QUEENS - If AJ Burnett was given the chance to face the Mets lineup over a normal seasons worth of starts, he might challenge Denny McClain’s 31 victories in a season.
Over the last two weeks in which the Yankees right-hander has faced the team from Queens twice, his performances have looked like a combination of Tom Seaver and a young Dwight “Doc” Gooden, both former Met legends
Facing the NL and the Mets has been a curing ill for Burnett's struggles that were spanning nearly seven weeks. Seeing them for a second time since his seven scoreless innings on June 14, Burnett dominated them once again last night, backing up CC Sabathia’s performance on Friday with even more dominant one in the Yankees 5-0 win in the second game of the Subway Series at Citi Field.
The first two games of the series is the blueprint the Yankees envisioned when they signed both pitchers. Thinking being that each of them (Sabathia and Burnett) on any given night being able to complete shutdown the opposing team’s lineups. It was the first time this season in which the two were pitching back-to-back.
As the Mets saw, the results were devastating.
Burnett backed up Sabathia’s seven innings of one run, four three hit ball by exceeding it with a seven inning, one hit, ten strikeout masterpiece using 108 pitches
For the first five innings, Burnett did not allow a hit to the painfully shorthanded Mets lineup. At the time, considering that their lineup has been hurting for runs without the services of Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran and Carlos Delgado, and with the replacements that were occupying those spots in the orders, it seemed very possible that a no-hitter could in fact happen.
The first hit of the game came in the bottom of the sixth inning came off the bat of Alex Cora, the shortstop who at the time was 0 for 21 in his career lifetime against the Yankees right-hander. Late in the fifth inning, it appeared the righty was hanging his curveball a bit, but was able to get away with it. The Mets were not making contact, and when they were found themselves robbed by great defense, which included a terrific running catch by Melky Cabrera (playing left field for Johnny Damon – flu) near the left field wall, robbing first baseman Daniel Murphy of at least a double.
This time, he would not be so lucky.
Cora swung at the first pitch and lined it to center field for a base hit to break up the no hitter.
Needing to settle down after Cora's hit, Burnett resuscitated himself and retired the next six hitters to finish his night. It was his best performance of his season. Over his last six starts, he is 4-2 with a 1.75 ERA and that counts his infamous Blowup in Boston on June 9.
In his last three starts spanning 20 1/3 innings, he's only allowed two runs and posted an ERA of 0.44.
The offense was not giving him much run support early on against Mets starter (and former Yankee) Tim Redding. In the third inning, Nick Swisher's opposite field home run (14th) to left center opened up the scored as the Yankees took a 1-0 lead.
The score would remain that way until the sixth inning.
In the sixth, Redding's clock struck midnight. After a one out double by Mark Teixeira, an RBI single by Alex Rodriguez made it 2-0. Robinson Cano would then follow with a double to bring up Jorge Posada with both the Mets and Redding on the ropes.
On the first pitch, Posada would proceed to hit the Yankees third opposite field homerun of the series, this time a three- run blast (10th) to blow the game open at 5-0. It would mark the end of Redding’s night.
The same can be said for the Mets.
For a park that has been discussed as one where homeruns go to die, the Yankees are making it look like a fallacy. In two games, they have hit four homeruns. Three of them have gone to the opposite field.
In reality, Burnett did not need much support at all. His command of the fastball and breaking ball had the semi-pro Mets lineup overmatched. The rhythm between himself and Posada, which has been a lingering discussion over the past few weeks, was not on display during the outing.
The outing lowered Burnett’s ERA to 3.93, nearly a full run from the 4.89 ERA that he had coming off his start against Boston.
Brian Bruney and David Robertson completed the combined one-hit shutout as the Yankees clinched the season series. In the last three games, they have outscored the Mets 29-1.
Sunday night, the Yankees will attempt to go for the sweep with Chien-Ming Wang seeking his first win of the season against Livan Hernandez in an ESPN national telecast.
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