Jorge Posada's Short Home Run Sinks Leake and Reds, 4-2

Friday Drew Stubbs hit an inside-the-park home run against Toronto.  The ball landed a few feet short of the 370' sign and bounded away from pursuing outfielders.

Jorge Posada broke a 2-2 tie with a home run to right field off Mike Leake that leaked (pun intended) into the front row of the stands an announced 357' away.  The long fly ball followed a single by Robinson Cano.

Freddy Garcia manhandled the slumping Reds.  He pitched seven innings and allowed just three hits and should have had a shutout.  Alex Rodriguez was given the day off as planned.  His replacement, Ramiro Pena, had a rough day.  He threw a Drew Stubbs ground ball away to start the fifth inning.  Edgar Renteria singled sending Stubbs to third, where he scored on Ryan Hanigan's ground out that Pena also threw away..  Leake sacrificed the runners up a base.  New leadoff man, Freddie Lewis hit a sacrifice fly to center that outdistanced Posada's home run by 30 feet.

Leake pitched six innings, allowing four runs on five hits.  Brett Gardner and Curtis Granderson singled back-to-back with one out.  Nick Swisher hit a hard one hopper to Joey Votto at first.  Votto elected to step on firstbase before throwing home.  His throw was too high to nail Granderson.

"Leake was frustrated because you're on thin ice when you're not scoring runs," Dusty Baker said.  "Both rallys were started by jam shots. Gardiner's to left and Cano's to right.  You talk about a bloop and a blast, that was the definition right there."

It wasn't much of a blast either.

"I was trying to get a strike out of it," Leake said of the curveball Posada hit.

Ironically it was Posada that took Girardi's catching job that sent the Yankee skipper to the managerial ranks.  Posada, the Yankee's designated hitter, has been demoted to pinch hitter in National League parks.

"As a designated hitter you observe what the starting pitcher is trying to do.  As a pinch hitter you have to figure out who you are going to face.  It's a little different," Posada said.  "You have to hit strikes.  It doesn't matter if it is a breaking ball or not." 

Pena made a third error on a Stubbs grounder in the seventh but started a double play on a grounder by the next hitter, Renteria.

Without Pena's help, the Reds may not have scored at all.  Runs have been scarce for the National League's leading offense on this home stand.

"There is nothing wrong with our approach," Baker said.  "We're swinging at strikes.  We're just not centering the ball primarily and when we do we're hitting it right at someone.  We just have to keep swinging."

Mariano Rivera struck out two in the ninth to produce his 19th save of the season.