Its not often that you hear that a team goes to its hard-throwing 68-year-old to slow down a first place opponent, but thats exactly what the Damn Yankees were counting on when they sent ageless Bill Kervan to the hill Wednesday evening against the front-running Propane Cardinals.

Kervan responded with a turn-back-the clock gem as he spun a 7-inning complete game masterpiece to lead the charging Yankees to a 6-2 win over the Cards in 55s action at Satellite Field. Kervan allowed four singles, walked two and struck out two in going the distance.
"It was like the Kervan of old," one Yankee teammate could be heard saying after the game, referring to the 2009 season when Kervan won the leagues Bill Jones pitching award at the spry age of 64 in leading the Yankees to the CDMSBLs only undefeated season.

The Yanks jumped on Cards starter Rick Loffredo for two runs in the opening frame, but the Cards tied it up at 2-2 on the first of two hits in the game by Pete Zamory, and an RBI single by Jerry Hawkins. Matt Kellys gap-splitting double to left-center ignited a three-run fourth to put the DYs back on top, and they tacked on two insurance runs in the sixth, which proved to be plenty of runs for Kervan to work with. Kelly scored three runs and stole a pair of bases out of the No. 2 hole to spark the Yankees offense.

The loss drops the Cardinals to 11-2 as the 55s season heads into its final week before post-season play. They still hold a solid two-game edge over the Whiz Kids, while the Yankees climb into third place with a 7-4-1 record, followed by the Americans at 8-5-1 and the Marlins at 6-5-2.

-- Edited by adtimbrown on Thursday 25th of July 2013 08:04:50 AM