Brett Gardner Goes on the DL

The Yankees placed CF Brett Gardner on the 15-day DL with a broken left thumb. Apparently, Gardner broke the thumb in the first inning of the Yanks 6-4 loss to Oakland on Saturday. Gardner continued to play, hitting a triple into the rightfield gap and making 2 outstanding catches in the OF plus a strong throw to 3rd to hold a runner at second.

Perhaps worried about the upcoming Tampa Bay series, the Yanks recalled reliever Jonathan Albaladejo, although Yankee relievers have not seen a lot of work due to the effectiveness of the starters since the All Star break.

Unfortunately, Gardner's injury will mean more playing time for Melky Cabrera and Nick Swisher. Both OFs haven't exactly been lighting up the offensive stat sheets as of late.

The timetable for Gardner's return is 25 games which takes him to mid-to-late August.

Game 85 - Yanks Sweep Season Series vs Twins

The Yanks hung on to win another close one against the Twins, topping them 6-4, and sweeping all 7 games this season. Despite being handicapped with a starter on a 65-pitch count and needing 5.2 innings from the bullpen, the Yanks pulled into a first place tie with Boston, who lost to the Kansas City Royals.

With a 3-0 lead in the 2nd, Alfredo Aceves was touched up for a solo shot on an 0-2 count to Jason Kubel with a terrible fastball right down the middle. Sloppy defense by Aceves and Cody Ransom led to another run. Joe Girardi pulled Aceves in the 4th with 1 out and the bases loaded after he reached his pitch limit. David Robertson relieved him, and after punching out Nick Punto, lost the strike zone and walked in 2 runs, both charged to Aceves. One of the inexcusable walks was issued to the .180 hitting Matt Tolbert, setting up potential disaster when the Majors best hitter, Joe Mauer, came to the plate with the bases jacked. Fortunately, Robertson induced him to groundout and end the Twins last real threat of the game.

With the Yanks leading 6-4 in the 5th, Jonathan Albaladejo relieved an ineffective Robertson and pitched 1.2 scoreless innings, earning his 4th win of the season. The Philthys, Coke and Hughes, pitched the 7th and 8th innings before Mariano Rivera wrapped up the Yankees victory with his 23rd save.

The Yanks offense was efficient, but nothing to write home about, with one exception. Mark Teixeira ended the longest homerless streak of his career at 95 ABs with a solo blast in the 5th off of Twins starter, Francisco Liriano. The Yanks scored 3 runs in the third with only one hit in the inning. A bases loaded walk to Ransom, a run-scoring groundout courtesy of Brett Gardner and a bloop single by The Captain capped the rally. Ransom and Gardner added RBI singles in the 4th, and for Gardner, it was his 3rd straight game with 2 ribbies. Hopefully, this will keep Melky Cabrera on the bench a little while longer. Melky played for Johnny Damon today and failed twice to knock in a run when he had the bases loaded and no outs in the 2nd and runners on second and third with no outs in the 4th. Ransom and Gardner cleaned up his mess both times as Melky continues to revert to his old unproductive ways. Tex's HR finalized the Bombers scoring for the day, and ironically, it was the only HR in the series for the Yanks, who scored 19 of their 20 runs without the long ball.

The Yanks and Sawx both have 3 games left before the All Star break, as the Yanks take on Anaheim and Boston concludes their 4-game set against KC.

Yankee notes: Jose Molina was activated from the DL before the game and the Yanks optioned Francisco Cervelli to Triple A. Cervelli, who hit .190 in Double A before being called up this season, was very effective as a backup and an outstanding defensive catcher. He hit .269 and handled the pitching staff like an old veteran and looks like he has a promising future as a backstop. Since ARod's return, the Yanks have a 38-19 record after starting the season 13-15 without him.

Yankees Record: 51-34 and tied for first

Game 83 - Yanks Pound Twinkies

CC Sabathia rebounded from his previous bad start, tossing 7 innings of 3-hit, 1 run ball, and the Bombers pounded out 16 hits in a 10-2 victory over the Twins. CC's only mistake of the night came on a fastball he grooved to Mike Cuddyer, who hit his 14th HR of the season. The other 2 hits were weakly hit infield singles. CC struck out 3 and walked one - strangely, it was against the very weak hitting, Nick Punto. He held the faux M & M boys, Mauer and Morneau, hitless in 6 ABs after the Yanks had trouble getting either of them out in their 4-game series in the Bronx earlier this season.

The Yankee bats were led by the bottom third of the order. Robinson Cano, Brett Gardner and Francisco Cervelli were a combined 7-14 with 6 RBIs. Each of them had an extra base hit with 2 RBIs. Cano snapped an ungodly 0-22 slump with RISP when he blooped a bases loaded single in the 6th, albeit with the Yanks already up 5-1. Gardner followed with a 2-run triple and Cervelli's double gave the Yanks an insurmountable 10-1 lead. Earlier, Cervelli knocked in the Yanks second run with a long sac fly in the 2nd inning.

