Game 132 - Yanks Overcome (A)nother (J)unker From Burnett

The Yanks hit 5 long balls to overcome an Atrocious Job from AJ Burnett in their 9-6 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. Burnett flushed 2 leads in his 5.1 innings of work, blowing leads of 3-1 and 5-3, despite 2 HRs from Jorge Posada and a 2-run shot from the hot-hitting Robinson Cano. Burnett was roughed up for 11 hits and 2 walks while only striking out 2. He's winless in his last 7 starts, going 0-4, and has allowed 31 runs in 42.1 innings of work while watching his ERA climb from 3.53 to 4.29.

Posada gave the Bombers their second lead with his 2nd blast of the game in the 5th inning. Burnett quickly flushed it in the bottom of the 5th when he surrendered a 3-run shot to Luke Scott that barely stayed fair down the rightfield line. Amazingly enough, Joe Girardi allowed Burnett to come out again in the 6th inning after ARod tied the game with an RBI single in the top of the frame - the only run that came in for the Yanks not via the long ball. AJ was pulled after Teixeira made an error on a throw from ARod.

The Pinstripers pulled out in front to stay on a 2-run shot from Nick Swisher and Eric Hinske followed up with a solo shot of his own in the 7th. Swisher now has 13 HRs in 26 career games at Camden Yards. According to Kim Jones of the YES Network, he has 4 HRs at Camden this season and only 3 at Yankee Stadium. Go figure.

Damaso Marte relieved Burnett and tossed a scoreless inning to pick up his first win this season. He's thrown 3.1 shutout innings since his return from the DL. David Robertson, Phil Coke and Mariano Rivera finished out the game, with Mo picking up his league-leading 38th save.

Burnett's performance has to create some concern for the Yankees brass. He's been touched up for double digit hits in 3 of his last 7 starts. Of course, the Yanks can look at his 1-hit performance against the Bosox in the 15-inning marathon and he only allowed 2 hits last start against Texas to feel better about themselves, but they may want to take a long look at Andy Pettitte for the #2 spot in the playoffs if Burnett continues to produce inconsistent performances.

Yankees Record: 84-48

Game 131 - Pettitte Nearly Perfect

Andy Pettitte loves pitching against Baltimore, as he improved his career record against them to an unbelievable 26-6 in the Bombers 5-1 win. His performance tonight was just as spectacular as his career has been against the Orioles. Pettitte was perfect for 6.2 innings till Scott Hairston, playing for a resting Arod, let a grounder go through his legs for an error in the 7th. Andy may have lost his focus, because Nick Markakis followed with an opposite-field hit on an 0-2 count to break up the no-hitter. The shutout would also disappear when Pettitte allowed a HR to Melvin Mora in the bottom of the 8th, but it didn't put a damper on his fantastic performance. He tossed 8 great innings of 2-hit ball with 0 walks and 8 strikeouts.

Nick Swisher continued his strange road/home splits by going 3-4 with a HR, double and 2 RBIs to lead the Yanks. Robinson Cano had 2 doubles and 2 RBIs, unbelievably knocking in both runs on a 2-out hit in the 8th. That's 2 days in a row he's done that, despite hitting less than .200 in those situations. This guy would be dangerous if he ever overcame his inexplicable inability to knock in runs. Despite his RBI-phobic tendencies, he has 72 RBIs for the season. If he hit near his average, he'd probably be leading the league.

Joe Girardi made things interesting in the 9th. Instead of going to a well-rested Mariano Rivera to seal the victory, he decided to use Brian Bruney in the non-save situation. I thought Mo could use the work. Bruney, of course, made Yankee fans, and I'm sure Pettitte, nervous, when he gave up a hit and walk sandwiched around an out. Girardi stopped fooling around though, and Mo earned his save, getting the final 2 outs to wrap up the 227th career win for Pettitte. With the win, the Yanks improved their lead to 6.5 games over the idle Red Sox.

Yankees Record: 83-48

Game 107 - Yanks Sweep Toronto

Sergio Mitre kept the Yanks in the game, despite only pitching 4.1 innings and HRs by Nick Swisher and Johnny Damon led the Bombers to an 8-4 victory over Toronto. The Yanks took both games in the short 2-game series, as they return home to face Boston with a 2.5 game lead after the Red Sox loss to Tampa Bay.

Mitre gave up 8 hits in his short stint, but limited the Jays to 3 runs. A HR by Adam Lind and single by Lyle Overbay in the 5th sealed his fate and ended his night. Alfredo Aceves picked up his 7th win when the Yanks rallied from a 1-run deficit with 4 runs in the 7th. Blue Jays rookie starter, Marc Rzepczynski, a soft-tossing lefty, kept the Yanks off-balance all game, limiting them to 2 runs and 3 hits through his first 6 innings of work with 7 punch outs.

