MLB.com's Jesse Sanchez has the latest numbers in the fan voting for the American League All-Star team.

Derek Jeter has 1,017,560 votes, with the closest shortstop to him being Jason Bartlett with 435,456. Jeter has the second most votes overall, behind only Evan Longoria.

Mark Teixeira is second at first base, 93,836 votes behind Kevin Youkilis. Robinson Cano is in third at second base, as is Alex Rodriguez at third. Jorge Posada is in fifth at catcher. Finally, Johnny Damon is eighth among outfielders.

Over on their site, NBC New York is hosting a "Golden Local Debate" about the two new, New York baseball stadiums. Very simply, which one is best?

At the time of writing, Citi Field is leading with 52%. The voting will end on June 10 and the winner will be presented with a trophy and they plan to hold a small awards ceremony during an upcoming game. So, head on over and give them a vote.

Tyler Kepner of the Times has a great feature on Austin Jackson as well as an accompanying blog post. Check it out.

Not that it really matters, but a poll taken by folks at Quinnipiac University shows that the Yankees are the most popular team in Connecticut, a bizarre universe where in some areas you can have both Yankees and Red Sox local telecasts delivered to your television set. The poll states that 42% of MLB fans surveyed said they root for the Yankees to 38% for the Sox. 9% of fans say they they are Mets fans.

(via Dan Lamothe)

The Yankees were able to take three out four in their series with the Indians, this time finding a 5–2 victory behind some great pitching from Joba Chamberlain and some suspect (to put it mildly) pitching from Jeremy Sowers and the Cleveland Indians. The victory puts the Yankees a full game ahead of Boston in the A.L. East, and the Yanks are now 15–4 since their 15–17 start to the season.

Joba Chamberlain was dominant tonight in what may have been the best start of his young career. Joba allowed just 2 runs on 4 hits in 8 innings of work. His highlights also included a great play in the 5th, in which Indians' catcher Kelly Shoppach popped up on a bunt down the 3rd base line. Joba ran to the line, about halfway between home and 3rd base, and promptly leaped like a cat chasing after the cap of a milk carton, caught the ball and doubled off Ryan Garko trying to get back to second.

Say what you want about Joba, there are still critics who say he should be in the bullpen and hasn't performed up to his potential as a starter, but let's remember he is (even if it's only nominally) the Yankees' #5 starter and he is 3–1 with a 3.71 E.R.A. and averaging over a strikeout an inning. His WHIP is a bit high but when you average a strikeout every inning, you're bound to take a lot of zero and one-out opportunities away from opposing lineups. And I have a feeling he's not going to be at 1.57 all year.

As for the offense, let's just say if this were a video game, the Yankees played this one on "easy" difficulty. They left 9 men on base, but were still able to come away with 5 runs, thanks to a 4-run 7th inning and a combined 11 walks by Indians pitchers.

This stat has been beaten around like a dead horse already, but I figure I should mention that tonight's game was the 18th consecutive game the Yankees played without committing an error, which is an all-time record.

Also via Patrick via ESPN, I thought I should note that Derek Jeter is one of only five players in history with 2,600 hits, 200 home runs and 1,000 RBI in their first 15 seasons, with the other four being Hank Aaron, Stan Musial, Mickey Mantle and Al Simmons. I think it's fun to bring up Jeter-related numbers because critics of him are somehow stuck to the idea that Yankee fans tout his "intangibles" despite his numbers, when in reality the intangible factors are simply a nice addition. Make no mistake about it, if you take Derek Jeter's name off of a page and just show his career stat line to somebody as some anonymous player, he is a bona fide Hall of Famer and one of the best hitting shortstops in Major League history. That's not something you can say about every other Captain Intangibles around baseball.

Anyway, the Yanks will be home tomorrow night to begin a seven-game homestand and will be starting another three-game set with the Texas Rangers beginning at 7:05 ET. Vicente Padilla and A.J. Burnett will be the starting pitchers.

Recap records: Patrick: 14–7, Seamus: 12–10, Andrew: 4–4

MLB.com's Bryan Hoch reports on setbacks experienced by the rehabbing Jose Molina and Xavier Nady.

Molina experienced a "twinge in his strained right quadriceps" after collecting a hit in an extended spring game and was taken out of the game. He'll be evaluated by the team's medical staff.

Nady "felt discomfort in his right elbow" during his first throwing session since he was injured on April 14. He wasn't bothered at first, but the discomfort came toward the end of his throws.

The Yankees failed to capitalize on a late inning comeback but a walk-off hit by Jhonny Peralta allowed the Indians to add a game in their win column as the Yankees fell by a score of 5–4 in the third game of this four-game series. The Yankees failed to get to the .600 mark for the first time since they were 9–6 on April 22 and had their lead in the A.L. East cut to a half game after the Red Sox beat the Blue Jays this afternoon in Toronto.

