Yankees, Reds Split Doubleheader

Chris Heisey and the Cincinnati Reds rudely interrupted Brian Gordon's dream ride to the major leagues Wednesday night, routing the Yankees, 10-2, in the second game of a doubleheader at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park. The Yankees won the first game, 4-2.

En route to a three-home run night, Heisey led off the game with a home run against Gordon, the 32-year-old career minor league outfielder turned pitcher making his second big-league start for the Yankees. Gordon (0-1) gave up three home runs, two to Heisey, and surrendered four runs in five innings of work.. Heisey ended up with five RBI on the night.

The Reds broke open a 4-1 game with three runs in the seventh and three in the eighth off New York reliever Hector Noesi.

Johnny Cueto (5-2) got the victory for Cincinnati. He pitched seven innings of two-hit baseball, allowing just one run.

The Yankees are off Thursday, then return to Yankee Stadium on Friday to open a three-game series against the Colorado Rockies.

After suffering an indignity he couldn’t take, being dropped to ninth in the New York Yankees batting order, and refusing to play because of the perceived insult, proud Yankee veteran Jorge Posada has been doing the only thing he can to make up for it — hitting the tar out of the baseball.

Posada hit a two-run home run in the sixth inning Wednesday afternoon, snapping a 2-2 tie and providing the margin of victory as the Yankees defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 4-2, in the first game of a twi-night doubleheader. The second game will begin at 7:10 p.m. ET.

Posada’s home run off Cincinnati starter Mike Leake (6-4) was his seventh of the season and first in nearly two months. His last home run came on April 23. Posada, whose batting average was under .200 for a long while this season, was hitting .395 in June entering Wednesday’s first game.

The shot made a winner of Freddy Garcia (6-6), who limited the Reds to two unearned runs, three hits and a walk in seven innings. He also struck out four to help New York pick up its fourth consecutive victory.

Garcia’s runs allowed were unearned because of Ramiro Pena, who started at third base and committed three errors.
New York scored the decisive runs after Robinson Cano singled with one away in the sixth. Leake then hung a first-pitch breaking ball to Posada, who sent it over the right field fence.

Cincinnati had several chances to cut into its deficit, including in the bottom of the sixth, when Jay Bruce doubled off the wall in right. But he ran too far off second base when Scott Rolen followed with a liner to left. Brett Gardner made the catch and threw to second for the inning-ending double play.

Then, in the seventh, Pena committed his third error by allowing a Drew Stubbs grounder to leak through his legs. But he helped get the Yankees out of the inning by starting a double play during the next at-bat, and making a nice play on Ryan Hanigan’s sharply hit grounder to end the inning.

David Robertson then pitched a scoreless eighth for the Yankees, and Mariano Rivera worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 19th save.

Posada’s homer was a quick scoring blow in a game that had been defined by close plays.

New York used one to keep Cincinnati off the scoreboard in the second inning, when Stubbs drove a ball to the gap in right-center. But Nick Swisher tracked it down and made the catch before crashing into the wall.

A few close plays then got the Yankees on the board during the third inning, when Gardner reached on a one-out infield single and moved to third on Curtis Granderson’s base hit.

Swisher then hit the ball to first baseman Joey Votto, who fielded the ball and stepped on the bag. The play happened quickly enough that Votto decided to try to get the speedy Gardner at home, but his throw was high, and Gardner slid in safely.

Cano followed with a grounder through the left side for a 2-0 lead.

But the Reds tied the game in the fifth. Their rally got started after Stubbs reached on a throwing error by Pena to lead off the inning and advanced to third on Edgar Renteria’s single.

Hanigan then sent a grounder to third and Pena attempted to get Stubbs at home, but his throw bounced well short of catcher Francisco Cervelli, who couldn’t hang on.

The play got the Reds on the board and left runners on first and second, and a sacrifice bunt by Leake put them in scoring position. Fred Lewis lofted a sacrifice fly to center to plate Renteria and make it a 2-2 contest.

— Sports Network contributed to this report

Following Tuesday night's rainout, the New York Yankees and Cincinnati Reds will play a day-night doubleheader Wednesday at Cincinnati's Great American Ball Park. The first game will begin at 12:35 p.m. ET with Freddy Garcia (5-6) pitching for the Yankees vs. Mike Leake (6-3) of Cincinnati. Brian Gordon (0-0) will pitch the 7:10 p.m. ET nightcap for New York against Johnny Cueto (4-2) of the Reds.

