Yankees Forced to Wait Another Night

With Kei Igawa replacing Roger Clemens for this evening's start, you had to figure the odds were not good for clinching the AL Wild Card tonight. Given 5 runs and 5 scoreless innings by Igawa, you would have thought it would have been a lock, but the garbage that is the rest of the Yankees bullpen made sure it wasn't to be. The Devil Rays rallied from 5-0 to take a 6-5 lead, and eventually won in 10 innings, 7-6 on Dionner Navarro's walk-off home run off of Jeff Karstens (1-4).

Igawa had done the impossible, holding the Rays to 2 hits and no runs over 5 full innings. He did struggle with his control, walking 5, but didn't give up the big hit to the Rays. Already leading 1-0 entering the 4th, the Yankees thought they had broken the game open when Alex Rodriguez belted his 3rd grand slam of the season, off of Jason Hammel. A-Rod's 53rd HR gave the Bombers a 5-0 lead and gave him 151 RBI. The latter total are the most since Joe DiMaggio drove in 155 in 1948.

But the Yankees middle relievers provided no relief. Early favorite Edwar Ramirez is quickly moving into the doghouse alongside Brian "Base on Balls" Bruney, who helped blow the game. BB-Ram (the former K-Ram) walked B.J. Upton to start the 6th, and one batter later Navarro doubled in the Rays first run. When Ramirez walked Jonny Gomes, Joe Torre sent for Bruney, and the small fire quickly became a 4-alarmer.

In typical Bruney fashion, the right-hander walked Greg Norton to load the bases, blew away Josh Wilson with 3 straight upper 90's fastballs and then walked Akinori Iwamura to force in a run. Then household name Jorge Velandia struck with a grand slam, the 32-yr old's 1st major league home run to give the Rays the lead.

The Yankees tied things up in the 8th against Dan Wheeler on Melky Cabrera's sac fly, but with runners on the corners and 2 outs, Derek Jeter took a 3-2 pitch for an inning ending strike 3. But Al Reyes and Gary Glover (6-5) blanked the Yankees over the next 2 innings and Navarro's 9th HR kept the Tigers breathing for one more day.

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Johnny Damon certainly can't be blamed for the loss. The left-fielder went 5-5 with 2 stolen bases and 2 runs scored.
Publish Post
Derek Jeter had hits in first 2 at-bats to extend his hitting streak to 12 games.

Roger Clemens has been shut down for the rest of the regular season, and remains a question mark for the post-season roster, when and if it finally gets here.

photos courtesy of AP

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