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| Dewayne Wise hits a 2-run shot to right field in the second inning of Monday nights game against the Cleveland Indians. (Getty Images) |
Joe Girardi pushed the right button on Monday when he penciled Dewayne Wise in the starting lineup, which gave Curtis Granderson a half of day off.
Dewayne Wise signed a minor league contract in the offseason with the Yankees, hoping that he would get some playing time with them. Wise knew that the Yankees were filled in the outfield, but he wasn't bothered by the fact that he might have to start in the minor leagues. He stated that he wanted to contribute some way, and he did just that tonight.
In his first at bat, Wise sent a hanging curveball deep to right field for a 2-run shot in the second inning. It increased their lead to 4-0 over the Indians. Wise would come up for the third time in the sixth inning and would send one into the right center field gap to score Eric Chavez and give himself an RBI triple. Wise had 3 runs batted in (RBIs) on the night.
For a player that doesn't get many at bats, he looked locked in tonight.
Robinson Cano helped carry the Yankees to victory tonight as well. Cano slugged a 2-run double to right in the first inning and a solo home run right in the third inning. Cano also had 3 runs batted in (RBIs) on the night.
Nick Swisher also contributed with a solo home run to left field to go back-to-back with Cano.
Hiroki Kuroda started for the Yankees and he was outstanding. Kuroda allowed 1 run on 5 hits in 7 innings of work. He struck out 7 batters and walked 2. His splitter was working tonight and that seemed to be his strike out pitch. During the postgame, Kuroda said that he wasn't feeling his splitter while throwing in the bullpen. Kuroda finished with 103 pitches, 67 of them were for strikes.
The Yankees and Indians will play game 2 of 3 tomorrow.