July 26, 2007 — Alejandro Rivera did Tuesday what his team’s top pitchers could not: beat the Yankees, with the Monarchs taking a 12-7 win to even the AA baseball finals.
The wily, 40-plus veteran did not blow anyone away with anything that resembled a fastball, but he did use his years of experience and lots of junk pitches to keep the powerful Yankees lineup off balance. Rivera also spoke as much junk as he threw, trying to unravel some of his adversaries. At time it seemed to work. When they did finally get to him in the sixth, reliever Dwayne Brannigan was able to come on and close the door on the Yankees to preserve the win.
Leroy Simmonds’ RBI single in the top of the first opened the scoring for the Yankees. The Monarchs tied the game at one in the bottom of the inning on a passed ball.
The score would stay that way until the top of the fourth, when the Yankees picked up another run on Eliezer Ramirez’s sacrifice fly. The Monarchs answered with two runs in the bottom of the inning on an RBI single by Rene Rosado and a Yankee error to lead 3-2 at the end of four complete innings.
Both teams picked up unearned runs in the fifth and the game went to the sixth with the Monarchs holding a 4-3 advantage.
After the Yankees failed to score in the top of the sixth, the Monarchs took the lead for good at 7-3 in the bottom of the inning, scoring three runs on RBI singles by Andre Poche and Rosado and a sac fly off the bat of Leon Lang.
The Yankees answered with three runs in the top of the seventh on a two-run single by Jose Morales and an error by the Monarchs’ first baseman to go down 7-6. The Monarchs came up empty in the bottom of the inning.
The Monarchs put the game away in the bottom of the eighth after the Yankees failed to score in the top of the inning. They scored five runs on a two-run single by Rosado, an RBI triple by Lang and RBI doubles by Rashan Foster and Conrad Prevost to go up 12-6 heading into the ninth.
The Yankees could not do much with Brannigan in the top of the ninth. They did manage to plate one run for a slightly more respectable final score of 12-7.
Rivera pitched six innings and scattered five hits to earn the win, while Angel Soto, who did not pitch badly for the Yankees, got the loss.
The Monarchs’ attack was led by Rosado, 4 for 4 with two RBIs; Foster, 3 for 5 with an RBI; and Javier Encarnacion, 2 for 4. For the Yankees, Eastman went 1 for 4 with an RBI, Simmonds 1 for 5 with an RBI and Morales 1 for 2 with two RBIs.
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