Last night’s Yankees-Indians game had everything you would want to see from two division leaders. For the Yankees, Phil Hughes came back after a lengthy layoff (having not pitched since mid-April) and allowed two runs in five innings. His comeback will be crucial for the Yankees as they need an extra arm to battle both the Red Sox and Rays in the AL East. However, Hughes was upstaged by a man that is slowly turning into one of the AL’s best pitchers – Justin Masterson. Early in the season, Masterson looked like an outside Cy Young candidate, going 5-0 in April with a 2.18 ERA. In May and June, Masterson went 0-6 for the Indians, but through little fault of his own. He allowed more than two runs in only three of eleven starts and got little support from a fledging Indians offense. Masterson has taken it upon himself to be even more masterful (see what I did there) on the mound in July. He’s pitched two games and gotten two wins going eight strong innings against the Reds (1 ER, 5 Ks, in an 8-2 win) and last night against the Yankees (0 ER, 6 Ks, in a 5-0 win). In fact, Masterson’s two July wins are his best games of the year with a Game Score of 74 and then 80 last night against the top slugging team in baseball.
But the pitchers mound wasn’t even the most compelling position in last night’s game. Yankees All-Star shortstop Derek Jeter (how ridiculous does that sound this year) was back in the lineup, came into the game with a very outside chance of reaching 3,000 hits for his career. The Captain needed four on the night, but only could collect one. It was Cleveland’s shortstop though that stole the show and showed why he should be the real All-Star starter this season. Asdrubal Cabrera made outstanding back-to-back defensive gems with the game sitting on a knife’s edge in the top of the 8th inning and the Indians leading 3-0. The Yankees had one on base and one out in the inning. First there was this spinning throw to nail the extra speedy Curtis Granderson for the second out in the inning. Then, with the shift on, Cabrera made perhaps an even better play, sliding and then getting off a throw to beat the not as speedy Mark Teixeira to retire the side. Cleveland added two runs in the bottom of the inning and won 5-3. Cabrera has been the best and most consistent player on the Indians’ roster this season, largely due to his massive power increase, but he showed his all-around game last night sealing a victory with the glove.
Elsewhere: The Marlins and Giants both won on extra inning walkoffs while Cincinnati got a huge extra innings win in St. Louis to spoil the return of Albert Pujols to the lineup. Full scoreboard here.
Tonight: Tampa Bay visits the Bronx for the start of a ginormous AL East series (Niemann vs Colon), the Reds and Brewers square off in Milwaukee (Bailey vs Narveson), and the best pitching matchup of the night takes place in Los Angeles. Clayton Kershaw (8-4) and the Dodgers host rookie Dillon Gee (8-2) and the Mets. Full matchups here.
