yankees

Nick Swisher Campaigns With His Bat in Oakland

Nick Swisher is perfectly suited for the All-Star Game’s “Final Vote” process: He’s game for whatever wacky campaign skit the Yankees would like to put him in — here, Nick, grab this surfboard — and he’s an active Twitter user, so he can count on the support of his 1.2 million followers (not to mention a whole bunch of random famous people). But last night, on his final campaign stop before voting ends this afternoon, Swisher made a convincing argument for his inclusion, not with his mouth, or with his iPhone, but with his bat.

He collected three hits — a single, a double, and a home run — and added a walk in a 6–2 Yankees win that completed a sweep of Oakland. Mark Teixeira — who’s finally starting to resemble Mark Teixeira — actually delivered the biggest blow with a three-run homer in the fourth, which alone would have been enough support for A.J. Burnett, who allowed two runs over seven innings. (It’s a good sign for a team when two runs over seven innings qualifies as the statistically weakest outing by a starting pitcher in a given series.)

Meanwhile, Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter provided the night’s levity with their gigglefest after Rodriguez fell down attempting to grab a catchable foul pop-up. These are the kinds of things you can do when you’re 22 games over .500 and can claim the best record in baseball.

Nick Swisher Campaigns With His Bat in Oakland