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DETROIT (Ticker) -- Darrell Rasner may have made a permanent
place for himself in the New York Yankees' rotation.
Rasner pitched six-plus excellent innings as the Yankees posted
a 5-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers on Saturday.
Derek Jeter homered and the visitors scored three more on three
RBI doubles as New York snapped a six-game losing streak to
Detroit.
"You don't like to keep losing to the same team over and over,"
Yankees manager Joe Girardi said. "They've hit the ball well
against us, but (Rasner) did a nice job today."
The 27-year-old Rasner (2-0) yielded two runs, four hits and a
walk for his second win in as many starts since being called up
from Class AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre last Sunday.
"I didn't try to do anything different today," Rasner said. "I
wanted to throw first-pitch strikes and make the hitters be
defensive. Today, I made an effort to keep it simple and not
out-think myself."
The righthander, who struck out one, was promoted to the majors
after Phil Hughes was placed on the disabled list with a broken
rib.
"He didn't change his style," Girardi said. "He did say, 'OK,
I'm at a higher level, so I have to do things differently.'"
Rasner's performance could have him embedded as a starter for
Girardi's club. Besides Hughes, Ian Kennedy, who also began
2008 in the Yankees' rotation, was sent to the minors.
"If you continue to pitch well, you will stay in the rotation,"
said Girardi, who seemed impressed by the outing. "Darrell
knows that. He is figuring out how to use this opportunity."
On Friday, emergency starter Kei Igawa was shelled for six runs
and 11 hits in just three-plus frames in New York's 6-5 loss to
Detroit.
"This is a great opportunity," Rasner added. "I love playing
under the radar. It works for me, for my personality.
"I know my limitations. I'm not going to throw 95 miles per
hour. I'm not going to strike a lot of guys out. That's not my
style."
The Yankees' offense gave Rasner a quick lead in the first
inning when, with one out, Jeter belted a solo shot over the
right-field fence. It was Jeter's first homer of the season
(129 at-bats) and he was razzed about it from his teammates as
he rounded the bases.
"Derek heard from some of the guys (on the bench)," Girardi
said. "I just put up one (finger)."
"I wanted to get at least one this year," Jeter kidded. "I sort
of hit home runs by accident."
The Yankees' captain was also impressed by Rasner.
"He pitched well today," Jeter said. "He knows what he's doing
out there and keeps the hitters off balance. That's a tough
lineup he pitched to today. I wouldn't want to have to pitch
against them."
Later in the frame, Detroit starter Jeremy Bonderman walked
Melky Cabrera with the bases loaded to give New York a 2-0 lead.
After Rasner served up a solo homer to rookie Matthew Joyce in
the bottom of the first, the Yankees tacked on a run in the
fourth on Wilson Betemit's RBI double before Bobby Abreu and
Jason Giambi added run-scoring doubles in the fifth to make it
5-1.
Meanwhile, Rasner was cruising, only giving up a single to Ivan
Rodriguez in the third and a two-out base hit to Joyce in the
sixth.
After he surrendered a leadoff walk to Magglio Ordonez in the
bottom of the seventh, Girardi took him out in favor of Kyle
Farnsworth. The righthander allowed two straight hits,
including an RBI double to Gary Sheffield, before retiring three
consecutive Tigers to get out of the seventh without any
further damage.
Joba Chamberlain pitched a scoreless eighth inning before
Mariano Rivera came on and worked around a leadoff single by
Ordonez in the nin
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