The Yankees enter play on Wednesday having won nine of their last 11 games.

In the opener, the soft-tossing Garcia will try to continue his success in the sunlight. During five starts this season in day games Garcia has a 1.97 ERA. Gordon, who made the first start of his big-league career against Texas  last week at age 32 will pitch the nightcap and try to show that he deserves to stick with the Yankees for a while.

(Sports Network) - Injuries to several key players hasn't seemed to slow down the New York Yankees, who'll be shooting for a seventh victory in eight outings when they resume a three-game interleague set with the slumping Cincinnati Reds tonight at Great American Ball Park.

The Yankees have had to place four valued contributors on the disabled list over the past five weeks, a group that includes shortstop and team captain Derek Jeter, starting pitcher Bartolo Colon and the club's top two setup relievers in the bullpen, Rafael Soriano and Joba Chamberlain. The roster shuffling hasn't prevented New York from attaining success on the field, however, as the Bronx Bombers have won nine of their last 11 games following a 5-3 verdict over the Reds in last night's opener of this series.

Johnny Cueto is tentatively slated to take the mound for this evening's test, and should give New York's potent offense a challenge if he's healthy and able to maintain his recent form. Cueto was originally scheduled to pitch Monday, but was pushed back a day with a stiff neck.

In eight starts since returning from a season-opening stretch on the disabled list in early May, Cueto has amassed a stellar 1.68 earned run average and permitted two runs or fewer in all but two of those appearances.

The native Dominican has been especially good as of late. Cueto racked up a season-best eight strikeouts and yielded just four hits over seven shutout innings to defeat San Francisco on June 9, then followed up by limiting the Dodgers to one unearned run and five hits through seven frames in a 3-2 Reds' victory last Tuesday. He's thrown seven innings or more in four consecutive starts and permitted a total of only four runs during that span.

Cueto has opposed the Yankees one time previously, which took place in New York during his rookie campaign of 2008. The 25-year-old held the Bronx Bombers to just one run while fanning seven over five strong innings in that contest, but still wound up receiving a tough-luck loss in a 4-1 Reds' setback.

He'll be attempting to reverse Cincinnati's interleague fortunes, as the defending NL Central champs are just 1-6 against the AL so far this year and have dropped three of their last four overall.

The Reds will take their swings tonight against Brian Gordon, who'll be making a second start since being inserted into New York's patchwork rotation.

Gordon signed with the Yankees last week after exercising an opt-out clause with Philadelphia, where he had been pitching extremely well for the Phillies' Triple-A affiliate in Lehigh Valley. The 32-year-old has had a long and difficult road to the big leagues, having spent virtually all of his 15 professional seasons in the minors with five different organizations and converting to pitching in 2007 after a failed try as an outfielder.

The journeyman right-hander, who pitched three times in relief for Texas in 2008, had a decent performance in his long-awaited first major-league start this past Wednesday, working 5 1/3 innings against the Rangers and yielding two runs on seven hits in a no-decision.

Prior to joining the Yankees, Gordon compiled a 5-0 record and an International League-best 1.14 ERA in 12 games (nine starts) for Lehigh Valley.

Maybe it's just me, but I keep looking at New York Yankees right-hander Ivan Nova and seeing a pitcher who is taking up space in the starting rotation until either a) a big-name starter shows up via trade to take his place or b) a more highly-regarded young prospect arrives to bump him aside.

Well, it is probably time for me -- and anyone else thinking the way I have been -- to reassess Nova. The 24-year-old right-hander spun the best game of his abbreviated big-league career Monday night, finishing eight full innings for the first time as the Yankees defeated the Cincinnati Reds, 5-3.

Nova improved to 7-4 with a 4.13 ERA. He allowed just four hits and one run, struck out seven, did not walk a batter and did not allow a Cincinnati runner past first base after the first inning. Nova is 6-2 in his last eight decisions.

Nova left with a 5-1 lead. The game only got interesting in the ninth inning because reliever Luis Ayala gave up a leadoff single to Brandon Phillips and Boone Logan then hit Joey Votto with his first pitch. Mariano Rivera came on to record his 18th save, but the Reds did manage to push across two runs.

Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano each had two hits and an RBI for New York. The Yankees scored four of their five runs in the first inning, barely allowing the crowd at Great American Ball Park to settle in before jumping to a big lead.