A very tough-minded Yankee team won a marathon 13 inning game that began at 7:57 PM and ended sometime after one AM. Played in miserably cold conditions, the game featured excellent pitching by both the Yanks and the Angels. A.J. Burnett pitched seven strong innings in which he gave up only two runs, although he certainly lived up to Buck Showalter‘s analysis that Burnett will give you four brilliant innings, “and then he comes out and you say, `Who is this guy?’ Burnett had one horrid inning last night, the fifth, in which he
three 33 pitches, walked a guy, hit a batter, and threw a wild pitch that allowed a run to score. Still, he did not melt down completely, as he often has, and he left with the game 2-2, a typical tight playoff game, thanks to equally excellent pitching of Angel starter Joe Saunders. The Angels did take a 3-2 lead in the top of the 11th, but on an 0-2 pitch leading off the bottom of the 11th, Alex Rodriguez homered, an amazing hit in that he neither had the fat part of the bat on the ball nor did he fully extend his arms. Rodriguez thus joined David Ortiz (2004), Kirk Gibson (1988) and Dave Henderson (’86) as the only players to have two or more game-tying or go-ahead home runs in the ninth inning or later of one postseason. The Yanks won in the bottom of the 13th (yet another walk off win!), thanks to a lead-off hit by Jerry Hairston Jr., who later scored from second on a bad throw by the Angel second baseman (see it here.). It’s very exciting to see the bench players contribute in games like this. On to California, with five down, and six to go.
