Nunez Comes Up Big In His Return To The Lineup

After a walk-off win last night, fueled in part by the strong starting performance from Ivan Nova, the Yankees were back at it on Saturday, looking for their 6th straight win. Thanks to a big day from Eduardo Nunez, the Yankees were able take down the Birds for the second straight day.

With Andy Pettitte pitching, trying to turn things around after going 0-3 in his last four starts, the Orioles jumped out to an early 2-0 lead in the 1st inning on two-run homerun from Chris Davis, his major league leading 33rd of the season.

"The pitch, that was where I wanted to," Pettitte said. "I think he thought he hit a fly ball to center. I kind of watched his reaction. But the ball just kept going."

Baltimore extended their lead in the 2nd inning when Alexi Casilla lined a double down the left field line off of Pettitte, scoring Nolan Reimold from 2nd base, giving the O's a 3-0 lead.

But the Yankees, facing Chris Tillman, answered back in the bottom of the 2nd. After Travis Hafner walked to begin the inning, Zoilo Almonte and Lyle Overbay hit back to back single to load the bases with nobody out.

New Yankee Luis Cruz followed with a single into shallow left field bringing home Hafner to put the Yankees on the board. In his first at-bat since May 5th, Nunez hit a fly ball to deep left-center field, giving Almonte enough room to tag up and score.

The O's were at it again the in 4th, when J.J. Hardy double to lead off the inning. After eventually reaching 3rd, he scored on an RBI single by Taylor Teagarden, to put Baltimore back up by two.

Pettitte had not recorded a 1-2-3 inning until the 5th, when he retired the O's on nine pitches in that inning. In the bottom half of the 5th, the Yankees were able to plate two more runs to tie up the ballgame.

Nunez and Stewart lead off with back to back single, then Brett Gardner laid down a bunt to move them over. Ichiro then came up and slapped a ball back up the middle, but a nice diving grab by Casilla kept the ball in the infield and kept another run from scoring.

But it didn't matter because Robinson Cano followed up with a single of his own off of Tillman, that tied the game, and gave Pettitte some more room to work with out on the mound.

Then in the bottom of the 6th inning, Nunez came up big once again. After Overbay collected his 3rd hit of the game to open the inning, he was moved to 2nd on a bunt by Cruz. Nunez singled back up the middle off of Tillman, with Overbay sliding in safely at home to put the Yankees ahead by a score of 5-4.

"Younger players are always a little bit different sometimes," Girardi said. "You figured he wouldn't be as rusty. Nunie is kind of a free spirit, so I don't think Nunie thought much about having a lot of at-bats."

"I know he didn't have a lot of reps, but we had a situation where someone went down and we called him up," Girardi said. "[Nunez] has the ability to swing the bat well and play defense, and that's what he did today."

From there on out, Pettitte and the bullpen were able to keep the Orioles off the board, with Shawn Kelley picking up a big punch out of Manny Machado to end the 7th. David Robertson set the side down in order in the 8th. And Mariano Rivera, doing what he does best, sent the O's packing in the 9th, picking up his 29th save of the season.

Pettitte also picked up his first win since June 5th in Seattle, No. 251 in his career. Doing so while allowing four runs (three earned) on nine hits, he didn't walk a batter and struck out four on 100 pitches.

"I've been giving up a lot of runs early, and it's been a grind for me. I've been trying to grind as hard as I could to give this team a chance to win," Pettitte said. "You feel like this team is going to score some runs, so you hate putting us in a hole like I have been. So just real fortunate we were able to get back into it, get some big hits today and come away with a W."

Hiroki Kuroda will return the game action tomorrow as he takes the mound for the Yankees, facing off against Jason Hammel at 1:05 EST from the Bronx. And for those watching at home, that game can be seen on TBS.

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