Bobby Abreu put on a power show in The Bronx Tuesday night, hitting two home runs, including the go-ahead two-run shot off Mariano Rivera in the ninth inning to give the Angels a 6-4 win over the Yankees in the opener of a three-game series at Yankee Stadium. It was the first multi-homer game for Abreu since September 19, 2010.
The home run by Abreu was just the second allowed by Rivera in 44 1/3 innings this season.
The Yankees opened the scoring with a Curtis Granderson solo home run in the first inning, and the score stayed 1-0 until the top of the sixth. Abreu tied the game with his fifth home run of the season, which also represented the 1,400th run scored in his career. Abreu is the 89th player in MLB history to score 1,400 runs.
Later in the sixth inning, the Angels loaded the bases with two outs, but Jeff Mathis came to the plate, which is usually bad news for the offense. Mathis was hitting .181/.226/.259 this season coming into Tuesday night's game, which isn't far from his career mark of .196/.258/.303. Naturally, Mathis hit a ground rule double to score two runs and would have scored Peter Bourjos from first had the ball not bounced over the center field wall. Bourjos scored on a wild pitch by A.J. Burnett, his league-leading 15th of the season to make it 4-1 Angels.
The Yankees stormed back with three runs in the bottom of the eighth, thanks to four successive hits all after two were out. Derek Jeter delivered the game-tying blow with a two run single to score Eduardo Nunez and Brett Gardner.
Jordan Walden pitched a scoreless ninth inning to record his 26th save of the season. Torii Hunter had three singles in five at-bats, extending his hitting streak to seven games, covering all of August. This month, Hunter is hitting .536/.552/.714
Welcome To The Bigs, Kid
Before Tuesday night's game, Angels manager Mike Scioscia confirmed that Garrett Richards would be promoted from Double A Arkansas to make his major league debut Wednesday night, starting against the Yankees. "I think it's great," Halos manager Mike Scioscia said, per Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times. "I think it's a great challenge for a youngster. We think he's going to pitch his game. If you can come into an atmosphere like Yankee Stadium and pitch a good game, you know how much confidence you take away from that?"
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