Tracy Connor of the Daily News reports on some details from Selena Roberts' upcoming book on A-Rod. Roberts was the reporter who broke the story of A-Rod's steroid abuse with the Rangers earlier this year.

In so many words, she cites anonymous sources, both in and outside the organization, in suggesting that A-Rod used steroids while playing for the Yankees. The suggestion is made through suspicion and circumstances shared by these sources, such as an "unnamed major-leaguer" saying that he saw A-Rod and Kevin Brown together with HGH in 2004. (He saw them together with HGH? That must have been awkward? Oh, by the way, what was he doing there? Heh).

The book also promises to talk about A-Rod's personal life, divorce, poker playing, pitch tipping (allegedly, he'd tell friends on the other team what pitches were coming if the game was out of reach, hoping they'd do the same for him) and all of the things we've seen in tabloid headlines in recent years.

Via Ben Kabak.

Peter Abraham reports:

The Yankees clicked on all cylinders for the second straight night as they took the rubber game of a three-game set in Detroit in a game that was not as close as the 8–6 final score may indicate. The victory guarantees the Yankees will have at least a .500 April, which while not necessarily impressive, is more than we could have said about this team the last couple of years.

The Yanks jumped ahead with a 7-run fourth inning after allowing a run the previous inning. Nick Swisher made it 8–1 with a home run in the top of the 5th, his second of the game (one from each side of the plate). That is where the score would be for most of the way, as Joba Chamberlain pitched seven sizzling innings, allowing just one run on three hits. The Yankee bullpen did make it interesting in the 9th, allowing five runs. Mariano Rivera entered the game with two outs in the 9th and allowed a three-run homer that closed the gap to 8–6, but he was eventually able to record the 3rd out before the damage became catastrophic.

Along with Swisher, Johnny Damon also had two hits and Robinson Cano extended his hitting streak to 16 games. Derek Jeter and Mark Teixeira were the only Yankee starters to go without a hit.

An even scarier moment came just a little while earlier when somebody in the building pulled a fire alarm, prompting the PA announcer to ask all fans to evacuate the stadium. Fortunately it was only a false alarm, as the fans were told they could return to their seats before they ever got halfway out of the ballpark. Hopefully this was just a mistake and not some knucklehead trying to be funny.

The Yankees will head back to the Bronx tomorrow night to begin a four-game series with the Angels. A.J. Burnett is slated to pitch against rookie Anthony Ortega, who will be making his second career start. Game starts at 7:05 ET.

Recap records: Patrick: 6–2, Seamus: 4–6, Andrew: 1–2

SI.com's Jon Heyman reports, according to sources, that the Yankees have moved up their target return date for A-Rod. They are now hoping for him to return during the first week of May.

Via the Post.

Tuesday night's game between the Tigers and Yankees was doughnuts through six. The Tigers' Edwin Jackson had held the Yankees scoreless through 6, throwing 117 pitches and striking out 4 batters, while allowing 4 hits and walking 1. But, in his first appearance of the season, Phil Hughes was even better, allowing no runs on 2 hits through 6, striking out 6 and walking 2.

Once Jackson was relieved by Ryan Perry to start the 7th, the Yankees offense exploded for 10 runs in the inning, off of Perry, Nate Robertson and Brandon Lyon. This is how it went:

Nick Swisher singled.
Melky Cabrera walked, moving Swisher to second.
Jose Molina sacrificed for the first out, moving Cabrera to second and Swisher to third.
Jorge Posada pitch hit for Ramiro Pena.
Posada reached first on an error, scoring both Swisher and Cabrera and moved to second.
Angel Berroa pinch ran for Posada.
Derek Jeter walked.
Robertson relieved Perry.
Johnny Damon singled, scoring Berroa and moving Jeter to second.
Mark Teixeira fouled out for the second out.
Hideki Matsui singled, scoring Jeter and moving Damon to third.
Robinson Cano singled, scoring Damon and moving Matsui to third.
Swisher walked, loading the bases.
Lyon relieved Robertson.
Cabrera walked, scoring Matsui, leaving the bases loaded.
Molina hit a grand slam, scoring Cano, Swisher and Cabrera.
Berroa singled.
Jeter grounded out for the third out.

There was no reason for Hughes to come back out, so Mark Melancon entered and threw a 1-2-3 seventh inning. Edwar Ramirez pitched a scoreless 8th and Jose Veras did the same in the 9th. For the day, the Yankees pitchers threw a four hitter, walking 3 and striking out 7 en route to a shut out.

Nick Swisher added a solo home run in the 9th to make it 11-0. He had two hits, two walks and scored 3 runs. Matsui (triple, 1 run, 1 RBI), Cano (1 run, 1 RBI) and Cabrera (2 runs, 1 RBI, 2 walks) also had two hits each.

Obviously, it's great to see Phil turn in this kind of performance. We can only hope this is something that he can build on.

Joba Chamberlain (0-0, 3.94) tries for his first win of the season tomorrow at 7:05 PM ET, against Rick Porcello (1-2, 4.50) in the final game of this 3 game set.

Recap records: Patrick: 6-2, Seamus: 3-6 (who was unable to recap last night's game due to site related difficulties), Andrew: 1-2.

The AP reports:


The YES Blog has a statement issued by Hal Steinbrenner. Here it is:

» Read More

Former Yankee Hideki Irabu is back in baseball, signing with the Long Beach Armada of the independent Golden Baseball League, according to a press release posted on their website.


You have to love press releases.

Via Tim Dierkes via Kyodo News.

Marc Carig of The Star-Ledger reports that Brian Bruney plans to lighten his workload between games, in an effort to stay healthy, as the pitcher thinks that pitching too much between appearances is what landed him on the DL.

Via Ben Kabak.

Tonight's game against the Red Sox was the only one in the series the Yankees didn't let slip through their fingers. The problem was they never really had it to begin with. The Red Sox brought out the brooms after beating the Yankees by a score of 4–1.

Andy Pettitte was okay, allowing three earned runs in a six inning performance, but was roughed up a bit in the 5th when a 1–1 tie was turned into a 4–1 Boston lead, thanks to a steal of home by Jacoby Ellsbury and an RBI double by J.D. Drew. Three Yankees (Matsui, Cano, Cabrera) had multi-hit games but as a team they could not generate a whole lot of offense as the Yanks went 0–6 with runners in scoring position. Other than that, the game was pretty uneventful save a little rambling from the broadcast booth on what a great 5th starter Andy Pettitte is.

Also, note to Jacoby Ellsbury: Show some class. Don't come out for a curtain call after stealing home plate. It's cool that you want to come out and acknowledge and respect your fans, but respect your opponent as well. We didn't see any fist-pumping or chest-pouting coming out of Andy Pettitte after he picked off two of your runners during the game.

I think the saddest thing for me when I look back at this game is that while this was the game that capped off a Boston sweep, it's also the loss that disappointed me the least simply because the first two were so horrible.

The Yankees will try to forget this series (I hope) and head to Detroit tomorrow night to begin a three-game set with the Tigers. Pitching matchup has the potential to be a great one as CC Sabathia will be taking on Justin Verlander. Game starts at 7:05 ET.

Recap records: Patrick: 5-2, Seamus: 3-5, Andrew: 1-2

Tyler Kepner reports that the Yankees will start Phil Hughes on Tuesday, in place of the injured Chien-Ming Wang.

Via Ben Kabak.