Yankee Talk: Subway Series Edition - Tak rolls on

Takahashi shuts down Yanks again, Mets win eighth straight

BRONX – The last time the Yankees faced Hisanori Takahashi last month at Citi Field, they saw the left-hander throw six shutout innings at them.

To a man they said if they saw him a second time, the story would be different.

One month later, Takahashi was back on the mound, this time at Yankee Stadium.

Showing that it was not a fluke, he threw six more shutout innings, flummoxing the Yankees suddenly impotent offense as the Mets won their season-tying eighth straight, pitching their way to a 4-0 shutout in front of 49,220 at Yankee Stadium.

It was a tough loss to take for Javier Vazquez, who pitched great in his own regard. However, he was a victim of poor run support from an offense that has scored four runs over the last three games, making three soft-tossing pitches render the bats inept.

After getting the first two outs to begin the game, the Mets scored all the runs they would need. David Wright doubled to left and a soft single by Ike Davis scored Wright, who got his right hand just underneath the tag from Francisco Cervelli to take the early lead.

Vazquez would settle in to shut the Mets down after that, surrendering only hit over the next six innings, walking three and striking out four to continue his resurgence.

Since having ten days off after his May 1 meltdown against the White Sox, he has pitched a 2.68 ERA over seven starts. In those seven starts, he has thrown at least seven innings five times.

While Vazquez was great, Takahashi was even better. No Yankee hitter reached second base until the sixth inning when the offense finally mounted a threat for the first time in the game.

Back-to-back one out singles by Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira brought Alex Rodriguez to the plate, who then grounded to first to move the runners over. Robinson Cano would then draw a walk to load the bases, but Takahashi got Jorge Posada to groundout to Wright, who made a great barehanded play to nail him at first base to end the inning.

Takahashi (6-2) throw 103 pitchers on the night, yielding only four hits, while walking two and striking out three as he continues to be a revelation for the Mets.

Cervelli doubled to left to begin the bottom of the seventh off reliever Elmer Dessens and represented the tying run. This brought up Curtis Granderson, who pinch hit for Chad Huffman. Mets Manager Jerry Manuel countered by going to his best reliever, Pedro Feliciano, who would strike him out swinging for the first out. Brett Gardner and Derek Jeter would follow with successive groundouts to first to preserve the 1-0 margin.

Chan Ho Park would come into the game to start the eighth walking Ruben Tejada, who would go to third when Jose Reyes doubled to right. Angel Pagan would then take a 1-0pitch and lift it over the head of Rodriguez inside the left field line for a two-run double to extend the Mets lead to three.

The Mets would add what seemed to be a lowly insurance run in the ninth when Reyes’ RBI single drove in Jeff Francoeur, who had doubled off Boone Logan to begin the inning to make the score 4-0.
Closing out games in Yankee Stadium is always tough no matter whom the opponent is and thus the Yankees would make it interesting in the bottom of the ninth.

With Raul Valdes in the game to protect a four-run lead instead of Francisco Rodriguez (who sat after Reyes drove in the run in the top half of the ninth), he surrendered successive one out singles to Cervelli and Granderson.

Now a save situation, Manuel called on Rodriguez to get the final two outs. Gardner worked a lengthy, 12-pitch at-bat for a walk to load the bases and bring Jeter up as the tying run. However, Jeter would strike out swinging and Swisher would pop out to

Wright in foul territory just over third base to seal the victory.
The Yankees finished a dreadful 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base in losing their third straight.

For the Mets (39-28) they moved to within a half game of first place, and can win this year’s edition of the Subway Series with a win in one of the next two games.

Phil Hughes and Mike Pelfrey meet Saturday in a rematch of their meeting last month where Pelfrey got the better of the young Yankee right-hander.