Everyone's talking about Kyle's outburst last night.


I didn't see it, but if he was actually disrespectful to Torre, what a backwards thing that is considering that Torre has gone back to him over and over again (something that plenty of people have criticized him for - not that that matters) and he gets mad when we're struggling for victories and the winning run is on in the 8th and the Hammer of God is ready? I mean, really, you have to be kidding.

Mike Mussina pitched seven strong innings and A-Rod contributed with three hits and an RBI as the Yankees held on to beat the A's 2-1 on Friday night in the Bronx.

After a 1-7 road trip, with one game suspended, the Yankees were in dire need of a "W" and they got it. The Yankees jumped out to a 2-0 lead early and held it until the A's scored late and made it a one run ballgame.

Kyle Farnsworth was summoned for the eighth and put two runners on and got the second out but was pulled in favor of Rivera. Farnsworth was visibly upset and slammed his mitt against the dugout wall as he left the field.

Mo struck out Jack Cust to end the eighth and saved the game in the ninth by striking out two more and only allowing one runner to reach base as he hit Johnson with two outs.

The Yankees resume the weekend series this afternoon with Kei Igawa on the hill.

Well, the game's not officially over as it has been suspended due to rain. The score is currently 8-6 Yankees in the top of the 8th, with Derek Jeter standing on second with two out and Hideki up at bat.

The game started off pretty easy with both teams matching zeros for the first two innings and Daniel Cabrera looking very strong. In the top of the third however, Cabrera served up a breaking ball right over the plate and Andy Phillips put it over the left field wall to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. Those good feelings lasted all of two outs and Wang walked Paul Bako (the backup catcher!!) and served up a 2-run HR to Brian Roberts (his fifth of the year and third in June). Amusingly enough, the Yankees actually showed a little life and stormed right back in the top of the fourth with back to back singles putting Jeter and Matsui on first and third with no one out. A sac fly from A-Rod and then two walks to Jorge and Abreu loaded them up with one out. Unfortunately, the Yankees were only able to plate one more on a Melky groundout, 3-2 Yankees. That remained the score until the Yankees added an additional run in the seventh when Robbie led off the inning with a double. He was sacrificed over to third and brought home on a Damon single, 4-2 Yankees.

Most Yankees fans feel very safe with a lead in Chien-Ming Wang's hands but last night was just not his night as he melted down in the bottom of the seventh. Nick Markakis started things off with a single and came around on a Kevin MillAH triple (a triple? Well, maybe a more astute RF plays that ball a little better...or even catches it). After a ground out, Wang walked Melvin Mora and gave up a two-run double to Jay Gibbons. Corey Patterson came in to run for Gibbons and promptly stole third and then came home on a Posada error on the throw. After Wang walked Paul Bako AGAIN, Torre finally took him out and brought in Luis Vizcaino. Luis got Jay Payton swinging (very big out there) but gave up a single to Brian Roberts putting men on first and second for Mike Myers. Myers got Brandon Fahey to ground out softly but the damage had been done, 6-4 Orioles.

However depressing as that inning was, the Yankees came right back (were you as surprised as I was?) in the top of the 8th with back to back walks to Posada and Abreu to start off. Melky Cabrera doubled home Posada and if you were listening to the radio broadcast, John Sterling and Susan W. would have you believe that Melky hitting away and not bunting the guys over was a managerial decision by Joe Torre on par with the great feats of Connie Mack. In any case, Robbie Cano came up and did his job, grounding out to the right side and getting the tying run home. After a Phillips groundout, Damon came up and singled, putting men on first and third for Derek Jeter who promptly singled them both in and took second on the throw home. 8-6 Yanks and that's when the game was suspended.

From Peter Abraham:


Via Eric Schultz.

No offense. No offense at all. 5 hits and 1 walk. No Yankee had 2 hits - Jeter, Matsui, A-Rod, Posada and Cabrera each had 1 - and no Yankee had an extra base hit. We struck out 10 times.

Meanwhile, they struck out 0 times. That said, if you throw out the 6th inning, they had 0 runs, 3 hits and 2 walks. However, all innings count and the 6th was where they did all of their damage. Coming into the inning, Clemens had pitched 5 innings scoreless. However, in the 6th, he didn't get an out until the 5th batter. Chris Gomez singled to start it off and then Clemens walked Nick Markakis. Ramon Hernandez singled for the first run of the game for either side and then Aubrey Huff followed with a 3 run homer. Clemens then got 3 of the next 4 batters out to get out of the inning. He was relieved by Brian Bruney and Mo, each of which threw a hitless, scoreless inning. Clemens record is now 1-3 with a 5.32 ERA.

Thanks to a walk off double by Jose Lopez in the 11th that gave the Mariners a 2-1 win over the Red Sox, we're still at 11 games back in the division. Oakland beat Cleveland, so we remain at 8 games back in the wild card, as well. Boston is off today and we have Wang (7-4, 3.51) going up against Daniel Cabrera (6-8, 4.98) at 7:05 PM ET. We actually have to give Wang some runs to work with to end this 4 game slide, though.

Jeter is up for an ESPY in the Best Baseball Player category. You can vote now.

This is my weekly recap of the performance of the YanksBlog.com teams in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League.

Last Week

All well rounded performance propelled James to a 7-3 victory over Aziz (Pride of the Yankees). Actually, Aziz's team was pretty well rounded, as well, but James team was simply better. They mashed 12 home runs (with 3 home run weeks from Alfonso Soriano and Brandon Phillips) and hit .328, but failed to steal a single base. Aziz picked it up there, stealing 3, scoring 40 runs and hitting .325. James' offense was led by the aforementioned Soriano, who hit .471 with 4 R, 3 HR and 3 RBI. Lance Berkman hit .444, as well. Ryan Howard (7 R, 2 HR, 8 RBI, .440 AVG), Howie Kendrick (10 R, 3 RBI, .407 AVG) and Magglio Ordonez (9 R, 4 RBI, 1 SB, .500 AVG) led Aziz's side.