After Rbcdfghjklmnpqrstvwxyzski (spelling is close enough) retired 11 straight batters, his luck ran out when Swisher led off the 7th with his game-tying dinger. Robinson Cano followed with a double in the gap, ending the night for the guy with the long name, and scored on Hideki Matsui's 1-out, pinch-hit RBI single. Damon and Mark Teixeira hit key 2-out RBIs to give the Yanks a 6-3 lead. After a Marco Scutaro HR off Aceves in the bottom of the 7th, the Bombers tacked on single runs in the 8th and 9th on an Eric Hinske pinch-hit sac fly and Damon's 19th HR of the season. Damon finished the game going 3-5 with 3 RBIs.

Phil Coke got the final 2 outs in the 7th, Phil Hughes pitched a scoreless 8th and David Robertson wrapped the game up in the 9th. I thought Joe Girardi made a couple of odd decisions in tonight's game. He pitched Hughes in back-to-back games, essentially making him unavailable against Boston tomorrow. After Robertson gave up a 1-out single, Girardi had Mariano Rivera begin to warm up with a 4-run lead. Can you say panic button? Geez, Joe, let a run or 2 score before you make your 38-year old reliever, who had to get a 4-out save yesterday, get up and throw in the pen.

Overall, the Yanks did all the little things that help teams win ballgames. Tex busted down the 1B line, avoiding an inning-ending double play to tie the score at 2. Melky Cabrera twice moved Cano over to 3rd with none out. Matsui and Hinske both did their jobs as pinch hitters and each knocked in Cano. Jose Molina, yes the Jose Molina, walked twice! Damon and Tex had their 2-out RBIs and the team was 4-9 with RISP. The bullpen only allowed 1 run and 3 hits in 4.2 innings while striking out 8 and walking no one. The Yanks also played flawless defense. Team efforts like this will lead to nice winning streaks as they ended their road trip 5-4, despite their road bump in Chicago.

The Pinstripers will attempt to end their 0-8 stretch against the Sawx. They have their pitching lined up with Joba, AJ, CC and Pettitte set to pitch in that order. Personally, I'm not feeling confident about the team's chances in this series and would be ecstatic with a split. My worries are these: Joba and Pettitte have pitched great since the break - they're both due for a let down. AJ and CC - which pitcher will show up? The dominant ace or the one who throws the occasional clunker, particularly against teams with winning records this season. Last, but not least, Mo is also due for a let down and came close against Toronto. Historically, he has a tendency to slump in August, and not to mention, Boston has his number.

I shudder to think what will happen if Boston sweeps or takes 3 out of 4. I'm guessing panic in the streets, or the airwaves, of NY.

Yankees Record: 65-42

Game 102 - White Sox Turn Yanks into Swish Cheese

The White Sox pitchers, Gavin Floyd and Matt Thornton, mowed through the Yankees lineup for 14 strikeouts, and the Yanks failed to provide any support for the 3rd straight game for poor ol' Andy Pettitte in their 3-2 loss. Teams generally are not going to win games when their 3-4-5 hitters go 0-12 with 8 Ks. Mark Teixeira, ARod and Hideki Matsui essentially took the night off.

As a team, the Yanks only mustered 6 hits. Johnny Damon had 2 of them, including an RBI double. Nick Swisher gave the team false hope by tying the score at 2 with a 2-out HR in the top of the 9th. The Philthys, Phil Hughes and Phil Coke though, lost the game in the bottom frame.

Andy Pettitte pitched solidly for the 3rd straight game since the break, but like his previous 2 starts, the Yanks couldn’t score muster many runs for his efforts. Things turned bleak in the 7th, when the Yankees defense turned into the Ringling Bros Circus. Pettitte slipped and fell on a Jim Thome dribbler for an error to start the inning. After a strikeout, ARod couldn’t handle a single and Pettitte’s night was done. Hughes came in and looked like he was going to get out of the jam when he induced Carlos Quentin to hit a potential double play ball, but Robinson Cano threw wildly past first allowing Thome to score.

The White Sox struck out the side in the 8th and 9th innings. Tex struck out with 2 runners on in the 8th before Swisher’s solo shot in the 9th tied the game. In the bottom of the 9th, Hughes allowed 2 singles and was relieved by Coke with 1 out. Coke retired the 1st batter, but DeWayne Wise, the perfect game hero with his miraculous catch, lined a shot up the middle. Coke actually tipped it, but alas, it went through for the walkoff hit.

