BY ANTHONY RIEBER
anthony.rieber@newsday.com
July 23, 2007
When general manager Brian Cashman envisioned his 2007 Yankees, this must have been what he saw: a relentless offensive attack that beats second-division teams into submission.
He probably didn't think he'd have to wait until late July for it to arrive. But it's here, and the Yankees hope to ride the wave into serious playoff contention.
They used a 10-run fourth inning and six home runs to obliterate the Devils Rays, 21-4, yesterday at Yankee Stadium. Storybook rookie Shelley Duncan hit a pair of homers, Alex Rodriguez hit his 498th and Hideki Matsui (5-for-6), Robinson Cano (4-for-6) and Bobby Abreu (3-for-4) also went deep as the Yankees pounded 25 hits and scored at least 17 runs in two consecutive games for the first time since 1930.
The carnage delighted the sun-splashed crowd of 54,751, some of whom actually seemed disappointed when Andy Phillips' sixth-inning fly ball was caught at the warning track in rightfield. The Yankees led 18-3 at the time. So much for mercy.
"Great game," Andy Pettitte said. Why not? He was the winning pitcher.
The victory was the Yankees' third over Tampa Bay in a 28-hour span. They won a day-night doubleheader Saturday, the second game by a 17-5 score. Starting with a five-run sixth inning in their 7-3 Game 1 win, the Yankees amassed 43 runs and 50 hits in 102 at-bats in a 19-inning span against the beleaguered Devil Rays, whom they will see six more times in 2007.
"I've never seen anything like this, these last two days," manager Joe Torre said. "After [Satuday] night, to come back and score 21 runs . . . we're enjoying it. It's not fun to be on the other side of the field, but certainly nobody's trying to do anything to anybody. It's just guys are taking every at-bat and working."
The Yankees took three of four in the weekend series and have won five straight series, going 14-5 in that span. Now they go on the road for an eight-game trip to Kansas City and Baltimore (including the completion of the June 28 suspended game with the Orioles in which the Yankees led 8-6 with two out in the top of the eighth). At 51-46, they are five games over .500 for the first time this season.
"We don't have much room for error right now based on how deep a hole we dug ourselves," Torre said. "But again, it's just something where we have to go out and play as well as we can and see what it gets us. Right now, if we just continue winning series, we'll be heard from, basically."
Especially if they hit like this. The Yankees had three five-run innings in their doubleheader sweep Saturday; yesterday, they doubled their pleasure. The score was tied at 3 when Cano tripled against James Shields (8-6) to begin the fourth and scored the go-ahead run on a single by Phillips.
Ten batters later, the Yankees had their biggest inning since they scored 10 last Sept. 4 at Kansas City. Derek Jeter, Abreu, Matsui, Jorge Posada and Cano had RBI singles and another run scored on a throwing error on a double-steal to make it 10-3. Duncan, the 27-year-old rookie DH, hit a three-run homer to left to make it 13-3 and received his second curtain call in as many days.
The inning took 29 minutes, but there was more to come from Duncan and his teammates. "The guys swung the bats up and down the lineup incredibly well," Rodriguez said. "Even though the games are long, they go by much quicker when you're winning."
Abreu homered in the fifth. Duncan went deep again in the sixth, his third home run (and third curtain call) in five at-bats; this one was an opposite-field shot to right-center. Johnny Damon, who didn't start, doubled home a run in the sixth before Rodriguez blasted his 34th of the season, a two-run shot that gave him 99 RBIs in 98 games, including the suspended game.
Cano hit a two-run homer deep into the right-centerfield bleachers in the eighth; he missed the cycle by a double. Melky Cabrera's RBI single three batters later made it 21-3.
"We just need to keep going," said Pettitte (6-6, 4.12 ERA), who allowed three runs in six innings. "Just keep playing well and hopefully we can continue the same on this road trip and have a great road trip."
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