Player of the Game
With a single and a two RBI double, Carlos Santana is tonight's Indians Player of the Game. His final score POG was 3.21. This award was his fourth of the season and his first in almost a month (5/5).
Feathers Up
Drew Stubbs broke a long hitless streak in the fifth with his first extra base hit in ten days. Overall it broke an 0-16 slump that had lasted more than five games. Stubb could almost certainly could learn a thing or two from Michael Bourn, who has become an expert at being safe without hitting the ball out of the infield.
The Indians were able to tie the game against Andy Pettitte and the Yankees in the fifth inning with a Carlos Santana two out, two run, ground rule double. The double was Santana's fifth hit in the past two days after seeing his average drop by over 100 points during the past month. It is back up to .290 now and he definitely seems to have found his stroke in the past couple of days.
Feathers Down
Mark Teixeira made his presence felt for the first time since returning to the Yankee lineup in a big way with the shortest grand slam you may ever see. The first two batters in the third (who were batting under .250 combined at the time) each singled before Brett Gardner walked to load the bases. Nick Swisher made a nice play to get the out at home for a fielder's choice, but it was rendered moot by the Teixeira blast.
Asdrubal Cabrera has been playing with an injured quad for awhile now and it hasn't affected him too much, but he blew it out running to first on a ground out. He was unable to put any pressure on it while leaving the field and it is unknown as of now whether he will wait it out on the bench or have to hit the DL. Luckily for the Indians, they have Mike Aviles, who should be able to fill in as starting short stop during the interim. This could also be an excuse to bring Lonnie Chisenhall back to the big league team as the Indians wouldn't have a back-up third baseman behind Mark Reynolds.
Everything went south for Justin Masterson in the sixth inning. He walked the first batter before retiring the next two quickly. After Austin Romine hit a single, he allowed Romine to steal second. When Brett Gardner hit a single right after, Masterson cut off the throw from centerfield, keeping Michael Bourn from throwing out Romine at home. Masterson then threw the ball into centerfield on an attempted pick-off of Gardner. He did get the final out, but this was the most frustrated we have seen Justin Masterson this season.
For some reason, Terry Francona did not see Masterson struggling and decided to send him back out for the seventh inning when he allowed a solo home run to former Tribesman Travis Hafner. That hit finally got through to Francona and he brought in Cody Allen who finished the inning without incident.
Final Score: Cleveland Indians 4 – New York Yankees 7
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