Rasner Getting Job Done; forces Rubber Game

Darrell Rasner pitched six-plus effective innings and Derek Jeter hit his first home run of the season as the Yankees defeated the Tigers, 5-2, on Saturday at Comerica Park. Making his second start since being called up from Triple-A Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, Rasner turned in another sharp effort and helped continue to settle the Yankees' starting pitching woes. He was hit for a first-inning run when rookie Matthew Joyce popped his first big league home run, a solo shot to right, but he settled in to throw five scoreless innings in protecting the lead. Rasner was charged with two runs when reliever Kyle Farnsworth allowed an inherited runner to score in the seventh. Rasner scattered four hits while walking one and striking out one in the effort. Jeter produced the first run of the game when he reached Tigers right-hander Jeremy Bonderman for a solo home run, his first, with one out in the first inning. The long ball ended a string of 184 at-bats without a homer for Jeter, his longest stretch to open a season. Melky Cabrera also worked a bases-loaded walk off Bonderman in the first to provide Rasner with two early runs. New York added one more in the fourth, when Robinson Cano worked a two-out walk and scored on Wilson Betemit's booming double to deep center. The hit was costly, as Betemit pulled up with a strained right hamstring jogging into second base, and he was replaced by pinch-runner Morgan Ensberg. Bonderman allowed hits to both batters he faced in the fifth, including an RBI double to Bobby Abreu, as the final two runs scored in Bonderman's five-run, six-hit performance. Bonderman walked four and struck out three before being relieved by Bobby Seay, who escaped further damage that inning, when Jason Giambi ran through a stop sign from third-base coach Bobby Meacham and was thrown out on a Cano single.
Rubber Game tomorrow 1:05 p.m on YES or TBS (if not in NY or Det. area)