Mark Teixeira also went 4-6 with an RBI, hopefully breaking out of his snide. Hideki Matsui demonstrated what a real 5th place hitter in the lineup does when he got the Pinstripers on the board in the 1st with a 2-out RBI single. Hopefully, Cano was taking notes. The Yanks nearly blew the game wide open in the 4th, but Twins CF, Carlos Gomez, made a beautiful leaping catch at the fence, robbing ARod of a grand slam. ARod settled for the sac fly, but just missed HR #568.

Seldom used Brett Tomko pitched the final 2 frames, giving up one run. Oddly enough, he also walked the .218 hitting Punto, who came around to score the Twins last run. Punto has 11 HRs in 2000+ ABs in his career - I'd take my chances pitching the ball underhanded to him before walking this guy. The Sawx won 5-2 against Oakland, remaining 1 game up in the division. Hopefully, AJ Burnett continues his recent hot stretch in game 2.

Yankees Record: 49-34

Game 73 - Sabathia, Gardner Manhandle Mets

The Bombers blasted the Metropolitans, 9-1, to win their 3rd straight. They've scored 28 runs in their 3 wins, after only scoring a total of 18 in their previous 7 games. CC Sabathia, after being pulled in the 2nd in his last start for biceps tendinitis, pitched 7 solid innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits with 8 Ks. His lone run came on a Gary Sheffield blast, as the Yanks continued to donate to their favorite charity "Revive an Aging Slugger". It's Sheffield's 3rd homer of the year against the Yanks. Sabathia helped his own cause at the plate, too, going 1-4 with a run and an RBI single. Bret Tomko tossed 2 hitless innings to finish up for the boys from the Bronx.

With Derek Jeter sitting out with a respiratory infection, Brett Gardner took over the leadoff spot and looked like a man who doesn't want to go back to the bench. Gardner had his best day as a major leaguer, going 5-6 with a triple, HR, SB and 2 RBIs. Who says it's hard to hit HRs at the new Citifield? Melky Cabrera and/or Nick Swisher may want to stock up on their sunflower seeds, because Gardner has clearly regained his starting CF position.

ARod continued his recent hot streak, hitting a dinger for the 2nd day in a row and passing Reggie Jackson for 11th place all-time with HR # 564. It's bittersweet, though, as Reggie was a childhood hero of mine, and despite being an ARod apologist, I can't help feel his HR total is tainted with his steroid admission earlier this year. However, it's obvious the Yanks offense clicks when ARod is hitting.

The starting lineups looked like the Yankees B-team vs. the Mets C-team. The Yanks were missing Jeter, Posada, and Swisher from their lineup while the Mets were playing without Jose Reyes, Carlos Beltran, and Carlos Delgado. It was real apparent that the Mets were fielding an inferior team during their embarrassing 3-error performance in the 2nd inning that staked the Yanks to a 4-0 lead. Meanwhile, Jeter's replacement, Ramiro Pena, had a nice day at the plate. He went 3-5 with a pair of doubles and an RBI in the Yanks 14-hit attack.

Of course, I can't finish my blog without reference to my 2 favorite subjects - Robinson Cano and RISP. Despite going 2-6 with a double, Cano stranded 7 men on base. Nothing astounds me more than his 42 RBIs on the season. He if could hit close to his average with RISP, he'd probably be leading the league without 70+ RBIs. As for the team, despite scoring 9 runs, the Yanks were an abysmal 3-17 with RISP. Thank God for the Mets porous defense and the long ball.

AJ Burnett will face off against Tim Redding in game 2. However, what looks like a mismatch on paper in the Yankees favor has proven to be anything but in this interleague rivalry.

Yankees Record: 41-32

Game 66 - Yanks Lose Their Bats During Rain Delay

The Yankee game was delayed 5.5 hours by rain today, and someone must have packed up the Yankees bats for their upcoming road trip to Miami. The pesky GNats shutout the boys from the Bronx, 3-0, as another no-name pitcher from nowhere, Craig Stammen, befuddled, bamboozled, hoodwinked and stymied the Yanks for 6.1 innings. For Stammen, who entered the game with a robust 5.86 ERA, it was his first major league victory.

The Yanks embarrassed themselves by dropping 2 of 3 to the worst team in baseball. Until yesterday, the Nationals hadn't won a road game since May 13th. Coming into the series, they had lost 25 of 30 games. In the 3 game series, they combined for 7 runs and 19 hits against the worse pitching team. Totally inexcusable and absolutely unacceptable. After being swept in Boston last week, this was the perfect series to gain those 3 games back. Unfortunately, the Yanks lackluster performance during this series negated all chances of that happening. If Elijah Dukes made some plays on 2 catchable balls in game 1, we might be discussing a Nationals sweep.

