New York Yankees starter Brandon McCarthy is letting contention bring out his best. On Saturday, McCarthy made his second start for the Yankees since his trade from Arizona, and he pitched his best game of the season to date. McCarthy (W: 4-10, 4.63 ERA) held the Reds to one earned run on six hits while striking out nine and walking none in six innings of work as the Yankees won 7-1.
The Yankees opened the scoring in the bottom of the second on Carlos Beltran's 10th home run, a solo shot off Alfredo Simon (L: 12-4, 2.74). In the third, Brian Roberts scored an unearned run on Brett Gardner's single. Roberts reached when right fielder Jay Bruce dropped an easy fly for a two-base error.
Gardner and Jeter each drove in single runs in the fifth. The Yankees broke it open with three more in the seventh. Kelly Johnson lofted a two-run single, and Gardner finished the scoring with a sacrifice fly for his third RBI of the day.
Cincinatti's lone run came on a Chris Heisey solo home run (4) in the top of the fifth, McCarthy's lone mistake of the day.
Adam Warren, Shawn Kelly, and Matt Thornton finished in relief for the Yankees.
McCarthy was 3-10 with a 5.01 ERA and 1.38 WHIP in 18 starts for the N.L. West's then-last-place Arizona Diamondbacks before coming to the Yankees in the trade that sent Vidal Nuno to Arizona on July 6. As a Yankee, McCarthy is now 1-0 with a 1.42 ERA in two starts.
With the Toronto Blue Jays defeating the Texas Rangers 4-1, both the Yankees and the Blue Jays pull to within 3.5 games of the first-place Baltimore Orioles, who play at Oakland Saturday night.