Yanks’ home streak stretches to eight at Ponson tops Twins

Tonight in Kansas City, Jimmy Gobble took one for the team. He had the distinct pleasure of allowing all ten runs the Tigers scored in the eighth inning. He walked four and allowed seven hits en route to a singularly bad outing.

Every time Sidney Ponson takes the mound, I half expect that to happen, and one night, it will. It may not be his next start which happens to fall against — gulp — the Red Sox, but it will come. Tonight, Ponson managed to win yet another game for the Yanks. He went 5.2 innings and allowed his customary 11 base runners. Somehow, he has to keep up that 1.94 WHIP.

The Twins, however, managed to plate just three runs. Ponson got his double play when he needed it most and managed to escape serious harm throughout the evening. It’s a rather tense high-wire act, and as long as the Yanks can score 12 runs every five days, he’ll be fine. But one night, it’s going to all come crashing down in a Jimmy Gobble-like mess of base runners and runs. I’m not looking forward to that.

But Ponson pontifications aside, the Yanks just kept doing what they do best these days: They won at home for the eighth time in a row. Their last home loss came on July 4th when today’s starter Darrell Rasner took the L in a game against Boston.

Offensively, everyone except Jason Giambi hit. Robinson Cano continued his torrid July with two hits including his eighth home run of the year. He’s up to .260 and should see his OBP climb over .300 soon. Small victories, right? A-Rod and Derek both picked up a pair of hits and a home run apiece, and the new starting catcher Jose Molina went three for four.

After the team was through hitting, the bullpen took over once again, and I can’t say enough about the pen. Edwar Ramirez pitched out of a pickle and now hasn’t allowed a hit in over nine innings, and over his last nine games covering 11.1 innings, Ramirez has allowed one hit and two walks while striking out 16. That’s phenomenal. With his scoreless inning tonight, David Robertson has now gone 11 innings with seven hits, four walks and 14 strike outs. We’ve seen Brian Cashman’s bullpen plan come together perfectly recently, and it couldn’t have come at a better.

For a night, the offense made us forget about Jorge Posada and Hideki Matsui. The bullpen made us overlook another two-base-runners-per-inning outing from Sidney Ponson. And the score made us yearn for a few more home games as Yankee Stadium continues to refuse to yield its magic to the ballpark slowing arising across the street. This, folks, is turning into a pennant race. Would we have it any other way?