Gardner ends what Gordon starts

When 32-year-old Brian Gordon arrived on the mound Thursday at Yankee Stadium, he was a mystery to his Yankees teammates. Curtis Granderson said he caught the tail end of one sports report on TV a couple days earlier talking about an older player with a 14-year minor-league career starting Thursday's game against Texas.

"I was like, 'Who's pitching Thursday?' '' Granderson said. "I didn't hear the name. I started to learn more when I got a text message from Jason Grilli, a former teammate of mine and of [Gordon's], saying, 'Wish him luck for me, tell him I said hello and take care of him.' ''

As it turned out, Gordon took care of the Yankees in what became a 3-2, 12-inning victory over the Rangers, stepping in for injured Bartolo Colon with 51/3 strong innings before leaving with a 2-1 deficit.

The Yankees' injury-riddled lineup took care of the rest, tying the score on Jorge Posada's sixth-inning double and finally winning it in the 12th when Brett Gardner -- who entered the game in the 10th -- delivered his second single to drive in Granderson with the winning run.

Suddenly, Gordon's feel-good story turned a homestand that began with three losses to Boston into one of the season's feel-good stories for the Yankees. They won six of seven against division-leading Cleveland and Texas, completing a three-game sweep that gave them a 7-2 record against the team that beat them in last fall's ALCS. Not a bad send-off for a six-game swing to NL cities Chicago and Cincinnati.

"It's really positive because the homestand started off terrible,'' manager Joe Girardi said. "To be able to play another couple first-place teams and to respond the way we did, I'm very proud of our guys.''

As the game began, centerfielder Granderson and leftfielder Andruw Jones decided to play conservatively on defense until they got a handle on Gordon's ability. But everything settled down by the time Gordon ended the first by fanning Josh Hamilton with an 82-mph changeup.

"He's got great command, especially of his fastball,'' catcher Russell Martin said. "He paints both sides of the plate. He doesn't make many mistakes in the middle. He mixed his fastball, his curveball, he's got a little splitter he works with, he's got a cutter and a slider. So he's got a bunch of weapons.''

Martin staked Gordon to a 1-0 lead in the second with a two-out RBI single, but the Rangers tied the score in the fifth on an RBI double by Ian Kinsler that put runners on second and third with none out. Gordon nearly got out of it without further damage before hitting Adrian Beltre with an 0-and-2 curveball with the bases loaded and two outs.

Gordon left to a standing ovation in the sixth. "Unbelievable,'' Gardner said of a player who began his career as an outfielder before switching to pitching four years ago. "Nobody even knew who he was, to be honest with you, but he gave us almost six strong innings. It was great.''

Gardner didn't start the series' final two games because Texas started two lefthanders, but he was 2-for-2 against lefty Michael Kirkman Thursday. After Granderson hit a broken-bat bloop single down the rightfield line and Kirkman hit Robinson Cano an out later, Gardner pulled the winning hit through the right side of the infield.

It was his first game-winner since his rookie season in 2008 and provided the kind of fairy-tale ending Gordon's big day deserved. "Last year, it seemed like they always came out on top,'' Gardner said of the Rangers. "To win three out of three against a team like that, you feel good about yourself.''