AMERICAN LEAGUE : Yankees beat Devil Rays, clinch berth in postseason
Posted on Thursday, September 27, 2007
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/202605/
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The New York Yankees clinched their 13 th consecutive postseason appearance, beating the Tampa Bay Devil Rays 12-4 Wednesday night to assure themselves of at least a wild-card berth in the playoffs.
The Yankees’ 15 th victory in the past 20 games kept them three games behind the Boston Red Sox in the American League East.
“We’ve come from a long ways this year and a lot of adversity, a lot of injuries,” Alex Rodriguez said. “This team has a lot to be proud of.”
New York, just 21-29 before play May 30, went 70-38 after that. The Yankees have made the playoffs every year since 1995.
“I’m elated,” owner George Steinbrenner said in a statement. “After a tough first half of the season when everyone seemed to lose faith except for our players and our fans, the team has really stepped up and shown themselves to be the champions that they are.... I really like the mix of veterans and younger players who have contributed to this comeback. It has been exciting to watch them play, coalesce and pull together. The fans and I look forward to the team accomplishing our ultimate goal — bringing a world championship back to New York.”
1 New York was 9 / 2 games back in the wild-card race after play July 7. RED SOX 11, ATHLETICS 6 Mike Lowell drove in five runs as Boston beat Oakland and cut its magic number to clinch the AL East title to two. Lowell had three of the Red Sox’s 17 hits and took over the team lead with a career-high 116 RBI, two more than David Ortiz. He also set a club record for most RBI by a third baseman, passing Butch Hobson’s total of 112 in 1977. RANGERS 16, ANGELS 2 Michael Young reached 200 hits for the fifth consecutive season with two RBI singles among his three hits as last-place Texas, in its home finale, beat AL West champion Los Angeles. TIGERS 9, TWINS 4 Mike Hessman hit a home run and an RBI single as host Detroit beat Minnesota in a rain-shortened five-inning game, but still was eliminated from postseason play. INDIANS 12, MARINERS 4 Luis Rivas homered and tripled in the eight-run third inning as Cleveland beat host Seattle. WHITE SOX 3, ROYALS 0 Jim Thome hit his 505 th home run, 33 rd this season, and Jon Garland (10-13 ) pitched his first shutout of the season and sixth of his career as host Chicago beat Kansas City. BLUE JAYS 8, ORIOLES 5 Matt Stairs and Adam Lind each had two RBI in an eight-run first inning as Toronto beat host Baltimore.
National League MARLINS 7, CUBS 4 Backup catcher Matt Treanor’s two-out RBI single in the fifth put host Florida ahead to stay against Chicago, which was were shut out over the final 5 2 / 3 innings. The Marlins beat the Cubs for the ninth game in a row over the past two seasons. But, the Cubs’ lead in the NL Central remained at two and their magic number for clinching the division was cut to three when St. Louis beat second-place Milwaukee. CARDINALS 7, BREWERS 3 Albert Pujols, recovering from a strained left calf muscle, hit a firstinning home run, giving him 100 RBI for the seventh consecutive season as St. Louis beat host Milwaukee. Ryan Braun’s two-run double put the Brewers ahead in the second. The Cardinals then went ahead to stay in the third when Ryan Ludwick doubled off Carlos Villanueva (8-5 ) after an intentional walk to Pujols. Pujols hit his 32 nd home run and became the first player to reach 30 home runs and 100 RBI in seven consecutive seasons at the start of his career. NATIONALS 9, METS 6 Ryan Church homered and drove in four runs as Washington overcame a 5-0 deficit to complete a three-game sweep of New York at Shea Stadium and improve to 5-1 against the Mets over a 10-day span. PHILLIES 5, BRAVES 2 Kyle Lohse (9-12 ) pitched seven strong innings as host Philadelphia beat Atlanta. PIRATES 5, DIAMONDBACKS 1 Adam La-Roche drove in three runs with two doubles as host Pittsburgh beat Arizona. ASTROS 7, REDS 6 Lance Berkman went 4 for 5 with two home runs, including a three-run shot, and four RBI, and Luke Scott singled in the eighth to drive in the winning run as Houston beat host Cincinnati. Wednesday’s games
NATIONAL LEAGUE Florida 7, Chicago Cubs 4 Pittsburgh 5, Arizona 1 Philadelphia 5, Atlanta 2 Washington 9, NY Mets 6 Houston 7, Cincinnati 6 St. Louis 7, Milwaukee 3 Colorado at LA Dodgers, (n ) San Diego at San Francisco, (n ) AMERICAN LEAGUE Texas 16, LA Angels 2 Boston 11, Oakland 6 Cleveland 12, Seattle 4, 1 st game Cleveland at Seattle, (n ) 2 nd game Detroit 9, Minnesota 4, 5 innings Toronto 8, Baltimore 5 NY Yankees 12, Tampa Bay 4 Chicago White Sox 3, Kansas City 0