James took 4 of 5 categories on the pitching side, thanks to 4 wins, 50 strikeouts and an incredible 2.73 ERA and 1.03 WHIP. His 4 wins came from Billy Wagner, Kelvim Escobar, Jake Peavy (10 Ks) and Brad Penny. Ted Lilly also picked up 10 Ks (even though he had an ERA of 6.43). The saves came from Jose Valverde (2) and Bobby Jenks (1). Aziz's pitching staff managed to take the saves category with Francisco Cordero contributing 2 and Takashi Saito and David Weathers each chipping in 1. He received wins from Ben Sheets and Homer Bailey.

I had to face the behemoth known as Mike (River Ave. Blues) and I managed to escape with my dignity in tact, thanks to a 5-5 tie. To put it simply: offense was mine and pitching was his. I won R, HR, RBI, AVG and SV. He won SB, W, K, ERA and WHIP. My offense was led by A-Rod (7 R, 1 HR, 4 RBI, 1 SB, .545 AVG) and Dan Uggla (5 R, 3 HR, 8 RBI, 1 SB, .250 AVG). Mike's offense only managed to score 19 runs and drive in 15 with 4 homers and a .263 average to go along with 6 stolen bases. Russell Martin scored 2 runs, hit a home run, drove in 6, stole 2 and hit .304.

As bad as Mike's offense may have been, my pitching was certainly no better. We came up with 1 win, 4 saves, 36 strikeouts, a 5.15 ERA and a 1.37 WHIP. For that, I have to thank Octavio Dotel, Andy Pettitte, Matt Cain and Barry Zito, all of who had an ERA of 7.71 or higher. My 1 win came from Justin Verlander who also gave me 11 strikeouts. My saves came from Mo, Joe Borowski, Dotel and Alan Embree. Mike's 5 wins came from Daisuke Matsuzaka (9 Ks), Francisco Rodriguez, Derek Lowe, Felix Hernandez and Yovani Gallardo (12 Ks). All 3 of his saves came from Kevin Gregg.

Seamus fell to Dave (Pride of the Yankees), 6-3. All 3 of Seamus' wins came on the offensive side with Dave taking the rest and them tying on saves with 1. Joe Mauer was Seamus' offensive leader with 8 R, 2 HR, 9 RBI, 1 SB and a .333 AVG. Dave's greatest contributions came from Vladimir Guerrero (5 R, 2 HR, 7 RBI, .280 AVG) and Paul Konerko (5 R, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .300 AVG).

Seamus failed to pick up a single victory and only picked up 1 save, which came from Todd Jones. Moose registered 11 strikeouts, as well. Dave had wins from Carlos Zombrano (12 Ks), Tom Glavine and Darn Haren with his save coming from Al Reyes.

Top 3 teams in the league:

1. Mike (75-41-4)
2. James (62-52-6)
3. Ben (River Ave. Blues) (62-56-2)

This Week

James (2nd, 62-52-6) vs. Seamus (10th, 44-69-7).

Patrick (T6th, 56-58-6) vs. Dave (4th, 59-54-7).

This is getting depressing. Pettitte goes 7 innings, allowing just 2 ER and we only score 2 runs. How does it ended? Scott Proctor comes in in the 9th and walks 3 guys. First, Corey Paterson to start the inning. Then, Brian Roberts singles and Chris Gomez pops a bunt up to Proctor for the first found. Proctor then walks Nick Markakis to load them up and walks Ramon Hernandez to score the game winning, game ending run. It was a ... walk off walk. Cripes, that is ugly. Hindsight is always fun, but I wouldn't have been sad to have seen Mo used in the 9th instead of Proctor. I mean, I guess, no matter what you have to pitch 2 innings there, so maybe it's 1 for Proctor, 1 for Mo, regardless of it is the 9th or the 10th.

Both of the Yankees runs were driven in on a 2 run home run by Johnny Damon, which also scored Miguel Cairo. Jeter and Cairo were the only Yankees to pick up more than 1 hit with Matsui, Posada (2 walks) and Cano ending up hitless.

The Red Sox lost to the Mariners, so we're still at 11 games back in the division. We're 8 games back in the wild card. The winning streak starts tomorrow today!!! with Clemens going up against Erik Bedard at 7:05 PM ET.

Ed Price has 33 things you may not know about D. Jeter in honor of it being Jeter's 33rd birthday today. Some of my favorites:


Via Bryan Hoch.

From ContraCostaTimes.com:


Via PSD.

ESPN has an E-Ticket piece up on Carl Pavano. It seems odd that they have an article on him now...but whatever, anything to distract myself from the current state of the Yankees.

Update: Just noticed that Steve L. of WasWatching gets a mention in the ESPN article. Good for him.


Also, Carlos Gomez takes a quick look at the bottom third of the MLB draft (and the Yankees pick Andrew Brackman).

It's depressing again in Yankee-town and Mike Plugh puts all my feelings down on paper far better than I could. It's very easy to read his latest post and find yourself consistently agreeing with him.

Stephen Borelli has a story about Mel Allen's departure and return to the Yankees.


We went to Yankee Day at the Florida State Fair before the 1996 season. I don't remember much of it (I actually got dehydrated, so we left a little earlier than we would have normally, and threw up on the way out), but I met Joe Torre, Derek Jeter, Jim Leyritz and Catfish Hunter. My dad and mom/brother met Mel Allen, Hoyt Wilhelm, Ron Guidry, Scott Kamieniecki and probably 1 or 2 others if I recall correctly. Mr. Allen died shortly thereafter, of course.

Via Peter Abraham.

Josh Phelps has been claimed off waivers by the Pirates.

The meeting between Jason Giambi and George Mitchell won't take place until July, at least.

Jeter's hip strain shouldn't keep him out long, if at all.


Via Jim Johnson and Steve.

