Alfonso Soriano hit his 29th home run of the season, leaving him one shy of the club record for a second baseman, set by Joe Gordon in 1930.
He is also just one homer short of being the first 30-30 second baseman in history. The only middle infielder to ever reach 30-30 was shortstop Alex Rodriguez, who reached 40-40 for Seattle in 1998.
Going into the game, Soriano, Derek Jeter and Jason Giambi were a combined 6-for-49 but went 7-for-12.
“When there’s no one on base, it looks like Giambi is trying to be the run, instead of knocking in a run if there’s someone on second. Jeter’s jumping at the ball. It looks like he’s trying to hit the ball right out of the pitcher’s hand instead of waiting for it to get to him,” Torre said before the game. Afterwards he said: “I like what I saw from Jeter. He had good at-bats.”
*
Left fielder Shane Spencer went 2-for-4 with a solo home run in the sixth inning, his first homer in his last 22 games, a span of 66 at-bats. Spencer hadn’t gone deep since June 18 at homer-friendly Colorado. But the Yanks are 35-6 when Spencer does homer.
Right fielder Raul Mondesi took the proverbial Golden Sombrero, going 0-for-4 with four strikeouts. He’s 0-for-8 in the last two games, after going 15-for-44 leading up to that.