanta and win one game and not embarrass ourselves.’ That turned into two and three and four.¨

Ironically, it is now Girardi who must keep the Yankees and their fans believing that there is still time to salvage this season. There were some signs this week that he may just be able to pull that off. Michael Pineda pitched six strong innings to lower his ERA to 2.05. And Brandon McCarthy threw a four hit shut out.

With the win on Friday, the Yankees slipped past Toronto into second place and inched closer to the final wild card spot. Remember, there was another New York team that was written off as they headed into September with a near double-digit deficit in the standings. They too struggled scoring runs, but they were able to rely on  their pitching staff. They fared pretty well in the end. They called them The Amazin Mets.

Lightning can strike twice in the same place.