As for the game, Joba Chamberlain's performance was nothing to write home about. It was a quality start, 3 runs in 6 innings. He yielded 7 hits and 4 walks, with six of the hits to Ryan Zimmerman and Christian Guzman combined. He struck out 6. One of his walks came with the bases loaded for the second game in a row. He walked Wil Nieves, yes, the same Wil Nieves that started his Yankee career 0-26. That was after he walked Willie Harris to load the bases. Between these guys, they have 1 HR this year, and Nieves has 1 lifetime HR to his name in 400+ career at bats. God awful. But Joba could have walked 10 runs in, because the Yankee hitters weren't going to do anything tonight.

Unfortunately for the Yanks, the lineup has gone in a collective slump, with the exception of Cano. Jeter is nursing a sore ankle and Damon is struggling. Teixeira, who like Icarus, flew too close to the sun, looks like he is coming back down to earth. And who can blame Tex, because no one stays that hot forever. ARod looks lost or injured or both. He's using all upper body on his swings and doesn't appear to be getting the torque his strong lower body usually gives him. Is that hip bothering him? Posada's in a small funk and Matsui is looking closer to 55 then his reported age of 35. Melky has also been slumping. Of course Cano is hitting - there's no men on for him! Before Swisher's 2 hits tonight, he was in an 0-16 slump.

The Yanks had a scare in the 8th inning. Brett Gardner made a great catch crashing up against the CF fence, but nearly knocked himself out as he hit the plexiglass. Initial tests revealed no concussions and he is expected to travel with the team tonight to Florida. The Yanks need to be careful - they don't want a Ryan Church issue like the Mets had last year when they brought him back too early.

As usual for the Yanks, now that they're not hitting, their pitching is coming around. The bullpen has been outstanding lately. Aceves, Coke, Hughes and Robertson have all been exceptional this month and now they have Brian Bruney back. If this team can having everything clicking at once, I don't think anyone in baseball could beat them. Hopefully, the bats will come around again - soon. Especially with a 9-game road trip in the National League parks - they'll be unable to use a DH.

Other notes: The Sawx lost to the Marlins in a rain-shortened game. I thought Boston would keep Florida there till the wee hours of the morning to give them an opportunity to rally. Thank you Mother Nature. Luckily, the Rays loss as well. Look out, Toronto! Despite losing Roy Halladay to the DL, they just swept Philadelphia and sit one game back of the Yanks. The Bombers hold a tenuous 1 game lead over the Jays and Angels for the wild card, but there's plenty of season left. KRod blew a save tonight against Baltimore with Joba's fist pumping buddy, Aubrey Huff getting the walkoff hit. Yanks are 8-8 this month.

Yankees Record: 37-29

Tex - flying too close to the sun, had to come crashing down.

Game 50 - Yanks Rally All For Naught

The Yanks rallied from a 4-0 deficit to tie the game at 4-all, only to lose it late due to the inability to execute and questionable bullpen choices by Joe Girardi.  For most of the game, the Yanks were being haunted by Carl "American Idle" Pavano, who robbed the Yanks of nearly $40M the past 4 years due to his numerous, too many to count, trips to the DL.  He shut down the Yanks offense, which has been clicking on all cylinders lately, through 5 innings.  

Down 4-0 going into the top of the 6th, Mark Teixeira finally put the team on the board with a 2-run swat.  This came after Derek Jeter was wrongly called out on a close play at first and Johnny Damon singled.  The Yanks still trailed 4-2 going into the 8th.  Jorge Posada, who was given the day off following a night game, pinch hit and struck out.  Jeter singled, knocking Pavano out of the game, as Indians manager, Eric Wedge decided to go with matchups.  As usual, this failed miserably.  Damon followed with a double and Tex brought both runners in with another double to tie the game.  ARod and the clutchless Robinson Cano both stranded Tex to end the inning.  

In the meantime, Chien-Ming Wang, who relieved Yankee starter, Phil Hughes, kept the Yanks in the game with 3 shutout innings and 3 Ks.  He lowered his ERA four whole runs down to 16.07.  Hughes wasn't as sharp as his last start, but he was effective and kept the Yanks in the game.  He gave up 4 runs in 5 innings while striking out 6.  The 3rd inning was his downfall, when he gave up 3 runs - 2 coming from a bloop single and a sac fly.  His 4th run wasn't all his fault, with Brett Gardner misplaying a fly ball into a leadoff double that came around to score on another sac fly.  

