A-Rod, Jeter Lead Yanks To Victory Over Braves

On a muggy summer evening in Atlanta, the Yankee’s bats finally woke up, bashing 16 hits before emerging victorious over the Braves last night at Turner Field. However, it would be just barely enough, as the Yankees and their fans had to sweat out an ugly 11-7 win.

Alex Rodriguez’s first inning homerun and Johnny Damon’s 3-run triple in the third inning helped spark the Yankees to a 6-1 lead. Cody Ransom, playing for the first time after a 54-game absence, added a two run double in the fourth, which chased Braves starter Derek Lowe, and the Yankees seemed to be cruising along with an 8-1 lead.

Andy Petitte, the Yankees starter, quickly turned that 8-1 cushion, into an 8-6 nail-biter. Petitte started the bottom half of the fourth inning by allowing consecutive hits, a single and two doubles to Garret Anderson, Jeff Francoeur and Casey Kotchman. Kotchman’s double scored two runs and Yunel Escobar added a two run single to close the gap.

Alex Rodriguez’s homerun in the first was the 563rd of his career, which tied him with Reggie Jackson for 10th on the all-time homerun list. He also batted in two insurance runs in the seventh inning to increase the Yankees lead to 10-6. A-Rod went 3-for-5 with 4 RBI’s and a homerun and teammate Derek Jeter went 4-for-5 and scored all four times he was on base. Jeter’s first inning single was his 300th career hit in Interleague play and he is the only player to have that many hits since Interleague play started back in 1997.

The starting pitchers just couldn’t settle into a groove as both teams combined for 18 runs and 29 hits. Derek Lowe threw 78 pitches in three innings of work, while giving up six runs and three walks. Andy Pettite didn’t fare much better as he pitched three and two thirds of an inning, throwing 95 pitches and allowing six runs, three of them unearned.

The Yankees travel back to New York to face the Mets at CitiField for the second installment of the Subway Series. It is still uncertain as to whether or not A-Rod will be sitting on the sidelines for any of this weekend’s games. "Alex feels good, he feels like he's got a lot of energy in his legs,” said Yankee manager Joe Girardi. “We'll see how he feels tomorrow and check with him on Saturday and Sunday. If he feels good, we'll let him keep going, because we need his bat in the lineup."

Photo credit: (AP Photo/John Bazemore)(ESPN.com) Quote taken from the NY Daily News