No fooling Robinson Cano & Co. as Yankees crush Santana
Robinson Cano watches the flight of his second inning two-run home run during a game against the Mets. (June 8, 2012) Credit: Jim McIsaac
No-no? More like Cano-no.
Robinson Cano hit a pair of home runs off Mets no-hit wonder Johan Santana Friday night as the Bronx Bombers lived up to their name in a dizzying two-inning span of a 9-1 win over the Mets in the first game of the Subway Series at Yankee Stadium.
For those wondering if Santana could be the second pitcher in baseball history to throw consecutive no-hitters, Cano took care of that quickly after a hitless first inning.
With Alex Rodriguez on first base after a leadoff walk in the second inning, Cano launched the first pitch from Santana into the lower deck in right for a 2-0 Yankees lead.
The Yankees then used two-out thunder in the third inning. After a single by Rodriguez, Cano, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones went back-to-back-to-back against Santana.
"He's a guy that throws a lot of strikes," Cano said. "That's a guy you want to go and be aggressive [against] because you don't want to get behind in the count because you know his changeup against lefties is very effective."
It was the first time the Yankees have hit three consecutive home runs since Aug. 28 of last season against the Orioles. The players? Cano, Swisher and Jones.
Santana, who no-hit the Cardinals last Friday for the first no-hitter in Mets history, had never before given up three consecutive home runs.
"You don't see that every day," Joe Girardi said.
It wasn't Santana's night, but it was Cano's. His second home run -- also on the first pitch -- was his 11th of the season. It went into the second deck in right and made it 4-0. It was Cano's eighth multi-homer game and first since April 29, 2011 vs. Toronto.
Girardi said the Yankees didn't have a game plan to jump on Santana early in the count after his 134-pitch effort in the no-hitter.
"I don't want guys to change their approach," he said. "If you get a pitch to hit, you better hit it, because lately he hasn't been making a whole lot of mistakes. And in his career, he hasn't made a whole lot of mistakes. Robby jumped on a high fastball, he jumped on a high slider. The thing that [Santana] did, he got the ball up tonight, and our guys took advantage of that."
Swisher followed with a blast into the lower deck in left for his ninth home run of the season. Jones went second deck in left for his sixth to make it 6-0 to back Hiroki Kuroda, who was showing possible no-hit stuff of his own.
Kuroda did not allow a hit until Omar Quintanilla doubled to left-center with two outs in the sixth inning.
Cano now has eight home runs in his last 19 games after hitting three in his first 38.
The Yankees added three runs in the seventh inning off rookie righthander Elvin Ramirez. Rodriguez had a sacrifice fly, Swisher had an RBI double and Jones an RBI single.
Those were the Yankees' first two hits with runners in scoring position. Until then they were 0-for-4 with a walk and A-Rod's sacrifice fly. But that doesn't really matter if the batter's box is scoring position.
