Yanks Close Up Road Trip With Kuroda On The Mound

The Yankees were dead, seemingly. They were in the Wild Card, although they really felt far out of it. They looked to almost have no energy on the field. having lost four in a row, including Tuesday night's 2-0 loss to the Blue Jays in Toronto.

But in the 8th inning on Wednesday night, the Yankees, scoreless in their first 16 innings in Toronto this week, put together s four-run inning that no one saw coming, then sent baseball's greatest closer to the mound for a four-out save that snapped a four-game losing streak.

It was a win that the Yankees really needed, and with the Tampa Bay Rays walking off against the Texas Rangers in extra-innings, it helped the Yankees gain another game in the Wild Card standings, pulling them to within 2.5 games back.

Tonight, it's the final game of the Yankees' 10-game road trip before they head back The Bronx to open a six-game homestand on Friday, their final stay at Yankee Stadium this season.

Tonight's Lineup at Toronto:

Granderson CF
Rodriguez DH
Cano 2B
Soriano LF
Wells RF
Overbay 1B
Reynolds 3B
Ryan SS
Stewart C

Kuroda P

Pitching Preview:

With 10 games remaining, Hiroki Kuroda is like to take the mound two more times for the Yankees as they continue their push for the playoffs, and tonight is the first of the final two.

Kuroda was the Yankees best pitcher this season up until he started to fall apart in mid-August. Since then, he's gone 0-4 with a 6.69 ERA and .325 opponents' batting average in a span of six starts. In four career games at the Roger Center, he owns a 5.96 ERA and has allowed five home runs.

Kuroda's last start was against the Boston Red Sox on Friday when he gave up four runs in the first inning, but recovered to give up just one more over the next five innings.

"As a starter, I think my responsibility is to go at least six or seven innings," Kuroda said afterward through his interpreter. "That's what I'm telling myself to do."

Toronto will counter with right-hander Todd Redmond. Redmond has already faced Kuroda and the Yankees once this season back on August 28th, when he held the Yankees to two runs in 5 2/3 innings. He went 6 1/3 innings on Friday, holding the Orioles to one run on three hits, with no walks and seven strikeouts.

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