With the Sawx win earlier in the day, on a suspicious Big Sloppy HR to boot, the Yanks lead is down to 2.5 games.

Yankees Record: 62-40

Game 100 - Yanks Play Like a Last Place Team

Instead of looking like the division leaders that have been steamrolling since the All Star break, the Yanks looked like a cellar dwelling team going through the rigors of a long season in their 6-2 loss to Tampa Bay. Crooked Cap Sabathia's pitching was abysmal, their hitting was non-existent, the defense was an absolute joke, and for good measure, they even committed a hideous baserunning blunder.

The Crooked One got lit up for 9 hits and 6 runs in 5.2 innings of work. Granted, his defense deserted him at times, but he never buckled down and caused his own troubles. After Derek Jeter's hideous throwing error over Mark Teixeira's head allowed Ben Zobrist to reach second, Sabathia walked the pitiful .223-hitting Pat Burrell (who struck out in his next 3 at bats) and the equally pitiful Gabe Kapler to load the bases. Instead of knuckling down to try and get the even weaker hitting Dioner Navarro to strike out or hit into an inning ending DP, he allowed Navarro to drive the ball to CF for a sac fly.

Sabathia never found his groove, as he allowed a run-scoring triple to Crawford on an 0-2 count, surrendered a HR to the struggling Evan Longoria, and embarrassed himself further when he allowed the aforementioned pitiful Kapler to double off him in the 6th. Jason Bartlett followed with and RBI single and then BJ Upton, in turn, doubled in Bartlett to finish off Crooked Cap.

As for the Yanks defense - there was none. As previously mentioned, Jeter airmailed one. ARod followed suit with an errant throw of his own. Sadly, it would have held Crawford at 3B, but the bad throw allowed him to score. Then, there's Nick Swisher. He must be drinking buddies with the official scorer, because he blatantly had 2 hideous plays in RF and wasn't given any errors. On one play, he ran down the RF line and unnecessarily went into a slide and dropped the ball that was ruled a triple. A major league ballplayer catches that ball 99 times out of a 100. If not, it's usually ruled an error. Then he allowed a bloop hit from Upton turn into an RBI double instead of knocking it down, or strange as it sounds, fielding it cleanly and holding the runners to first and third.

The Yanks hitting tonight wasn't any better. Facing an old nemesis, Scott Kazmir, someone forgot to tell the Yanks this wasn't the same guy that has given them trouble in the past. Kazmir came into the game with an unsightly 6.69 ERA. Obviously, the rest of the league has been having their way with him like a drunken sorority chick. Not the Yankees though. Even when they scored their first run, Hideki Matsui, running on the legs of an 80-year old, was caught between 1st and 2nd on a late throw to home. Where the hell did he think he was going? Not 2B with those stumps! Tonight clearly could have been collectively one of their worse performances of the year.

The Yanks did have 2 bright spots though. Rookie reliever, Mark Melancon, had his best performance as a major leaguer, throwing 2.1 scoreless innings with 2 Ks. ARod looks like he's coming out of his slump, after doubling in his last at bat last night, he had 2 more hits tonight.

Yankees Record: 61-39

Game 99 - Burnett, Yanks Dismantle Penny Pinching Rays

After winning 9 of 10 at home, including 6 wins against last place Baltimore and Oakland, it was time for the Yanks to take their act on the road and face some stiffer competition. AJ Burnett and the Bombers rode their hot streak since the All Star with an 11-4 pounding against the Tampa Bay tightwads.

Burnett continued his torrid pitching, tossing 7 innings while giving up just one unearned run, thanks to a passed ball by Jorge Posada on a third strike to BJ Upton. He only allowed 2 hits and 2 walks while striking out 5, improving to 10-4 on the season, 2-0 against the Rays. He's now won his last five starts.

Burnett was backed up by Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher on offense. Cano went 2-3 with a triple and HR with 2 RBIs. He also walked twice to the astonishment of Yankee fans everywhere. There was a Nick Swisher sighting tonight, as he went 2-5 with 2 HRs and 3 RBIs. His homers came from both sides of the plate, as he crushed one lefthanded deep into the rightfield seats and hit a laser righthanded over the leftfield fence. The Yanks pounded out 15 hits, led by The Captain with 3 to raise his batting average to .325. Every Yankee in the lineup had a least one hit and to paraphrase Yankee announcer, Kenny Singleton, Johnny Damon finally "got his invitation to the party" when he connected for a 3-run shot in the 9th for his 200th career HR.

