Yankees visit LA at Dodger Stadium for a rare visit and 3 game series (6/10)

     The New York Yankees came to Dodger Stadium for the first time in years for a 3-game series.  After winning the first game 2-1 on the strength of great pitching from C.C. Sabathia. The Yanks’ other marquee free agent signing of last year, AJ Burnett, was the game three starter. Burnett entered the game with the worst pitching month statistically of any other Yankee in team history.  He was a beneficiary, however, of an early lead thanks to Mark Teixeira’s 3-run blast over the right field wall in the first inning off Dodger starter Hiroki Kuroda.  That lead was short-lived as Manny Ramirez hit a ground-rule double to score the first run in the bottom half of the inning to start the LA comeback. First baseman James Loney had 2 hits and drove in 4, while catalyst Rafael Furcal collected 3 hits in the game. Loney leads the team with 51 RBIs, while Furcal, Ramirez and Andre Ethier are all batting over .300.

Burnett ended up only going three innings, giving up 6 runs before being removed.  Relievers Boone Logan and Chan Ho Park didn’t fare much better as Dodger batters also abused them.  Kuroda labored a bit, but with the strong help of Dodger relievers, managed to pick up his 7^th win of the year. Hong-Chih Kuo and Jonathon Broxton were particularly effective.  Kuo pitched out of a jam for his 12^th hold and in so doing, dropped his ERA to 1.16.  Opposing left-handed hitters are now 0-25 against him this year.  Broxton came on to strikeout Derek Jeter in the 8^th inning, and pitched a scoreless 9^th as the Dodgers won 9-4.  Besides Teixeira’s home run, the Yankee bats were relatively quiet with Jeter, A-Rod and AL leading hitter Robinson Cano each hitting just one single apiece.  The sellout crowd had a mix of New York and LA fans.  Manager Joe Torre was facing his former team, having won 4 World Series titles in his illustrious career in the Big Apple.   The rubber match of this series wraps up with a 5 p.m. ESPN game, featuring Andy Pettitte against Clayton Kershaw. 

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