Crosby’s Big Day Gives Yankees Big Win Over O’s
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Rarely used reserve Bubba Crosby led off the bottom of the ninth inning with his first home run this season, giving the Yankees a 3-2 victory last night over the Baltimore Orioles.
Chien-Ming Wang pitched eight stellar innings and Alex Rodriguez had an RBI single for the surging Yankees, who have won seven of eight and 11 of 15. The Yankees are now just one-half game back of the Red Sox for the AL East division lead.
Shuttled back and forth from Triple-A Columbus, Crosby served as a pinch-runner and defensive replacement most of the year. But he has begun to get semi-regular playing time recently because right fielder Gary Sheffield is nursing a strained left thigh muscle and has been relegated to DH duty.
The diminutive Crosby stepped to the plate in the ninth for his 72nd major league at-bat this season and drove a 1-0 pitch from Eric DuBose (1?3) over the right-center fence – one of the Yankees’ biggest hits all year.
He pumped his fist as he rounded first base and was mobbed at the plate by gleeful teammates. Then he came out for a curtain call.
It was Crosby’s second extra-base hit and fifth RBI all year. It also was his third hit of the game – he had a bunt single and an infield single from the no. 9 spot in the lineup.
Mariano Rivera (7-4) worked a perfect ninth for the win.
Throwing what scouts call a “heavy” sinker, Wang kept the ball down all night and had Baltimore chopping one weak tapper after another right back to the mound.
He did a terrific job fielding his position, too, piling up nine assists – including four straight in the seventh and eighth. Wang’s brilliant performance could go a long way toward keeping the rookie in the rotation even if Mike Mussina returns from a sore elbow later this week as planned.
With two outs in the first, Wang gave up three straight singles to Melvin Mora, Miguel Tejada, and Jay Gibbons as Baltimore went ahead.
The Orioles scored again in the third on Tejada’s RBI groundout, and starter Erik Bedard got Sheffield to ground into an inning-ending double play with the bases loaded in the bottom half.
The Yankees kept coming, though. They loaded the bases with none out in the fifth, and Rodriguez’s RBI single put them on the board.
With the middle of the lineup coming up, New York figured to take the lead. But Jason Giambi struck out before Sheffield’s RBI groundout tied it at 2, and Hideki Matsui fanned with runners at second and third to end the inning.