The 2009 Yankees won their first series after losing or splitting nine straight by beating the 1951 Yankees four games to two to improve their record to 46-56. The '51 Yankees dropped to 30-24.
The '51 Yankees dropped the hammer in Game One with a 15-8 win; Gil McDougald went 4-6 with a double and triple and five RBI. The 2K9 Yankees came back with back-to-back dramatic wins. In Game Two, Johnny Mize broke a 2-2 tie off Mariano Rivera with a sac fly, but after Hank Bauer threw out Mark Teixeira at the plate with a perfect throw, Hideki Matsui hit a two-out walk-off three run homerun for a 5-3 win. Matsui had his fingerprints on a 8-6 11 inning win in Game Three. The 2K9 Yankees trailed early 4-1. Johnny Damon hit a two-run homerun in the 7th and Matsui hit a two-run double in the 8th to take a 5-4 lead. Rivera blew the save in the 9th when Gene Woodling blasted a solo homerun to tie the game. The '51 Yankees went ahead 6-5 in the 11th, but Matsui tied the game with a homerun, and Derek Jeter put it away with a walk-off two-run dinger. Tom Morgan helped tie the series for the '51 Yankees in Game Four. After giving up three runs in the first inning, he shut the 2K9 Yankee offense for the next seven innings. Meanwhile, at the plate, Morgan blasted a solo homerun to get his team on the board and drove in a two-out go-ahead RBI single in the 8th for a come-from-behind 4-3 win. The '51 Yankees couldn’t get anyone across the plate against Joba Chamberlain in Game Five when they stranded 15 runners in a 5-0 loss. Chamberlain pitched a complete game shutout despite giving up eight hits and seven walks. The 2K9 Yankees finally clinched the series in Game Six when Teixeira hit a two-run homer in the 9th to break a 1-1 tie for a 3-1 win.
Robinson Cano hit .348 in the series to raise his team-leading average to .280 with 15 homeruns. Matsui hit .546 with two homeruns and eight RBI to raise his average to .242 with 13 homeruns. Even Chamberlain’s shutout was ugly like most of his outings which improved his record to 2-10 with a 6.72 ERA.
Before getting injured, Yogi Berra crossed double figures in homeruns with 11 while hitting .261. Vic Raschi leads the staff with a 9-3 record and 1.72 ERA. The '51 Yankees will take on the 53-61 1952 Yankees in the next series.
