Oakland, CA - Every player endures rough times in a season. Baseball is a long sport so usually, the mentality is to coast through those bad times and eventually your game comes back. But for Mark Teixeira he just picked up where he left off last night.
"You can always try to change things, you can try to tinker with things, but I am who I am," he explained. "I wouldn't know how to explain what kind of hitter I am. I just go up there, see the ball and try to hit it really hard."
The Yankees 9-2 victory over the A's is their second win of the series. Mark was a gem against his former teammate Oakland's pitcher Bartolo Colon. He homered twice among his four hits of the day. A solo shot in the fourth, then laced a two-run single in the fifth, single to center and a two-run homer in the ninth to cap off a spectacular game.
"It's what we've always known he's capable of doing," said manager Joe Girardi. "Tex is another guy who can carry your club for awhile, that's how hot he can get. He swung the bat great today."
Oakland got no run support outside of Josh Reddick who recorded his 13th home run of the season. While reaching phenomenal numbers this month in HR's, Reddick's in the spotlight alone. In back-to-back games he's homered and has a total of nine home runs in the month of May.
He has the most home runs by an A's right fielder since 2007 when Jack Cust hit 13 of his 26 home runs while playing right field. It also matches the best single-month home run total by an Athletic over the last six years. Oakland has not had a player hit more than eight home runs in a month since Frank Thomas had 10 in September 2006.
"Everyone would like to have guys on base, but I would say frustrating is the word for it," Josh said. "Hopefully I can stay consistent like this until these guys get fired up and we can really do some damage. We've got a group of talent. These guys are going to turn it around. I know they're going to turn it around. We'll get on the same page here soon."
In the meantime the Yankees have continued to get big at-bats from their offense. Robinson Cano blasted a solo home run to leadoff the second. While Tyson Ross seemed foreign to the Bronx Bombers, Colon was not. Having pitched for New York last year, everyone is familiar with his game.
"We all know he throws a lot of fastballs, so you want to be able to not miss a pitch when he throws it over the plate," said Cano.
In six innings he gave up nine hits, six runs (all earned), three strikes and two home runs. In his last five starts he has surrendered seven home runs, five more than he allowed in the month of April. The A's struggles continue despite bad pitching, they hold Major League's worst .210 batting average.
"I'm pitching the same way I did in the beginning of the season," Bartolo said. "The difference is I throw a lot of strikes and sometimes they take advantage of that. I tried to locate the corners, but I'm not getting it where I want to, and they hit it very hard,."