The cheapskate Rays scrounged for 3 late runs against relievers Jonathan Albaladejo and David Robertson in the final 2 frames. Robertson had to bail out Albaladejo in the 8th, striking out Yankee killer, Carlos Pena, with runners on 2nd and 3rd. Robertson gave up a blast to Pat Burrell in the 9th, but picked up his first career save.

A funny thing happened on Damon's career HR. An idiot Tampa Bay fan threw the ball back onto the field and cost himself a chance at bargaining with Johnny Damon for perhaps an autographed bat, extra tickets, or an autographed ball from Damon or one of his teammates. If I went to a game and caught a visiting team's HR ball, I wouldn't care if Big Sloppy Ortiz, Big Nugget Youkilis or Yoda Pedroia hit it - I'm keeping the damn ball! Besides, it's a Chicago Cubs fan tradition to throw the ball back. I've seen Yankee fans doing the same thing this year - I thought Yankee fans were better than that - at the very least, more original.

The best thing about the Yankees early lead tonight - the silencing of the God awful cowbells from the redneck Tampa Bay fans. Let's hope the Yanks saved some runs for CC Sabathia tomorrow.

Yankees Record: 61-38

Game 94 - Yanks Complete Second Straight Sweep

The Yanks completed a sweep of Baltimore with another 6-4 victory and have gone 6-0 since the All Star break. AJ Burnett shut down the Orioles for 6 innings before surrendering a 2-spot in the 7th. He pitched 7 innings, giving up 6 hits, 2 runs while striking out 6. The Pinstripers were led by Jorge Posada who went 2-3 with a double, homer, walk and 2 RBIs. ARod and Cano each knocked in 1 run and Nick Swisher, in an event-filled day for him, knocked in 2 runs.

Swisher had quite the adventure in RF. In the 3rd inning, he dropped a fly ball that allowed Brian Roberts to reach second. Burnett worked out of trouble, but was bailed out by the man that initially caused the trouble in the first place. Ty Wigginton laced a liner tailing away from Swisher toward the right field line. Swisher made a great running catch at full extension as his momentum carried him up the RF wall. Burnett greeted Swisher at the dugout to share high 5s. Swisher wasn't done in the field, either. In the 6th, he went back and crashed into the wall and robbed Luke Scott of an extra base hit. Something Yankee fans would've never seen with ol' friend Bobby Abreu in the field last year.

Philthy Phil Hughes tossed a scoreless 8th inning and ran his scoreless streak to 20 innings. With the Yanks tacking on an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th for a 4-run cushion, Mariano Rivera sat down and Brian Bruney came into the 9th for some work. Bruney looked great - for 2 batters. He struck out the first 2 guys he faced, but then gave up 2 solo bombs to Adam Jones and Nick Markakis. Manager Joe Girardi quickly gave Bruney the hook and brought in Mo to strike out Aubrey Huff and end the game. It was Mo's 28th save and 510th of his career.

The Bombers increased their division lead to 2 games as Boston got the broom treatment and got swept out of Texas. It's the Sawx 5th straight loss as they dropped to 1-5 since the break while scoring only 13 runs. The Rays also lost, falling 4-3 to the White Sox, and they currently trail the division by 5.5 games. It'll be interesting to see if the Rays make any big moves to help the team or if they will continue their miser ways.

Yankees Record: 57-37, a season-high 20 games over .500

Game 60 - Yanks Leave Boston With Tail Between Their Legs

Brutal.  Absolutely brutal loss for the Yankees, as they were swept out of Boston in a 4-3 defeat.  The Yanks led 3-1 going into the bottom of the 8th.  CC Sabathia had cruised through the first 7 innings, only giving up a solo shot to the mysteriously better Big Sloppy Ortiz up to that point, when he came out for the 8th.  That's when the wheels came flying off the bus.  

The bottom of the 8th started with Nick Green lacing a hanging changeup into left, Yoda Pedroia weaseling out a walk and JD Drew lining a single up the middle to load the bases before Joe Girardi finally pulled CC.  Alfredo Aceves came in and surrendered the lead on 2 dinky hits (he was absolutely squeezed by the ump on a 2-2 pitch to crybaby Youkilis) and a sacrifice fly.  Papelbum hammered the final nail in the Yanks coffin with a 1-2-3 ninth for the ballgame.  