I think that, usually, when a pitcher (let's say... Matt Morris) allows 13 hits and 1 walk in 5 and 2/3 innings, you score more than 4 runs off him. Maybe not. Wang allowed 6 hits and 2 walks in 6 and 1/3 innings and they scored that much off him.

We struck first in this one, thanks to an RBI groundout from Jeter (scoring Cabrera) and RBI singles from Jorge (scoring Abreu) and Cano (scoring A-Rod). That gave us a 3-0 lead. Wang gave one back in the 3rd on a Dave Roberts double.

Godzilla took that one back in the 5th with an RBI single that scored A-Rod. In the bottom of the 6th, Bonds singled in Randy Winn to make the score 4-2, Yankees.

The bottom of the 7th started with a Bengie Molina line out. 8 outs to go! Next, Pedro Feliz homers to cut the lead to 1. Omar Vizquel singles to put the tying run on first. Mark Sweeney pinch hits for the pitcher and that's the end of the day for Wang as Mike Myers is headed in to face the left handed hitting Sweeney. Myers does the job, getting him to ground out for the second out with Vizquel taking 2nd.

Unfortunately, Myers proceeded to walk Dave Roberts to put runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs. That's enough for Myers - in comes Brian Bruney. Today wasn't Bruney's day, unfortunately. First, Randy Winn singled, which scored Vizquel and pushed Roberts to third. Then, he walked Ray Durham to load the bases. Then, he walked Barry Bonds, walking in the go ahead. Cripes! Villone came in and got the final out, getting Ryan Klesko to foul out to A-Rod.

The Yankees threatened in the 8th, putting Cabrera on third thanks to a stolen base and an error by the catcher, with 2 outs for Abreu. Unfortunately, he struck out to end that. Villone didn't have any trouble in the bottom of the 8th, getting 3 straight outs after allowing a lead off single.

So, we enter the top of the 9th down a run. Brad Hennessey enters to face A-Rod. A-Rod deposits one to deep center, out of the park, to tie it up. But, Posada, Matsui and Cano go down in order to end the top half.

Luis Vizcaino is in to pitch the 9th. Vizcaino was awesome, actually, retiring 6 batters in a row to keep it tied in the 9th and 10th. Unfortunately, the Giants pitchers kept the Yankees bats scoreless, as well. Although, there was trouble in the 10th. The Yankees were able to get the bases loaded with 1 out, thanks to the Giants intentionally walking Posada. Matsui and Cano wouldn't get a single run in, though, as they struck out and grounded out, respectfully. Ouch.

The bottom of the 11th saw Scott Proctor enter the game. And he did the job, getting through the 11th and 12th innings without much trouble (save a double by Nate Schierholtz in the 11th). The Yankees hitters went quietly in the 12th and 13th. The 13th ended with Scott Proctor striking out. The only Yankee hitter left on the bench was Chris Basak. If he pinch hit, that would have been his first major league at bat. (Edit: Wil Nieves was also available).

Proctor went out to pitch the bottom of the 13th. Ryan Klesko singles and Molina sacrifices him to 2nd. Feliz flies out to center. 2 outs, man on 2nd. We could do this. Vizquel singles, though, pushing Klesko to third. Old buddy Schierholtz singles to score Klesko, ending the game 6-5.

A question I have is why Mo wasn't used at all. Even with 1 and 2/3 innings yesterday. Still, the pitchers excluding Bruney all did a pretty good job, Proctor did make it to 2 outs with a man on 2nd and the Yankees had already used Wang, Myers, Bruney, Villone, Farnsworth, Vizcaino and Proctor. The only reliever left was Mo. Seamus tells me that Clemens was warming up at one point, as well, but it was also his day to throw, so it may have been nothing. Can't keep losing.

Melky (3 for 7, 1 run) and Abreu (1 for 7, 1 run) each logged 7 at bats. A-Rod was 4 for 6 with 3 runs, 1 RBI and his 28th home run of the season. Posada was 3 for 5 with 1 RBI and 2 walks. Jeter was 2 for 5 with 1 RBI. He left in the 8th with a strained hip, but it doesn't appear to be anything serious. Cano, who left 7 runners on base for the day, was 2 for 6 with an RBI.

Tomorrow we've got Moose (3-4, 5.10 ERA) vs. Noah Lowry (6-6, 3.74 ERA) at 4:05 ET.

From the official site:

Kei Igawa returned from a long minor league stint and looked great until he lost his control in the fifth inning. With the Yankees having a comfortable 5-0 lead, Igawa got wild in the fifth and Vizquel drove in one run with a single and Barry Bonds walked with the bases loaded for the second run. Luis Vizcaino was summoned from the bullpen and almost gave up the lead. Benji Molina took Vizcaino to deep left and Matsui had to make a leaping catch against the wall to end the inning.

The Yankees got their lead early as Cain was wild and walked in a run with Igawa at the bat. A-Rod had his first RBI early and Cabrera added a two run single and Abreu chipped in with a sacrifice fly.

Scott Proctor faced Bonds with the Yankees leading 6-2 and challenged him and lost. On a 3-2 pitch, Proctor unleashed a 95 MPH fastball which Bonds redirected over the right center field fence for his 749th career home run.

Mariano Rivera was brought in to get the last five outs and did so while only giving up one hit. A-Rod was four for four on the night plus a walk and two RBI.

The series resumes on Saturday afternoon with Chien-Ming Wang on the hill for the Bombers.

Ed Price mentions that Clemens, Torre and the rest of the coaches watched the ROGER 2057 video. They all laughed.

From Ken Davidoff:


Via Steve.

From Yahoo! Sports:

On the first day of summer, the Yankees sent Roger Clemens to the hill to try to avoid the three game sweep at the hands of the Rockies.

