Hughes Back On His Game, Yankees Toy With Indians
NEW YORK (AP) -- Dewayne Wise was helped up by several fans in the stands, saw the emphatic out call and thought one thing: keep the glove closed.
Wise ran straight for the dugout -- giving birthday boy Derek Jeter a glove tap on the way -- after flipping into the crowd while trying to make a catch of a foul ball during the New York Yankees' 6-4 win over the Cleveland Indians on Tuesday night.
"What was I supposed to do run back to left field?" Wise said. "I saw him looking at my glove so I just got up, put my head down and ran off the field."
Wise knew he never had the ball when he went over the low wall down the left field line with two outs and a runner on third base in the seventh inning. Third base umpire Mike DiMuro didn't realize the ball hit off Wise's glove and fell for a souvenir until he saw a replay after the game.
"I went out on the ball and saw the ball into his glove in the stands. He disappeared into the stands and I believed that the ball was in his glove," DiMuro said. "In hindsight, I should have asked him to show me the ball since he fell into the stands and out of my line of vision."
Phil Hughes threw his hands up in the air, thinking Wise just helped preserve his shutout. Manager Joe Girardi thought it was a tough call.
"They're human. As much as we want them to be perfect and as much as there's talk about replay and all this stuff, they're under such a microscope the way the TV has developed this slo-mo that it's -- I think it's a difficult time to be an umpire," Girardi said
Before seeing a replay, Indians manager Manny Acta had an inkling his team had gotten some bad luck in their fourth straight loss.
"If it's a great play, how come you're not showing it on the board for the fans?" Acta said. "We were discussing that with the umpires, but, what can you do?"
Hughes (8-6) got out of that jam and several others in pitching eight innings of six-hit ball.
"That's the first time I've seen an all left-handed lineup before and I'm pretty comfortable with my fastball going in on lefties," Hughes said.
Alex Rodriguez hit a long home run for New York, which scored five of its runs without a homer -- they came in on a tear, having scored 16 of their last 21 runs on long balls.
"We only hit one homer," Girardi said with a chuckle of the Yankees' streak of five straight games with at least two drives that came to an end. "We had some big hits by some guys."
Curtis Granderson had a two-run single and Chris Stewart added an RBI hit as several bounces went New York's way against Justin Masterson (4-7) in the second inning.
Little is going right for the Indians. In their previous four games Cleveland scored just five runs. They scored four runs against Cory Wade in the ninth on Johnny Damon's RBI single and Jose Lopez's three-run homer. Lopez was in for third baseman Jack Hannahan, who was ejected in the eighth.
Rafael Soriano got one out for his 16th save.
On the flip side, the Yankees can do little wrong these past few weeks. Rodriguez's monster shot in the seventh off Tony Sipp into the second deck in left field was No. 642 of his career and helped the Yankees to their fourth straight win and 14th in 17 games. Masterson had never allowed a homer to the Yankees in eight outings and that held true. So the Yankees played small-ball against the pitcher with a 1.24 ERA in June and a streak of having not given up an earned run in 20 1-3 innings coming in.
Mark Teixeira walked leading off the second inning but was taken out at second base on Nick Swisher's fielder's choice. After out No. 2, Wise, starting a second straight game after homering Monday night, singled. Stewart hit a hot shot down the third base line that hit off a diving Hannahan's glove for a run-scoring single. Hannahan argued with DiMuro the ball was foul.
Jeter then hit a bouncer that deflected off Masterson's lower leg and he reached safely to load the bases. Granderson followed with a two-run opposite-field single to left-center to make it 3-0.
Granderson walked leading off the fifth and advanced to third on Robinson Cano's broken-bat blooper to short center field. Teixeira drove him in with a fly to center.
"There were a lot of miss-hit balls, not real comfortable swings, which is exactly what you want, and somehow, you're four runs down on the board," Masterson said. "But I feel we were doing a lot better than the way that looked."
The Bleacher Creatures chanted "Hap-py Birth-day!" for Jeter instead of his name during roll call. Fans gave a big cheer when the newly 38-year-old captain gave a wave.
NOTES: Indians DH Travis Hafner (minor right knee surgery) will begin a rehabilitation assignment Wednesday at Triple-A Columbus. There is no set amount of games scheduled yet, Acta said. ... RHP Carlos Carrasco (elbow reconstruction surgery last September) threw from a mound. "It's encouraging to see him throw the bullpen the way the ball was coming out of his hand today," Acta said, adding Carrasco is on track to return next season. ... The Yankees claimed RHP Danny Farquhar off waivers from Oakland and optioned him to Double-A Trenton. To make room on the 40-man roster, they transferred OF Brett Gardner to the 60-day DL. Girardi says there is little chance Gardner (elbow) will return before the All-Star break.
(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
