Brian Gordon didn’t have his best outing. He gave up four runs on five hits with a strikeout in five innings. He did retire 10 in a row at one point, but the Reds got to him in the fifth.

Hector Noesi was left out to dry. Girardi stayed with him in the eighth and his final line was six runs on eight hits with a walk and a strikeout in 1 2/3 innings. Yikes.

Chris Heisey victimized Yankee pitching to the tune of three home runs, five RBI and four runs scored. The last player to homer three times in a game against the Yanks was loser Kevin Millar on 7/23/04.

The offense was not there tonight either, you could tell it was a getaway day. They were swinging at a lot of first pitches and went 0-for-9 with RISP while stranding seven men. The Yanks had a chance in the seventh with the bases loaded and one out but Ramiro Pena grounded out and pinch-hitter Posada followed suit — both outs came on the first pitch.

Swisher’s solo shot in the second and A-Rod’s RBI double in the eighth were among the team’s four hits.

It was the first time in 11 games that the Yanks allowed more than four runs and the second time in 21 games that they allowed 12 or more hits (14).

After scoring just five runs on 10 hits  over the first two games, the Reds finally broke through. It wasn’t pretty. Let us never speak of this game again. The thing that really galls me is that the team could have taken over first place with a win, but instead they’re a half-game back of Boston. Rats.

The Yanks have an off day tomorrow but will get back at it Friday as the Rockies come to town for a three-game set.

LET’S GO YANKS!!!

Tex led the offense with a 3-for-5 showing. He hit a pair of dingers, drove in four runs and scored three times. He homered from both sides of the plate for the 11th time in his career, which ties him with Chili Davis and Eddie Murray for the most all-time; The Mick did it 10 times. It was his second two-homer game in the last 11 days and in his last 10 games he’s hitting .290 (9-for-31) with five home runs, 15 RBI, eight runs and two doubles.

He’s tied for the major league lead (Grandy and Bautista) with 21 taters and now has nine straight years with at least 20 homers and has 296 career long balls, the quickest to that “mark” by a switch hitter in the history of MLB. Tex is now 7-for-15 with three homers lifetime against Derek Holland.

Grandy and he have combined for 42 homers, better than four teams (Padres, A’s, Twins and Astros).

The entire Yankee infield homered in the win, with Ramiro Pena, Eddie Nunez and Cano all going yard. Cano also stole a base to record his first career game with a homer and a stolen bag and establish a new career high with steals at six. He finished with three RBI. It was Pena’s second career homer, with the other coming on 9/28/09 against the Royals. Nunez went 2-for-4 and stole a pair of bases on what was his 24th birthday (it’s also Pettitte’s 39th birthday). Those two finished with a pair of RBI each.

You know the offense is clicking when Frankie Cervelli drives in a run and steals a base. Grandy and Andruw Jones drove in a run apiece as well.

A-Rod scored once and stole a base. In doing so he tied Ted Williams for 16th on the all-time runs scored list with No. 1,799 and matched his stolen base total from last season (four). Not Williams’ total, he’s frozen.

It was just an offensive onslaught. The pitching, not so much. SuperNova (6-4) was far from super as he went 5 2/3 innings and gave up four runs on seven hits with two punchouts and three walks. He really didn’t deserve the win, but what can you do? His ERA is 4.46 and you have to figure that if they had a healthy rotation he would be out of the picture.

Luis Ayala threw 1 1/3 innings of two-hit, one-walk ball with a strikeout before Cory Wade (see below after the jump) and Jeff Marquez threw an inning each with the latter giving up one hit.

It was rather surprising that they hit like they did because Girardi used a highly unorthodox lineup for the game. Swish led off because of his OBP against lefties and because Girardi wanted Gardy to get a day off. Swish Dog made his 30th career start in the leadoff role and his first since 5/4/08 with the ChiSox. He went 1-for-3 with a pair of walks and scored once.

Other news:

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After getting no-hit for the first three innings, the Yanks sent seven men to the plate in the fourth and put up a pair of runs to tie it up. However, the big story of the game was the nine-run sixth inning where they broke the game wide open. The Yanks batted around and also hit for the cycle in the fateful sixth.

Lost in the offensive onslaught was Phil Hughes’ great game. Philthy went six innings and gave up two runs on four hits while fanning six batters and not issuing a walk to move to 15-5. He probably could have went longer if not for the 40-minute sixth, but it’s a moot point because they didn’t need him to and it saved him some innings on his season limit. He earned his first back-to-back wins since June 13 and 19 against the Astros and Mets, respectively. He’s pitched into the sixth inning in each of last five starts (six straight after today) and put up solid numbers in the process.

Proving once again that saves are a stupid stat, Sergio Mitre threw three innings of relief while giving up three runs on six hits with three punch outs to one walk to earn his first save of the season. Let that soak in for a while.

Every starter, sans Gardy and Pena, had at least one hit. Cano, though, showed them all up with a 3-for-5 day to go along with a homer, a double, three RBI and three runs scored…don’t ya know.

Girardi on Cano: (more…)

It’s been great, we’ve been playing good baseball. When I hit (600th home run) nothing’s going to change; we’re in the middle of a pennant race and we’re just trying to play good baseball…I feel good about the way I’m swinging the bat.

The big story of the night though was Dustin F’ing Moseley, who pitched like a champ in place of an injured Pettitte. After a shaky first inning — in which he threw 31 pitches and gave up a run but got out of a big jam — he settled like a bastard and used just 11 pitches in the second, nine in the third, 12 in the fourth, eight in the fifth and 14 in the sixth. I’ve got a feeling he’s going to get another shot to start — a well deserved chance to start.

I just relaxed a little bit. I felt like I made some decent pitches in the first inning, then I just relaxed, attacked the zone a little bit more and just go right after them. I was pressing a little bit early, maybe trying to do too much, then I got to sit on the bench a little bit and just kind of go throught the process. I went back out in those next innings and attacked the zone. I was excited, I felt strong at the end.

Fun Facts: (more…)