Unlike the last few days, the scoring started early and surprisingly enough, with the Yankees! In the second, Alex Rodriguez started off with a single and came around to score on a two-run bomb by Hideki Matsui. 2-0 Yankees. Unfortunately, that lead didn't even make it a full half inning as in the bottom of the second, the Rockies hit two solo home runs (Garrett Atkins & Troy Tulowitzki) to even up the score. At that point, the Yankees pretty much reverted to the form they were showing the last two games - very few hits and no real pressure on the pitcher. Rodrigo Lopez ran into a few trouble spots but he got out of all of them with minimal issues. It just seemed that every time that the Yankees mustered a couple of hits, it was with two outs and the next guy up would line out. Story of the series.

Colorado scored two more runs in the fifth when Kaz Matsui (wow, is he having a little resurgence - small sample size, I know but still) singled, stole second and came around on a Matt Holliday single. Man, can this Holliday kid hit. Fastball, splitter, off-speed - you name it, he gets the bat on it. In any case, Rocket was done at this point after 4 and a third. Mike Myers came in and promptly gave up a single to Todd Helton, putting runners on first and third. Scott Proctor came on at that point and got Atkins to fly out but Holliday scored; 4-2 Rockies.

The Yankees made it a closer game in the 7th when Robbie Cano led off the inning with ground-rule double. Miggy Cairo put down a very nice bunt and Melky Cabrera hit a LONG fly ball to score Robbie (any other part of the park and that fly might have been a HR - them's the breaks...at least this series, I guess).

All in all, a disheartening loss. I would have been okay with losing the series - I mean, this is a good Rockies team and hey, you have to lose sometimes. However, getting swept as you head into another interleague series with an unknown quantity starting...that doesn't exactly bode well. Think about it this way - for all the great feelings that the nice Yankees run created in the first couple of weeks of June - a loss in their next game puts them at a game below .500 for the season.

Final point of the night: someone put Damon on the DL. He can't play the OF and he can't get around on fastballs so what can he do? Well, they tried him at first for a little bit today...which makes no sense to me. Why would you put a guy with oblique/rib cage issues at first base where he will have to pivot and lean on any ground ball? I don't get it...but in any case, put him on the DL and play Kevin Thompson in left and DH Matsui. Is there anyone out there that thinks that Thompson won't provide more with the bat and the glove than Damon would right now? It wouldn't have to be much!

Peter Abraham posted a list of draft picks that the Yankees have announced as signed. They are:

184. RHP Adam Olbrychowski, Pepperdine University
244. 2B Damon Sublett, Wichita State University
304. CF Austin Krum, Dallas Baptist University
394. RHP Manuel Barreda, Sahuarita High School
424. RHP Nicolas Chigges, College of Charleston
454. 3B William Pruitt, Stetson University
484. RF David Williams, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
544. RHP Ryan Zink, University of Illinois at Chicago
634. SS Ryan Wehrle, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
664. 2B Justin Snyder, University of San Diego
694. RHP Craig Heyer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
784. RHP Jason Kiley, Florida Gulf Coast University
814. CF Gary Gattis, Yavapai College
844. 3B Brandon Laird, Cypress College
874. RHP Jeffrey Livek, Carthage College
904. RHP Matthew Pilgreen, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
934. 2B Christopher Carrara, Winthrop University
992. SS Brian Chavez, University of San Francisco
1,021. RHP Fred Jones, University of Evansville
1,269. 1B Christopher Rader, Coastal Carolina University
1,453. C Lawrence Day, University of Connecticut

They also included the following undrafted free agent signings:

SS Robbie Minor, University of Evansville
C Frank Lonigro, San Diego State University
RHP Alexy Still, Rowan University
RHP Mike Hyde, Florida State University
C Freuny Parra, Connors State College

From Peter Abraham:

Coming into this series, there was some talk of the 2002 series and all of the runs that were scored and how we could score a ton of runs in this 3 game set. Well... there goes that. Josh Fogg held us to 1 run on 4 hits and 1 walk in 7 innings. Once he left, we didn't get anything off the pen, either (0 runs, 3 hits, 1 walk).

Moose pitched a good game (not as good as Fogg, but still good), allowing 3 ER on 6 IP and a pen of Vizcaino, Myers (who walked the only batter he faced) and Bruney failed to allow any more runs to score. Moose's record falls to 3-4 and his ERA is 5.10. Vizcaino's ERA is below 6 (5.94) for the first time since May 3.

3 guys (Posada, Phillips and Damon) saw time at first in this game. Posada started at first with Nieves catching. Andy Phillips pinch hit for Nieves in the top of the 7th and stayed in the game to play first with Posada moving to catcher in the bottom of the 7th. However, in that same half of the inning, with two outs, Damon was sent out to play first base as part of a double switch with Bruney coming in to pitch.

Melky hit lead off and was the only Yankee to collect 2 hits. Jeter, Abreu, Rodriguez, Posada and Matsui also collected hits with the Yankees lone run being scored by A-Rod when he was driven in on a Matsui ground out in the 2nd. To make matters worse, the Red Sox beat the Braves 4-0. So, we're 9 games back in the division now.

Tonight, at 9:05 ET, we have Pettitte (4-4, 2.93) going against Jeff Francis (6-5, 3.61).

E.J. Fajan over at Pending Pinstripes has finished his Top 30 list of the Yankee farm system and it's more than worth your time. He's taken the time to put together really good scouting reports on each of the thirty players and there's a lot to learn there. One thing does jump out immediately from the list though - pitching depth in the minors...yeah, even with all the injuries, the Yankees still have it.

The top five are: Joba Chamberlain (SP, 22, AA),
Jose Tabata (OF, 18, A+),
Ian Kennedy (SP, 23, AA),
Dellin Betances (SP, 19, SS/A-),
and Tyler Clippard (SP, 22, AAA/MLB).

From ESPN:


Via Yahoo!

If you are, here's some bad news: he's hurt. Again.


Hey, Ross, Alberto and Steven Jackson (okay, at this point, esp. Steven Jackson) might not have been the best haul we could have gotten...but we got something for a old, injury prone curmudgeon so that ain't too shabby.

