Third Win in a Row

Bobby Abreu was the hero in last night's game 2 against the Minnesota Twins. The Yankees won it 7-to-6 in the 12th inning off of Bobby's clutch single RBI that allowed Damon to cross the plate. Both Damon and Abreu led the team with 2 hits over 5 at-bats.

Ohlendorf wound up getting the win and he deserved it. He pitched 2 scoreless innings and kept the Yankees in the game as it played out in extra innings. Mo secured his 15th save of the year.

Wang was once again a little flimsy on the mound and, although he put 5 innings on the board, he made me nervious all the way through. He certainly wasn't pitching like an ace last night. Fortunately, the Yanks were good enough at the plate and ultimately took the game.

"I knew in my heart we were a much better club than what we were playing," Girardi said after the game. "We weren't playing well, and when you have the talent level we have, you should play better. That's exactly what we're doing."

The bombers are now one game over .500 in the standings and 5.5 games behind the fabulous Tampa Bay DEVIL Rays.

So what...

I guess the more tv you watch and radio that you listen to, the more you will hear people repeat themselves. It happens with news headlines all the time. I am so tired of hearing about Obama and Clinton... just have the damn election already and be done with it! Fortunately, this blog is not about politics, but about baseball, so let me translate some of my "enough already" moments to the Yankees.

"Joba falters as Yanks fall to Tribe" was the headline on the Yankees website this morning. Ok, fine. This is true. Joba gave up a three-run homer with two outs in the eighth to pitch-hitting David Dellucci . But, so what? Joba may at times appear to be God-like but he is definitely not God. Mistakes are going to happen and fans need to know that. Joba's problem last night wasn't even a one-pitch mistake that resulted in a hit to the stands but rather difficulty finding the strike zone. This will happen to a pitcher, any pitcher, at times. Tonight is another game.

"Kennedy returns to form in minors" So what? If he can't find a way of pitching effectively in the majors then what difference does it make. Speaking of God-like, if you were listening to John Sterling last night during the game broadcast you would have thought that he and Suzyn Waldman were talking about the Messiah. One hit over 7-1/3 innings and no walks IS good pitching but my $60 face value tickets are not for games played in Scranton.

"Oh no... Igawa is scheduled to pitch on Friday!" Ok, so this wasn't a headline anywhere (that I could find anyway) but it might as well be. I am no happier than the next guy when it comes to resorting to Kei Igawa on the mound but let's face it folks, a loss is a loss, right? Does it matter if it is earned by Igawa or Hughes? What I mean to say is... what else do we really stand to lose by giving Igawa another chance? We certainly paid a helluva lot of money for him. Igawa is in the rotation... so what?

I have more of these and I could probably keep going (i.e. A-Rod is a wimp because he passed out when his baby was born... so what?) but, unlike the local media, I am going to move on.

Tonight will be a game to watch as two undefeated pitchers take the mound. Wang (6-0) for the Yankees will go against Lee (5-0) for the Indians. Which one will emerge as victorious? I say it has a lot to do with whether or not the Yankee bats decide to rally.

Much needed wins...

So my Yankee prayers on Friday afternoon were answered this weekend as the Yankees took all three games from the Seattle Mariners. Sweeping this series was a very important step in the rebuilding of confidence and momentum for the Yanks. This past week or two brought some misfortune in the way of injury and lack of performance but the team has made some adjustments and only additional time (and games played) will determine the effectiveness of these changes.

It would appear, at least for the time being, that the Yankees have switched to a four-man pitching rotation. With Phil Hughes on the DL and Ian Kennedy sent down on Sunday, the probable pitchers lineup indicates Pettitte, Wang, Mussina, and Rasner for the next four games. The team does have the night off on Monday so this modification will have little to no effect this time around.

Fox news last night had a poll question that asked: "Are the Yankees going to be better off without Hughes and Kennedy?" Admittedly, I dozed off before hearing the results but it is an interesting question to ponder. The one thing that jumps out at me, at least when looking to yesterday's performance by Rasner, was that we have been watching a completely different offense this past weekend. Now this is not to diminish Rasner's pitching in any way and I think he was magnificent in his major league debut of this season, but the Yankees outscored the Mariners 19 runs to 4. Had they performed this well at the plate when the two kids were on the mound, we may have seen some different game outcomes. One might argue that Seattle is not Boston, and this is certainly a valid argument. Nevertheless, it is an interesting question to ponder.

Speaking of Boston, they also picked up the broom this past weekend and swept the Tampa Bay Ray's at Fenway 26 runs to 10. The Yankees therefore were not able to gain positioning in the standings and remain 3 games back in the AL-East. This weekend was all about opportunity though and as more of those opportunities reach the Yankees with Cleveland, Detroit and Tampa Bay in the immediate future, I am confident that brighter times will prevail.