Going into the top of the 9th, all tied up, Hideki Matsui led off with a walk against Indians closer, Kerry Wood.  Girardi had Nick Swisher bunt over pinch runner, Ramiro Pena, to 2nd.  Brett Gardner then followed with an infield single, giving the Bombers runners on 1st and 3rd, 1 out.  Posada, who stayed in the game after pinch hitting, represented the Yanks best chance to put them up by 1 and give the great Mariano Rivera a save opportunity.  Mo never got the chance.  For reasons unknown at the time, Brett Gardner inexplicably never took a chance at swiping second to stay out of a potential double play with the slow-footed Posada at the plate.  Of course, Posada couldn't do what the Indians were able to do all game - hit a sacrifice fly.  He banged into the 4-6-3 double play to kill the rally.  

In the bottom of the 9th, for some strange reason, Girardi opted to go with Phil Coke.  Bad choice.  Coke promptly walked rookie, Trevor Crowe, who came into the game hitting .171 with an OBP of .237.  After a sacrifice bunt, Robertson relieved Coke, finally stepping into a game at a big moment.  Robertson failed, walking Ben Francisco and giving up the game winning single to Jhonny Peralta on a 3-1 count.  In the meantime, the Yanks best reliever, Mo, never came in.

During the post-game press conference, it was discovered that Gardner was given the steal sign and just failed to execute against Kerry Wood, a righty with a slow move to the plate.  If he's not going to utilize his greatest asset, his speed, what is he doing?  Wang was removed after 3 scoreless innings because he may still be used to spot start for Andy Pettitte, who is nursing a stiff lower back.  The question of why Mo never came in was never answered (maybe it wasn't asked?), but most, if not all, managers stick to the book of not using their closer on the road in a tie game.  Personally, I think it's a bunk call by teams - the team can't use the closer when they lose, so what are you saving him for?

Despite Gardner's gaffe (or gaffes counting his defensive lapse) and Girardi's management of his relievers, Posada is still the man to finger this loss on.  He literally took the day off, striking out and hitting into a double play in his 2 plate appearances.  I don't have any stats in front of me, but to watch this team day-in and day-out the last couple of years, it appears to me they struggle mightily in being able to hit a simple sacrifice fly and it continues to haunt them in 1-run ball games.

Other notes:  Alert!  Alert!  There was a David Ortiz sighting today.  He went 1-5 with a double.  He's still blistering the cover off the ball at a .185 clip.  My preseason pick for Cy Young, Jon Lester, finally looked sharp, struck out 12 Blue Jays in 6 innings.  He's only 4-5 this season with an ERA of 5.65.  I picked him for the this year's Cy and Big Nugget Youkilis for the MVP award.  Lester has been less than stellar and Youkilis was DL'd earlier this season.  Perhaps I should continue to "hex" the Sox players every year with my picks.

Yankees Record:  29-21

Blown Games:  4

Hey Melky - "That Just Happened"

Joe Girardi named Brett Gardner his starting CF. Thank God. I don't know what is more shocking - Melky Cabrera's shock when it was announced or my shock that Melky was shocked. I know he needs an interpreter for his interviews, but are you telling me there are no blogs or sports internet in Spanish? To quote Ricky Bobby in Talledega Nights, "That just happened." Brett Gardner came into spring training with a mission and was believed to be the odds on favorite to win the job.

I believe we have seen the full potential of Melky. Average speed, average power, average hitter, plus fielder. What this equals is a spot on the bench as a fourth/fifth OF. Sadly, it seems like he has regressed in his short career. He seemed like a much more patient hitter as a rookie. Even if he wasn't taking walks, he would work the count to his advantage. Last year, he looked lost. And he has no clue batting right handed. And obviously, no clue if he thought he had a chance to win the CF job.

Gardner, on the other hand, is not the second coming of Joe DiMaggio, The Mick, or even Bobby Murcer. But he gives the Yankees a much needed element they have lacked for years, speed. He has shown in his minor league career that he'll take a walk or lay down a bunt for a hit. He will not hit 10 Hrs. Hell, he may not hit 5. He will, however, steal 35 - 50 bases, assuming he sticks with the team the whole season and doesn't ride the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre shuttle. Girardi should give him the green light for the season. And if he's batting last, he'll need to steal bases to keep Jeter from being near the league leaders in double plays again.

I hope Girardi actually gives Gardner a chance, too. I don't want to see Gardner banished if he starts the first 2 weeks of the season hitting .150. What really disturbs me about the majors, in particular, the Yankees under the Joe Torre regime, is when teams stay with the veteran, even though he's hitting .237 and providing minimum production. If you're going to have someone routinely give you 3-4 outs a night, why not bring up a kid from the minors? Maybe you'll get lucky and the kid outperforms the veteran. I'm sure he can produce the same .237 average, but at least he's gaining some valuable major league experience. My guess is it all comes down to money. The veteran is making millions and teams are trying to minimize the young player's arbitration years.