Somewhere off in the distance, all the "Joba to the bullpen" troglodytes are beating their drums.  Joe Girardi is getting raked over the coals for his decisions.  Unfortunately, that's not the true reason the Yanks lost tonight's game.  CC did tire in the 8th and the bullpen did cough up the lead, but the offense, once again, cost the Yanks a second night in a row.  Facing Brad Penny and his 5.85 ERA, they allowed him to escape one jam after another as he threw 6 shutout innings.  After last night's unexplainable 2-16 with runners in scoring position, the Yanks followed that up with another comatose-like 1-10 performance.  They had a man on 2nd with no outs in the first 2 innings and left them stranded.  For a second straight night, Nick Swisher inserted his noggin up his derriere, once again running into out after the ball was caught in front of him.  Are you kidding me?  This is little league stuff.  

Has anyone seen Robinson Cano?  This guy is just God-awful with runners in scoring position and an instant out when he's in that situation with 2 out.  He left 3 more men on in scoring position.  For the season, he's 11-40 with RISP and 2 out for a .220 batting average.  My poor wife has been listening to me about Cano's failures for 3 years now.  Digging further into Cano's statistics, before tonight's game, I discovered he hits .242 against starters and .403 against relievers.  This would be the last guy, outside of the rarely used Angel Berroa, I would ever want to see at the plate with the game on the line.

Girardi should seriously consider dropping Cano deep in the lineup and giving Swisher a day or two to think about his base running blunders.  As for his use of CC and the bullpen, it's hard to second guess him.  CC only had 106 pitches going into the 8th.   If anything, maybe Girardi should have broken the mold of saving your best reliever for the 9th, but if he brought Mariano Rivera during the 8th to get out of jam and then someone else lost the game in the 9th, he would get killed publicly.  

So Boston is now 8-0 against the Yanks and now lead them by 2 games in the standings.  Fortunately for the Yanks, they don't see Boston again till August.  Yankee announcer, Kenny Singleton brought up a good point on tonight's telecast.  The Sox are tough to beat at home, but they are a below average team on the road and also hit 40 points less away from home.  I'm looking forward to the Sox next road trip.

Yankees Record:  34-26

Blown Games:  6

Game 51 - Yanks Walk Out of Cleveland With Win

With Chien-Ming Wang pitching decently in relief and Phil Hughes coming into his own, the "Joba to the bullpen" fanatics started circling their wagons again.  In response, Joba Chamberlain came out and threw a career-high 8 innings, limiting Cleveland to 2 runs on 4 hits with 5 Ks in the 5-2 victory.  Who still wants Joba in the bullpen now?  Joba came out with ace-like stuff, flashing all 4 of his pitches as he was perfect for the first 3 frames.   In the 4th, he made his only real mistake of the night when he surrendered a solo homer to Victor Martinez, tying the game at 1.  

The play of the game came in the 5th, with Joba showing off his catlike reflexes.  He turned a Kelly Shoppach popup bunt into a highlight play, going full out on a dive (Joe Girardi characterized it as a bellyflop) and miraculously speared the ball as he hit the turf.  Runners were on 1st and 2nd, no out, and as he caught the ball, he jumped up and threw a strike to Derek Jeter to double up the runner.  

The Yankee hitters almost didn't provide Joba any support tonight.  Going into the top of the 6th, they loaded the bases on 3 walks with none out.  ARod, Posada and Cano were coming to the plate.  They all failed miserably and all runners were stranded.  ARod struck out.  Posada, after blowing yesterday's game, promptly swung at the first pitch and tapped back weakly to the mound, forcing the runner at home.  And, to finish off the humiliation, Cano lined out to left to end the inning.  

In the top of the 7th, like deja vu all over again, they loaded the bases on 3 walks.  With one out, Nick Swisher, batting in the 2-hole with Johnny Damon resting, ripped an opposite field double to left that just missed a grand slam by a foot.  After an intentional walk to Tex to reload the bases, ARod hit a 2-run single to finish up the Yankees scoring.  The Indians walked the Yanks 11 times tonight and the score could have been much worse, if the Yanks had come through with all of their opportunities.  They were 3-13 with runners in scoring position, and with Posada failing in yesterday's loss, I hope this doesn't start becoming a trend like earlier in the season.  They've been playing exceptionally well for the better part of a month now and cannot let up, playing in the brutal AL East.  

The Yanks defense went errorless tonight for the 18th straight game, setting a major league record, and to make it sweeter, broke the 2006 Red Sox record.  Joba wasn't the only pitcher to make an outstanding play tonight, either.  On the final batter of the game, Mariano Rivera fielded a Baltimore-chop over his head from Shin-Soo Choo and threw him out by a step at first for his 11th save in 12 opportunities.  With tonight's win, the Yanks gained a half game over the idle Red Sox.

Yankees Record:  30-21