Two big Yankees' innings doom Bats
The Yankees (37-29) earned the split of the four-game set the hard way, dropping the first two in Rochester and winning the final two, Monday in Rochester and Tuesday in Batavia. A Bats win would have given them their first road series win of the 2012 season and just their second series win of the year. Their only series win thus far came when they took three of four games from the Columbus Clippers at Louisville Slugger Field in their first homestand of the season.
Bats starting pitcher Sean Gallagher struggled to locate pitches, walking three Yankees batters with the bases loaded to score runs in one inning. Gallagher (5-4) went only three innings and allowed five runs in all, four of them earned, on six hits and four walks while taking the loss. The four earned runs are the most Gallagher has allowed since May 8 when he allowed five against Norfolk.
Mike Costanzo led the Bats offense, going 2-for-4 with a three-run home run. The homer was Costanzo's fourth of the year with the Bats, and first since being optioned back to Louisville last week when Kristopher Negron was recalled. He last homered on April 28 at Norfolk. Felix Perez also went deep, taking the Yankees' John Maine out for his second home run of the season. Willie Harris, Cody Puckett and Danny Dorn also had RBIs for the Bats.
It was a former Louisville Bat from 2003, Russell Branyan, who did a lot of the damage for the Yankees. He went 3-for-4 with a run and four RBI, three of them coming on a bases-clearing double off Bats reliever Carlos Fisher in the sixth. The reigning International League Batter of the Week Branyan has a good start on his campaign for a second straight election.
The Yankees started the scoring in the bottom of the first when Branyan singled in an unearned run in the form of Kevin Russo, who reached on a fielding error by Miguel Rojas, to give the Yankees a brief 1-0 lead. The Bats have now allowed an unearned in three straight games for the first time this season after having allowed unearned runs in consecutive games only once before on May 8 and May 9 against Norfolk.
Maine, the scheduled starter for the Yankees, actually came into the game in the second inning in order to allow David Robertson to get his rehab work done in the first. He would allow an unearned run in the second as the Bats tied the game at 1-1 on a Danny Dorn sacrifice fly to score Bill Rhinehart. A fielding error by Yankees third baseman Brandon Laird helped the inning continue long enough to allow Dorn's fly ball to score the run. Maine (1-0) would also surrender a Harris sacrifice fly to give the Bats a brief 2-1 lead in the third, but would ultimately be credited with the win for his three-plus innings of work, allowing just two earned runs in his debut in the Yankees organization.
Things unraveled for Gallagher in the bottom of the third. The Yankees scored four runs in the frame, three of them on bases-loaded walks to Laird, Colin Curtis and Doug Bernier. The first run in the inning came courtesy of a lead-off double by Russo and an RBI single by Corban Joseph behind it. The Yankees would lead 5-2 after three innings.
Perez' home run in the fifth off Maine and Puckett's sacrifice fly in the sixth off Nelson Figueroa would cut the Bats' deficit to one at 5-4. That, however, came before Branyan blew the game open with a three-run double to the left-field corner off Carlos Fisher as part of a four-run bottom of the sixth to put the Yankees ahead 9-4. Bats reliever Josh Judy was charged with two runs in the Yankees' sixth, and Fisher the other two.
Mike Costanzo brought the Bats to within two at 9-7 in the top of the eighth with his three-run home run off the Yankees' Chase Whitley to score Rojas and Harris. The Bats, however, would be unable to pull any closer.
Wednesday, the Bats celebrate their last day off before the All-Star break and then are back in action Thursday evening at 7:05 p.m. at Louisville Slugger Field as they will take on the Rochester Red Wings for the first of four games. LHP Ryan Feierabend (0-1, 14.54) will take the mount to make his Bats home debut and will be opposed by LHP Luke French (1-1, 4.03) for Rochester.