The New York Yankees, no strangers to making history, accomplished another major league first on Thursday by hitting three grand slams in one game.
Russell Martin, Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson each hit bases-loaded longballs in turning what was once a comfortable Oakland Athletics lead into a Yankees rout.
The A's at one point led Thursday's game 7-1, but Granderson's eighth-inning blast off A's reliever Bruce Billings gave the Yankees a 21-8 lead and their historic third slam.
For the heck of it, Andruw Jones followed with a tape-measure shot off Brian Fuentes for a 22-8 Yankees lead. The Yankees held on to win 22-9.
No major league club had ever hit more than two in one game, and even the Yankees had never hit two grand slams at Yankee Stadium (any of them) before Cano and Martin unloaded with slams off Rich Harden (in the fifth) and Fautino De Los Santos (in the sixth), respectively.
The late-game carnage: New York batted around in each of the final four innings, tallying four runs in the fifth and sixth and six each in the seventh and eighth.
The Yankees became the first club since the Phillies in 2009 to score 22 runs in one game. And it was the most runs the A's had yielded since 1955.
A's pitchers may never live this down: They gave up 21 hits. All 22 runs were earned. And perhaps most egregiously, Oakland pitchers issued 13 walks.
Relievers Billings (four walks, six hits, seven runs in 1 1/3 innings) and Jordan Norberto (one hit, five walks, four runs allowed while recording just two outs) were the biggest offenders.
Little wonder, then, that the Yankees coaxed three balls over the fence with three men on.
"You gotta be pretty fortunate to do that. You've got to get the bases loaded, a lot," manager Joe Girardi said. "We got production from everywhere in our lineup."
Martin had the day of days, going 5-for-5 with six RBI and two home runs, the second a mere solo shot in the fourth.
Girardi subbed out his starters liberally, to the point that his second baseman for the bottom of the ninth was catcher/DH Jorge Posada.
The final out of the game came when Posada fielded a grounder from A's rookie Anthony Recker and, from about 30 feet, gunned a throw to first base that Nick Swisher dug out deftly.
It seemed a perfectly absurd conclusion to a crazy day in the Bronx.
Source: http://rssfeeds.usatoday.com/~r/UsatodaycomSports-TopStories/~3/jIQ6y8mWPiI/1
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