Yankees fans came into this game tonight expecting to watch an all out pitcher’s deul.  However, this is not what happened in a Yankees 8-3 victory over the Philadelphia Phillies.  Both CC Sabathia and Roy Halladay didn’t show up with their best stuff, but it was the Phillies ace who had more woes.

Halladay lasted six innings, the second shortest outing of the season for him.  He gave up eight hits and six runs, four of which were off homers.  He only struck out five and gave up three homeruns, tying a career high.  The last two times Doc gave up three homeruns in a single game were also against the Yankees.

“He’s been one of the good pitchers.  He’s always pitched well against us,” says CC Sabathia.  “You never know what’s going to happen.”

“He doesn’t give up too many runs, but today we got him,” says manager Joe Girardi.  “I talked about it before the game.  He doesn’t make a lot of mistakes, and if he makes a mistake you better not miss it because you may not get another one in that at-bat.  Our guys put some good swings on some balls where he might not have wanted them.”

Brett Gardner started the Yankees offense in the second inning.  He hit a two run stand up triple scoring Nick Swisher and Jorge Posada.  I thought Gardner had a great shot at getting an inside the park home run, but he was probably held up to play it safe.  The Yankees had one out on that hit.

In the third inning, Curtis Granderson lead off with a solo shot to right.  Two batters later Robinson Cano hit a double to right center and then Swisher blasted a two run home run, breaking his bat in the process.  I quote Paul O’Neil in that moment when he said, “That bat died a hero.”

“He’s been huge for us,” says Sabathia of Swisher.  “We’ve had a lot of guys gone down and he’s definitly picked up the slack.”

In the fifth inning, Mark Teixeira hit a homerun that just made it over the right field wall, hitting the camera man in the back.  Finally in the seventh inning, Francisco Cervelli gave us some of his hitting with RISP magic by knocking in two runs with a single to left while the bases were loaded.

CC Sabathia looked very dominate starting this game off striking out six in three innings and not allowing any hits.  After the Yankees were leading 5-0 going into the fourth inning, CC loaded the bases with no one out and gave up three runs.  One of those runs came off a play where CC forgot to cover.  Mark Teixeira collected a ground ball and threw to Derek Jeter to try for the double play.  But CC must have fallen asleep because he didn’t cover first base.  Luckily Jeter looks before he throws and realized CC was not there.

“That was my fault.  Just a mental error,” says CC.  “I apologized to Tex after that.”