Pete A. reports that Andy Phillips is getting a call-up and that Josh Phelps will be DFA'd. That seems kind of counter-intuitive to me. Looking at the active roster, why would you let Phelps go when you can drop never used Chris Basak? If you keep Phelps, at the very least, you would have a decent bat on the bench. If you keep Basak, you gain...absolutely nothing.

With the Sox loss yesterday to the Braves, we gained a half a game, cutting the lead to 8 games even. We'll open a 3 game set with the Rockies today. It's the first series we've played at Coors since 2002. Mark Feinsand points out that the starters for that series were Mussina, Pettitte and Clemens. The starters for this series? The very same.

This is my weekly recap of the performance of the YanksBlog.com teams in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League.

Last Week

Coming into their match up, James and EJ (Pinstripe Potentials and Pending Pinstripes) were tied for 3rd place. With a 6-2 victory, James was able to step ahead and claim 2nd for his own. His offense played the biggest role. Led by Mark Teahen (7 R, 8 RBI, .375 AVG), they were able to win 4 out of 5 categories. EJ's squad put up a .339 batting average, allowing them to win that category. The most credit probably has to go to Carlos Pena, who hit .400 with 3 runs, 3 home runs and 9 runs batted in. Reggie Willits hit .583 while Bill Hall hit .529. EJ's pitchers put up an impressive 56 strikeouts, with that being the other category that he won. Javier Vazquez gave him 12 of those with Johan Santana chipping in 9. James and EJ tied in wins (3) and saves (2). EJ got his wins from Ian Snell, Jeremy Bonderman and Joe Blanton while his saves came from J.J. Putz and Eric Gagne. James' wins came from Kelvim Escobar, Jake Peavy and Brad Penny and his saves were recorded by Billy Wagner and Jose Valverde. Escobar put up an incredible 22 K's - almost as much as the rest of the staff put together (25).

It makes sense that when the Yankees do well - I do well (being that I have 6 of them). I swept the pitching side and was able to defeat Jen (NoSenseWorrying.com), 9-1. My offense was led by A-Rod, who scored 9 runs, hit 3 home runs, drove in 10, stole a base and hit .429. Matsui also hit .429 (with 4 R, 1 HR, 8 RBI) and Jeter hit .478 (with 5 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 1 SB). Shane Victorino led Jen's side with 6 R, 2 HR, 3 RBI, 4 SB and a .346 average. His 4 stolen bases were double of what my entire team came up with. Carlos Guillen hit .500 for the week. Pitching wise, I certainly benefited from Justin Verlander's no hitter, with him picking up a 2 win, 18 K, 1.80 ERA, 0.87 WHIP week. My other wins came from Scott Kazmir (16 K's), Alan Embree, Mark Buehrle and Andy Pettitte. Joe Borowski and Octavio Dotel each had 2 saves while Mo added 1 of his own. Not to be outdone, Chien-Ming Wang was also fantastic for Jen, coming up with 2 wins, 12 K's, a 1.72 ERA and 0.83 WHIP. Other wins came from Randy Wolf and Roy Halladay. Her lone save came from Trevor Hoffman.

First place Mike (River Ave. Blues) topped Seamus, 7-2. Both teams had pretty weak offenses (24 runs, 4 HR, 21 RBI, 8 SB and a .262 average were the category leaders - all wins for Mike except for RBI, which was tied). The best of Mike's group was Adrian Gonzalez, who hit .364 with 2 home runs, 6 runs and 8 runs batted in. Sheff was Seamus' guy, scoring 4, driving in 4 and hitting .350. Seamus' pitching was pretty good (3 W, 1 S, 24 K's, 2.23 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, with the last two being Seamus' two category victories), but Mike's pitching was flat out awesome. 6 wins, 6 saves, 64 K's, 2.84 ERA, 1.07 WHIP. The wins were spread around evenly with John Smoltz, Cole Hamels, Joe Nathan, Fausto Carmona, Daisuke Matsuzaka and Derek Lowe picking up one each. Carmona and Lowe each turned in 11 strikeouts. F-Rod picked up 3 saves, Kevin Gregg picked up 2 and Jeremy Accardo had 1. For Seamus, Brandon Webb, Jered Weaver and Mike Mussina each had a victory and Todd Jones picked up the single save.

Top 3 teams in the league:

1. Mike (70-36-4)
2. James (55-49-6)
3. Ben (River Ave. Blues) (56-52-2)

Mike is a full 14 games up on James with a .655 winning percentage. Here are the percentages of the teams following him: .527, .518, .509, .500, .491, .491, .486, .423, .400. So, Mike is way ahead and then most of the rest of us are just kind of bunched together, fighting for scraps. It's Mike's world - we just live in it.

This Week

James (2nd, 55-49-6) vs. Aziz (Pride of the Yankees) (8th, 53-56-1).

Patrick (T6th, 51-53-6) vs. Mike (1st, 70-36-4). Just when I get out of the basement - I'm headed right back in!

Seamus (10th, 41-63-6) vs. Dave (Pride of the Yankees) (4th, 53-51-6).

From the press release:

Joe Janish from Mets Today threw some Mets and Yankees questions at me and Alex.

Posada's style, value reminiscent of Munson's:


Via Peter Abraham.

From Peter Abraham:

From the Post:


We were also interested in him this offseason, according to reports.

Via PSD.

Chien-Ming Wang was dominant for 8 2/3 innings against the Mets with a career high 10 strikeout performance and A-Rod got the offense started with a two run homer in the first inning. Johnny Damon and Jorge Posada also homered later in the game and the Yankees took the series over the Mets 2 games to one.

Mets starter and ex-Yankee Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez could not get his fastball over consistently and the Yankees teed off of him. Posada added an RBI single and Miguel Cairo added an RBI double. With the Red Sox winning earlier in the day, the Yankees remain 8 1/2 games behind them in the AL East.

