For as many times as my neighbors furrow a brow to the “walkoff” chant that starts in the ninth inning of every New York home game down in the run column, nothing brings an easier smile than the “victory march” from door to door when the chant pays off. Down one run with two outs in the ninth and the bases loaded, Alex Rodriguez made the victory march even sweeter with a two strike swing that saw his second homerun of the game charge over the center field wall and fade into the black. Now three games into the season, A-Rod is giving New York fans every excuse to keep the cheers coming and make that key offseason decision for him. With the game on the line, when it counts, A-Rod delivered what Yankees fans have been begging for, a truly memorable walkoff homerun.

In his first Major League start, Kei Igawa, turned in an otherwise unmentionable performance, as he gave up 7 earned runs on 8 hits including two homeruns. Igawa never looked comfortable on the mound as he was unable to get any of his breaking pitches working, but he did however mark the first time this season a Yankees starter turned in five full innings of work. The bullpen looked dominant, pitching 4 innings of 1 hit ball to close out the game. But the real story was highlighted by clutch hits from the Yankees offense. Jorge Posada missed a homerun by inches in the fourth, settling for an RBI single, and Jason Giambi hit a three run homer in the 8th to bring the Yankees within 1 run heading to the ninth. With two outs, Robinson Cano hit a clutch single and was followed by a Derek Jeter walk and a frightening hit by a pitch for Bobby Abreu. With one swing of the bat, Alex Rodriguez made up for a dismal Igawa performance and the Yankees pushed themselves back to .500 in the early season.

(6 votes, average: 5 out of 5)

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