Phil Hughes threw two hitless innings to start the game, but he labored a bit after that, finishing with a line of four runs on five hits in five innings of work. Chien-Ming Wang came into the game to relieve Hughes and didn't allow a run in three innings. Wang has now pitched seven straight scoreless innings and has gotten his E.R.A. down to 16.07.

The Yankees didn't get anything going offensively until the 6th inning, when Mark Teixeria hit a two-run homer to make it 4–2 Indians. Teixeira returned for an encore in the 8th, lining a two-run double off the wall to tie the game at 4.

In the 9th, the Yankees were poised to take the lead with runners on first and third with just one out, but Brett Gardner decided not to attempt to steal second despite being given the sign (he says he just didn't get a good enough jump) and Jorge Posada grounded into a double play to end the Yankees' half of the inning.

The bullpen gave the game away in the bottom of the ninth. Phil Coke walked Trevor Crowe to lead off the inning, who was promptly moved over to second with a sacrifice bunt. After David Robertson entered the game to relieve Coke and walked Ben Francisco, Jhonny Peralta lined a base hit down the left field line that scored Crowe and ended the game.

The Yankees finished the month of May with a 17–11 record (.607). They'll begin their June schedule tomorrow by finalizing their four-game series with the Indians before coming home for a series with the Rangers. Joba Chamberlain will take the mound for the Yanks and will face the Indians and Jeremy Sowers. Game starts at 7:05 and will be on ESPN for those of you outside of the NY market.

Recap records: Patrick: 14–7, Seamus: 11–10, Andrew: 4–4.

Peter Abraham writes about the chemistry of the Yankees in a pair of fun articles on his blog. Read them in full for all of the details, but here's a nugget:


Ha.

George A. King III reports that Johnny Damon was hurting during last night's win against the Indians. He's got a leg gash and bruise, following his on field collision with a wall in Texas on Wednesday.

In the same article, he also notes that Minor League pitcher Jason Johnson collapsed in Tampa on Saturday during extended spring work, due to diabetes. He was diagnosed with retinal cancer in February. He'll be in our thoughts.

CC Sabathia took a no-hitter into the fifth inning before attempting to barehand a comebacker. He gave up two runs in that inning, but at that point, the Yankees had a 7-0 lead and were well on their way to a 10-5 victory over the Cleveland Indians Saturday night.

The Yankees hit two solo home runs in the second inning to get on the board first. Jorge Posada hit his to right, while Nick Swisher hit one to straightaway center. Posada's home run was his first since May 2 (he was activated from the disabled list last night) and Swisher homered for the first time in nine game.

They would go on to score five more runs in the top of the fourth inning, thanks to two Indians' errors. Hideki Matsui hit a one-out double and Swisher followed with a walk. Brett Gardner then hit a groundball to first baseman Ryan Garko who proceeded to throw wide of second base, allowing all runners to be safe.

Derek Jeter then hit a two-run single and Johnny Damon also had a run-scoring single (Jeter advanced to third when right fielder Shin-Soo Choo bobbled the ball). Later, with two outs and the bases loaded, Robinson Cano drove in two runs with a single, but Alex Rodriguez, who walked, was out trying to get to third.

The two runs Sabathia gave up in the bottom of the fifth made the game 7-2. The Yankees would get one run back in the next half-inning after Damon's groundout scored a run. However, Sabathia followed by allowing a long solo home run to Grady Sizemore to lead off the bottom of the sixth.

Sabathia didn't look the same after trying to barehand the ball in the fifth inning. John Flaherty pointed out on the television broadcast that Sabathia perhaps was struggling pitching out of the stretch, as he only allowed one baserunner prior to that fateful comebacker. Nevertheless, the big lefty gave the Yankees seven innings on 113 pitches, striking out eight, walking three and allowing five hits.

The Yankees scored two more runs in the ninth to widen their lead to seven. Cano had an RBI single and Matsui had an RBI double. Cano drove in three runs on the day, while Matsui had three hits. Jeter and Damon also had two hits apiece.

Those two runs would actually turn out to be rather important, as Jose Veras had a typical meltdown in the bottom of the ninth inning. Choo homered and Ben Francisco hit an RBI double.

The Yankees had an errorless game for the 16th straight game, extending the franchise record. They are also now nine game over .500, which is their highest mark of the season. With Boston's loss, the Yankees have a 1.5-game lead in the American League East.

Phil Hughes and Carl Pavano will oppose each other on the mound tomorrow afternoon starting at 12:40.

Recap records: Patrick: 14–7, Seamus: 11–9, Andrew: 4–4.

Andrew Fletcher blogs about the Yankees regularly at Scott Proctor's Arm.