Interleague play will continue on the road for the Yankees on Tuesday vs. the Rockies at Coors Field.

According to Peter Abraham, Tyler Clippard was demoted to triple A Scranton after yesterda's start. Clippard's first run with the MLB Yankees ends after 6 starts. He went 3-1 with a 6.33 ERA. We won 5 of the 6 games he started.

Kevin Thompson is up in his place to provide some depth. Mr. Abraham also mentions that Kei Igawa will likely be brought up to start Saturday against the Giants.

Losses won't kill us - but losing streaks will. Thankfully, today our offense made sure that we were back on the winning side, by scoring 11 runs on 15 hits and 6 walks. We scored 2 runs in every inning from the 2nd to the 6th and added another one in the 8th for good measure. D. Jeter was all over the board today, going 4 for 5 (1 2B, 1 HR) with 2 runs, 2 RBI and 1 SB. A-Rod was A-Rod like, going 2 for 4 with 3 runs, 2 RBI, 1 BB, 1 SB and his 26th home run.

Cano was 2 for 4, as well, with 2 runs, 2 RBI and a double. The Yankees final 2 hit man, Miguel Cairo, was 2 for 5 with 2 RBI and 1 SB. Damon (1 BB), Abreu (2 BB) and Posada (1 BB) each had 1 hit and 1 R with Damon grabbing an RBI, as well. In other words, every Yankee reached base at least twice, except for Melky who went 0 for 4. But, even he picked up a sacrifice that helped runs score in the 2nd.

The pitching side... well... we allowed 8 earned runs. The Mets had 1 less hit and the same number of walks. Clippard was knocked out of the game in the 4th, after 3 and 1/3 and 77 pitches. He was relieved by Luis Vizcaino who ... (wait for it)... didn't allow a single run in his 1 and 2/3 innings and picked up the W on top of that to improve his record to 3-1. Proctor came on after that and was excellent in his 2 scoreless innings of work, taking his ERA down to 3.28.

This was followed by Kyle Farnsworth who pitched the 8th, allowing an earned run but getting out of the inning after that by striking out both Beltran and Wright. With an 11-6 lead, Mo came in to pitch the 9th. After finally getting his ERA to under 4 on June 12 for the first time since April 14... it's headed back up above 4 again. Thanks to 3 singles, the bases were loaded with 2 outs. After getting 2 strikes on Chris Gomez, the left fielder singled score Delgado. This was followed by Jose Reyes, who singled to score another. Finally, Beltran fouled out to Posada to end it. Yankees win, 11-8.

Tomorrow, at 8:05 PM on ESPN, Chien-Ming Wang (6-4, 3.49) will go up against El Duque, Orlando Hernandez (3-2, 2.38 ERA... wow, he's doing well this year). So, that should be a cool match up.

Tyler Kepner and Bryan Hoch both talk about Carl Pavano's parking spot.

Apparently, his car had been in his spot this whole time, unmoved, until this morning. Even with his car still in it, the Yankees have painted over his number 45 with a 22 - giving his spot to Roger Clemens. Kepner:

Watch below (warning: a little vulgarity).


Obviously playing off of some things people like to say about the Yankees, Steinbrenner, Clemens, etc., but cute nonetheless. All things aside, if Clemens can give us 6 IP, 3 ER every night, he can pitch until he's 100, as far as I'm concerned.

Via Peter Abraham.

Due to increased time requirements at work, Jason has decided to stop blogging here at YanksBlog.com. I just wanted to mention it, so that no one would be confused, and I also wanted to thank Jason for his contributions the site. I'm sorry to see him go.

Thanks for reading.

We play today. We win today. Das it.

Great combination of timely hitting and great hitting today as Andy Pettitte was pretty much dominant over 8 innings. He scattered 4 hits and gave up one walk and one earned run while striking out 4. Andy really had the D'Backs hitters off balance all day, putting up a impressive 14-6 GB-FB ratio. Andy could very easily be 9-2 at this point...and he's always been a second-half pitcher so this could have been a special season for him. The only run off Pettitte came on a 2-out single from Stephen Drew (age 24) that plated Mark Reynolds (will be 24 in a month) who had doubled to lead off the inning.

As for the Yankees offense, the team pounded out 12 hits and worked out 6 walks. Honestly, the score probably could have been quite a bit higher as they did end up leaving 10 guys on base and grounded into 2 double plays. The first two runs of the game scored in the first when A-Rod walked with the bases loaded (Melky, Jeter and Abreu all singled) and Hideki Matsui grounded out to the second baseman. The next two runs scored in the fourth as Bobby Abreu led off the inning with a walk and came around on a A-Rod double. Alex was plated on a Godzilla double before Cano and Phelps struck out to end the threat. The game was pretty much over at that point but the Yanks did put up 3 insurance runs in the 7th. A-Rod and Jorge both singled to start off the inning and both came around to score on Hideki Matsui's single who was then plated on a Josh Phelps single. 7-1 Yankees - 9 games in a row - nice.

As easy as the Yanks made it look, sweeping the D'Backs was no easy task. They came in 10 games over .500 and leading their division and the Yankees made them look second-tier. I don't know how much longer they can continue this torrid winning pace but man is it fun to watch...and with the Tigers loss this afternoon, the Yankees move even closer to the wild-card lead (now 3 games back on the loss side).

I'm not quite sure that being at the game where the Yankees got over the .500 mark is really something to brag about on June 13, but nonetheless it was an all-around, good-feeling night at the Stadium. The Yanks won their 8th straight game, giving them a winning record for the first time since they were 8-7 on April 20. The Red Sox and Tigers both lost, so the Yankees picked up a game in both the A.L. East (8.5) and the wild card race (4.5).

