Absolutely everything was working for Hiroki Kuroda tonight, and for six innings, he didn't allow one of the better offenses in baseball to get a hit against him. His no-hit bid would end with an Elvis Andrus infield single to shortstop in the seventh, but it doesn't diminish how dominating Kuroda was in the complete game effort.
Kuroda allowed two walks, the most in his last eight starts, but struck out five and gave up only one other hit on the night. With the Yankees leading 3-0 going to the ninth, it wasn't certain that Girardi would let Kuroda finish the game instead of going to Rafael Soriano in a save situation, but Soriano was kept in the pen by a clean inning to close things out.
It really cannot be overstated how important Kuroda has been to the Yankees this season. For all the worry over how an NL pitcher would adjust to life in the AL East and the short porch in Yankee Stadium, Kuroda has been everything you could have hoped for. With the ace of the staff on the shelf with an elbow injury, these outings from Kuroda become even more important as the Yankees chase an AL East title. He has lived up to and exceeded all expectations.
Matt Harrison kept the offense quiet until the seventh inning, but they finally broke through against the Texas bullpen when Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira hit back-to-back home runs off of Alexi Ogando for a three-run lead. Jeter extended his hitting streak to ten games with two singles and Casey McGehee continued to prove to be a valuable pick up with two singles of his own.
The Yankees will go for the series win against the AL West leaders tomorrow as Freddy Garcia opposes Scott Feldman at 7:05 p.m.