Melky Slams Aside the Indians

Game date- 7/05/06

Yankees- 11, Indians- 3

W- Mussina (10-3)
L- Byrd (6-6)



Melky Cabrera watches his first career grand slam homer sail over the left-field fence in Cleveland.

Yankee Starting Lineup:

CF- Damon, 0-1
SS- Jeter, 2-4 (1B, 1B, sac fly, R, 2 SB, RBI)
DH- Giambi, 0-5
3B- Rodriguez, 1-5 (1B, R, SB, RBI)
C- Posada, 2-5 ( 1B, 2B, R, 2 RBI)
RF- Williams, 1-5 (2B, R)
1B- Phillips, 1-4 ( 1B, SB, 2R)
LF- Cabrera, 3-5 ( 1B, 2B, 2R, 5 RBI, grand slam HR [3] )
2B- Cairo, 2-4 ( 1B, 3B, 2 SB, 2R, RBI)

Other Yankee Batters:

CF- Crsoby, 1-4 ( 1B, R, RBI)

Yankee Pitchers:

Mussina- 6H, 3R, BB, 4K, 6IP
Wilson- K, 2IP
Rivera- H, IP

Notes:

Mike Mussina delivered a much-needed quality start for the New York Yankees, pitching 6 strong innings. The Yankee bullpen has been very overworked in the past several days, so this start really helped the Yankees. With his tenth win, Mike Mussina becomes the first American League pitcher in history to win at least 10 games for 15 straight years. Kris Wilson, who the Yankees had just called up from Triple-A Columbus, pitched two perfect innings, and may be headed to an official start on Sunday ( instead of Chacon). Because he hadn't pitched in four days, Mariano Rivera closed the ninth inning.

Melky Cabrera had a huge offensive night, driving in a career-high 5 runs. It took Derek Jeter over 10 years to hit his first career grand slam, but Melky Cabrera got that problem out of the way tonight. Cabrera also singled home a runner, and scored two runs himself. Jorge Posada had a two-run double, Rodriguez had an RBI-single, and Cairo had an RBI-triple. Derek Jeter extended his season-high hitting streak to 11 games.

Johnny Damon left the game due to some soreness in his right oblique muscle, but is not expected to miss tomorrow's game.