Pretzels

It was a cold, damp night at the stadium last night... one of those games when your first beer gives you the shivers but your fourth makes everything feel alright. I saw people eating dippin-dots, and that just blew my mind. It was a relatively short game (2:57) and I was amongst friends, so all was good in my world. (Notice the two Mariner fans in the picture... two great friends of mine who just happen to like to root for the wrong team. I shot this one early in the game, while they were smiling and before the depression had a chance to set in.)

First of all, I would like to officially thank Joe Girardi for benching Cano last night. I was getting angry at just seeing out there and I am glad the Yankees recognized that his simply needs some time out of the game. Wang pitched a decent game last night and is now 6-and-0, the first pitcher to tout this kind of start in the American League. He gave us a little scare last night when the medical staff was called to the mound but it turns out it was just a cramp in his hand. Of course, I have seen him at time when he was more on his game but a win is a win and that's all that really matters.

The Yankees offense looked slightly better last night. The 4 Seattle errors certainly helped us out in that regard. Melky Cabrera's double base, double RBI in the second inning was probably my favorite play of the game. We are really very fortunate to have Cabrera, and I hope that the Yankees finally realize that.

Bobby Murcer got a standing ovation last night when his video feed came on the big screen to the tune of "Welcome Back". He also had the honors of pulling the switch after the fifth inning to change the home game countdown number from 69 to 68. God bless you Bobby, I hope you are with us for a long, long time.

The Yankees received some information yesterday indicting that Posada will not need to have shoulder surgery this season but will likely not be able to pick up a baseball for the next two weeks. I am hoping that we see in back behind the plate in June. Posada did mention that it did not hurt him to hit, only to throw, but I doubt that the Yankees are going to take many chance with him. Posada will explore off-season surgery at the end of the year.

So, overall a good win for the Yankees last night, taking the first game of the Seattle series with a final score of 5-1. My seats acquired from StubHub were decent and the I enjoyed the company of my Seattle seatmates. My one complaint... and this is more of a general gripe about Yankee Stadium and not specifically last night's game... is that it is way too difficult to get a damn pretzel in the house that Ruth built. I mean, unless you get one in the first inning, you are screwed. The geniuses working at the pretzel carts seem to think it is good idea to put only 10 pretzels on the fire at one time (even if they have a line for 30 people) and then will tell you that it takes 10-to-15 minutes for the them to heat up. I am told that in the new Yankee Stadium, this will all be different. I am told that this will be a place where every fan will be able to get a hot, fresh pretzel. Where bathroom paper towel dispensers will be checked and refilled regularly and the employees might actually thank you for handing them a twenty for 2 cups of beer. This is my dream.

Wang and Posada

There wasn't a whole lot of hitting in yesterday afternoon's 3rd match up with the Cleveland Indians. Much of this had to do with who was on the mound. Sabathia, who limited the Yankees to only one run is surprisingly 1-4 this season. But let's talk about Wang... 9 strikeouts over 7 innings is what the Yankees needed to give their bullpen a rest. This win brings Wang to a 5-0 record... not too shabby. JoMo came in to seal the deal and New York was able to return to .500 baseball with a current 13-13 record. Mariano picked up his seventh save and has been looking incredibly on the mark this year.

Sadly, Posada needed to be placed on the DL for the first time in his Yankee career yesterday, suffering from more right shoulder pain. It is a hard break but something that we can't be too surprised by. Posada is getting up there in age and catching is a hard position to play. Jorge puts everything he has into every play, every game. Injury happens and there's not much that can be done about it. The Yankees will be absolutely fine with Molina behind the plate but need to make sure that another backup is in place. Moeller was already designated on Friday and it will be a few days before anything can be done with him. There is speculation about acquiring Chris Stewart from Scranton but we will have to wait until tonight to see what Girardi decides to do.

An interesting game..

I was a little concerned going into last night's game, especially since Chicago has been dominating the standings (in both leagues) as of late. I suppose my concern was more appropriately an anxiety of not knowing what to expect. A-Rod took my advice and had his second child during an appropriate off-day while he was still recovering from a muscle strain, but of course that made him unavailable for the Chicago series. I would be watching Posada during his first return behind the plate since April 8th, hoping that there were no lingering issues. The Yankees had 19 different lineups in their last 20 games, and this lack of stability can have an underlying effect. Contreras would be facing Wang at the mound.

Let's start with Wang... he ultimately got the win (now 4-0). Part of me doesn't think he deserved it because his throw was just plain off. I am not sure what happened to his ground ball pitches, as I am seeing more and more pops. Wang struggled last night, his pitch count rose early in the game, leaving after 6 innings with 105 pitches which is high for him. But still, he pitched himself out of trouble several times and entered the dugout with a trail of only one run.