Mike Mussina was great in his second straight start, allowing just two runs on six hits in 7 and 2/3 innings. The offense was hot yet again, as Jorge Posada tied the game with a solo shot in the 2nd inning, A-Rod hit his league-leading 25th to put the Yanks ahead in the 3rd, and Hideki Matsui added a 3-run shot in the 4th. Rodriguez also had an RBI single, bringing his league-leading RBI total to 66.

Kind of perplexed as to why Joe Torre insisted on bringing in Mike Myers in a 7-2 game in the 9th. Bruney allowed two runners, but even back-to-back-to-back homers would have only tied the game and Bruney faced only one batter in the previous inning. But who cares, the way the Yankees are playing now I would've been content with him throwing Derek Jeter on the mound as long as they would still have held on.

The Yanks will go for the sweep in a matinee this afternoon at 1 E.T. Andy Pettite will be going up against Doug Davis.

From USA Today:


Via Yahoo!

This is my weekly recap of the performance of the YanksBlog.com teams in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League.

Last Week

Led by great pitching (4 wins, 1 save, 58 K's, 2.43 ERA, 1.00 WHIP), Joseph (River Ave. Blues) defeated James by the score of 6-3. James won runs, home runs and saves while they tied in average at .286. Offensively, James was led by Alfonso Soriano (5 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI, .350 AVG) while Joseph was led by David Ortiz (5 R, 2 HR, 2 RBI, .381 AVG). James' pitching staff yielded only 1 victory (Kelvim Escobar), but they did manage 4 saves (2 from Jenks, 1 from Wagner and Valverde). James Shields had a 2 win week for Joseph to go along with 14 K's. Greg Maddux and Jason Hirsh also pitched up victories while Aaron Harang and Erik Bedard had 17 and 15 K's, respectively. Papelbon was responsible for Joseph's lone save.

I topped Ben (River Ave. Blues), 6-4. My offense put up 46 runs and 46 RBI, but I still lost the offensive side, thanks to Ben's 13 homers, 5 stolen bases and .290 average. A-Rod had a huge week, hitting .400 to go with 7 runs, 4 home runs, 16 runs batted in and 1 stolen base. Jeter scored 11 runs of his own. Albert Pujols (4 R, 4 HR, 9 RBI, .364 AVG) and Jimmy Rollins (5 R, 1 HR, 5 RBI, 2 SB, .438 AVG) were Ben's big performers. My pitching staff managed to catch fire this week, putting up this line: 5 wins, 8 saves, 45 K's, 2.12 ERA and 1.30 WHIP. That WHIP number isn't great and Ben beat it with 1.18. I had 5 players with 1 win each (Kazmir, Verlander, Mo, Buehrle and Zito) to go along with 3 saves from Embree, 2 saves from Dotel and Mo and 1 save from Borowski. Ben's 3 wins came from Daniel Cabrera, Chad Cordero and C.C. Sabathia while his 4 saves came from Bob Wickman (2), Cordero and Dempster.

Seamus and Jen (NoSenseWorrying.com) tied at 5. Gary Sheffield continued his hot streak for Seamus with a .417 average, 6 runs, 4 home runs and 11 runs batted in. Jen's offense (which had 10 stolen bases for the week) was led by Carl Crawford (10 R, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 5 SB, .353 AVG). Miguel Cabrera hit .471 for the week, with 4 runs, 3 homers and 6 RBI, as well. Seamus had 3 wins this week (Brandon Webb, Jered Weaver, Ervin Santana) and 1 save (Todd Jones). Jen's 2 wins came from Wang and Halladay while her 5 saves came from Hoffman (2), Fuentes (2) and Chris Ray.

Top 3 teams in the league:

1. Mike (River Ave. Blues) (63-34-3)
2. Ben (51-47-2)
T3. EJ (Pinstripe Potentials and Pending Pinstripes) (48-46-6)
T3. James (49-47-4)

This Week

James (T3rd, 49-47-4) vs. EJ (T3rd, 48-46-6).

Patrick (9th, 42-52-6) vs. Jen (8th, 42-51-7).

Seamus (10th, 39-56-5) vs. Mike (1st, 63-34-3).

A-Rod and Jeter are leading all-star voting, not just for the AL, but for all of baseball. The results as of June 12 show that A-Rod has 1,404,001 votes. The closest behind him at the hot corner is Mike Lowell with 528,895. Jeter has 1,161,162 with Carlos Guillen (409,813) in 2nd at short stop. Here is how other Yankees show up in the results:

First Base
3. Giambi, 358,164 votes

Second Base
2. Cano, 520,506 (trails Polanco by 51,732)

Catcher
2. Posada, 567,153 (trails Rodriguez by 112,250)

Outfield
7. Damon, 409,285
9. Abreu, 402,102
11. Matsui, 360,477

Posada is doing better than Pudge at pretty much every category. Posada's OPS is .967 whereas Rodriguez's is .762. Matsui being the 3rd of the Yankees outfielders is a little strange, as well.

Marcos Vechionacci over his last 10 games (including tonight): 19 for 41. That's a .463 average folks. Also, in his last two games, he's 6 for 9 with 5 doubles and 1 triple. In tonight's game, he's probably raised his OPS from .655 to .735 or so (this is a guess right now). That's a pretty nice jump in just one game, huh?

It's good to see Vech start to hit - he got hurt early in the year and so he's working his way back. His glove is considered great so seeing his bat start to heat up can only mean good things for the soon to be 21 year old third baseman at High-A Tampa. Check out E.J.'s old profile of Vech (his #16 Yankee prospect) if you need more of a background on the kid.

Also, Jeff Marquez continues to do very well in AA Trenton. Tonight's line: 7 inning complete game, 5 hits, 1 unearned run, 1 walk and 6Ks. Fun fact: Marquez was picked by the Yanks in 2004 in the first round supplemental round. How did they get that pick? They lost Type-A free agent David Wells.