Then came Bobby Abreu to save the night (say thank you, Chin) with a 2-out grand slam off of Dotel. Hehe, Octavio Dotel didn't do anything for us as a Yankee and I am so glad he is up to his same stuff. Oh, and by the way, did you see the shot of that fan trying to catch Abreu's grand slam? Not only did he drop it from both hands but it knocked him on his ass. Very funny.

Traber and Bruney were a little frustrating to me with their untimely walks. Joba too for that matter but he ultimately got the job done. Fartsworth of course needed to come in to give out another of his infamous home run pitches.

But let's talk hitting... the Yankees looked good at the plate last night (let's home it lasts for more than one game). Giambi surely took some confidence from his early smack to the stands. Damon had a three run shot with two out in the 8th (and also had some nice stuff defensively last night, by the way). Cano made out with a double and anything from him lately is a flash of bright hope. In fact, Jeter was the only Yankee last night without a hit (except for late comer Gonzalez).

So this game was interesting in that it showed some promise. We saw some potential short-comings and we saw some great ball being played too. It showed the team working better together... batting to help pitching. Let's hope for the same tonight when the Moose takes the mound in game 2 of the series.

Out of this world

I personally do not like all the gimmicks that seem to surround baseball these days. I don't really think the ball clubs (especially the Yankees) gain any ticket sales from them and when I go to the games I would rather just go for the games. I don't even like it when stadiums do those light shows and fireworks every time there is a home run. Let the fans generate the hoop-la. After all, whats the big deal- it's only a home run... the Yankees had two last night- no need for fireworks. That being said, last night's first pitch from outer space started us out with a match up against the Red Sox that was out of this world.

The Bombers got off to a good start last night with back-to-back home runs by Bobby and Alex in the first inning. Wang was looking decent and it seemed like the Yankee bats had come to play. By the bottom of the 4th inning they added 4 more runs to the board and now led the Sox 7-3. I thought this would be a good time to take out the trash (literally) and go walk the dog. To my surprise when I came back to the tv, Wang had been yanked, Ohlendorf was on the mound, and Boston had added 3 runs to their score. I must have missed a Wang meltdown of some sort. By the middle of the 5th, the Yankees were down by 2.

They came back in the bottom of the fifth to re-capture their lead with 4 more runs and Hawkins was brought in. Now, I have alluded to this before but in the interest of full disclosure I will say that I do not like LaTroy Hawkins. I think he going to put the Yankees in some tough (negative) situations this year. I hope I am wrong about that prediction... I certainly was wrong last night. Hawkins pitched extremely well for two straight innings and wound up getting the win for the night. Traber came in for one pitch and the Bruney took us home but not before the Yankees added 4 more runs to the lead in the bottom of the 8th. Final Score: Yankees 15 - Boston 9. A helluva game!

I read this morning that Wilson Betemit is now suffering from corneal ulcers (whatever the hell those are) and Harlin Chamberlain is continuing to improve.

Everybody Wang Chung Tonight...

It don't get much better than that! Chien-Ming Wang was firing on all cylinders in last night's 4-1 win over Boston in the first of three series (and first of eighteen regular season) games that Yankees will play against their rival team. Yes, one could argue that certain things could have made the outing a little sweeter for the Yankee's ace. Had Abreu caught that ball at the wall there would have been no home run and if Wang could have also made that out in the ninth on the bunt, then he would have pitched a perfect game. Now although that would have been awesome, it didn't happen; so let's not diminish Wang's stellar performance last night by adding all those footnotes. Wang threw a total of 93 pitches in nine complete innings (61 of those pitches were strikes). In that time, he faced 29 batters (only 2 more than the minimum) to average 3.2 pitches per batter! He finished his night with a 1.23 ERA.

The Yankee offense continues to improve as we saw Giambi hit his first Home Run of the year. It was nice to see him smiling in the post game interview on the field. In fact, many Yankees had much to be proud of last night. Molina seems to be showing a liking for doubles, making two of them last night for a total of six so far this season... not too shabby for a back-up catcher. In fact, signing him this winter for two years of service was an incredibly smart move by Cashman. Alberto Gonzalez is really looking sharp batting .375 in the short three days he has been here.

This was an important win for the Yankees mostly, I believe, because they needed something to put some more spring in their step. If you ask a Yankee on air about how they react when playing against Boston they will more than likely tell you that 'it is just another game- one out of 162'. But the truth is, it matters. It definitely matters. Not even so much because of the past rivalry (I really don't think stories of shirts buried in concrete matter too much to them) but because they are facing a team that plays ball at their level (though slightly below their level, I might correct). Every game matters, but the games played against the Red Sox always matter more. So, off we go this afternoon with the Moose going against Beckett... a good match up. I am feeling positive.