Update: In the second game of the double-header, Joba Chamberlain has taken the mound for his first start at AA Trenton. Suffice it to say that he is DEALING. Here's his line for the night: 5 innings, 3 hits, 2 walks and 9 strikeouts with a 4-2 GB-FB ratio. With Ian Kennedy's last performance...and the track record these guys are bringing to AA, this could be a very interesting summer in Trenton.

How hot is Bobby Abreu right now? He hit his low point with a .602 OPS on March 29th and starting with his first game in June, he's been scorching. 19 for 39 scorching. Good Lord.

With his home-run in the first, he's raised his OPS all the way up to .752. 150 points of OPS in 11 games and 49 plate appearances. Just wow.

Bobby, every bad thing I thought about you over the first third of the season...I'm sorry. You didn't exactly give me a whole heck of a lot to work with...but still, I should have had a little more faith in your abilities. Just keep this up for ohhh...the rest of the season and you can consider that option year renewed.

From Examiner.com:


Young is hitting .342 with a .410 OBA with 6 homers and 33 RBI in 57 games so far this season. These are well above his career numbers of .291 and .349. Defensively, he's played 403 games in left, 333 at first, 307 at DH, 102 in right and 54 at third.

Via PSD.

From the press release:

A-Rod hit the go ahead three run homer and added a two run blast for insurance later and Bobby Abreu went four for four plus a walk to lead the Yankees to a sweep over the Pirates at the stadium on Sunday afternoon.

The Yankees got out to a 3-0 lead early and later extended their lead to 5-2. However, Tyler Clippard was ineffective and gave up the lead to the Pirates with a four run inning. With the Yankees behind 6-5 they got two runners on and A-Rod came to the plate. He dropped the bat head on a low inside pitch and golfed it over the left field fence to put the Yankees ahead for good. He later hit another homer for insurance.

The real treat though is Bobby Abreu. He has simply been awful through the first two months of the season, but over the last week to ten days is the player of old. He went four for four on Sunday and scored four runs. He is getting most of his hits to the opposite field which means he is seeing the ball well and waiting on the pitch.

The Yankees bullpen was great, not giving up any runs over the last 5 1/3 innings. Sean Henn was credited with the win as he pitched two scoreless innings. He pitched out of a bases loaded, one out jam with a strike out and also retiring the last batter without giving up a run.

With the Red Sox losing, the Yankees have reduced the deficit to 9 1/2 games and are now in second place behind the first place Bosox. Monday is an off day and interleague play resumes on Tuesday night vs. the Diamondbacks with the great pitching matchup of Brandon Webb vs. Chien Ming-Wang.

After losing on May 29, we fell to 14.5 games back. After losing on June 2, we were 13.5 games back. What 8 days can do! Since that loss to the Red Sox, we're 7-1. Meanwhile, the Red Sox have gone 3-5 in that same span. So, we've averaged a gain of a half a game in each of the last 8 days and we're now 9.5 games back. Sweet. Is there a sweeter day off than one that comes on a winning streak? Enjoy this one.

Tomorrow, we'll open a 3 game set with the Diamondbacks (the NL Wild Card leader) and the Sox will open up with the Rockies (4th place in the West).

Steve Serby has an interview with Jorge.

From the official site:

Mike has a nice analysis of Damon Oppenheimer's draft philosophy.

The Yankees beat the Pittsburgh Pirates on Friday night 5-4 in ten innings. The Pirates jumped out to an early 2-0 lead with the aid of an Xavier Nady home run and three consecutive singles later on. The Yankees came back to tie the game on a two run homer from Hideki Matsui.

Pettitte got in to trouble again in the seventh and it looked like he would escape. However, Melky Cabrera misjudged a line drive from Duffy (the potential last out of the inning) and it sailed over his head and ended up as a two run inside the park home run.

The Yankees came right back against Gorzelanny in the bottom of the seventh with RBI singles from Jeter and Posada to tie the score. Rivera was summoned to pitch the ninth and got into a little trouble but escaped.

In the tenth, Mo gave up another single but got a double play ball from Nady to end the inning. You could see that Mo was pumped. In the bottom of the 10th, Robinson Cano led off with a double to left that just missed being a home run. Cabrera was called on to sacrifice and did just that, moving Cano to third with only one out. Cairo then hit a soft bouncer to third. Bautista fielded the ball and checked Cano back to third but then didn't throw to first and Cairo was safe. Damon was eventually intentionally walked to load the bases. It was Jeter's time to be the hero and he dribbled a bouncer to second which Freddy Sanchez tried to bare hand and throw to the plate but he couldn't handle it and the winning run scored.

Rivera was credited with the win and is 2-3 on the season. The Rocket relaunches on Saturday afternoon as the series continues.

Just like yesterday, I will be updating this entry throughout the day with the Yankees picks. Again, please add your thoughts on the picks in the comments.

214. C Richard Weems, Columbus High School
244. 2B Damon Sublett, Wichita State University
274. CF Taylor Grote, The Woodlands High School
304. CF Austin Krum, Dallas Baptist University
334. SS Carmen Angelini, Barbe High School
364. LF Isaiah Howes, University of Louisville
394. RHP Manuel Barreda, Sahuarita High School
424. RHP Nicolas Chigges, College of Charleston
454. 3B William Pruitt, Stetson University
484. RF David Williams, Rutgers University, New Brunswick
514. RHP Daniel Mahoney, Cushing Academy
544. RHP Ryan Zink, University of Illinois at Chicago
574. RHP Christopher Carpenter, Kent State University
604. OF Taylor Holiday, University of California, Irvine
634. SS Ryan Wehrle, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
664. 2B Justin Snyder, University of San Diego
694. RHP Craig Heyer, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
724. CF Matthew Morris, University of California, Irvine
754. RHP Gregory Peavey, Hudson's Bay High School (from what I've been reading, this is gonna make some people happy)
784. RHP Jason Kiley, Florida Gulf Coast University
814. CF Gary Gattis, Yavapai College
844. 3B Brandon Laird, Cypress College
874. RHP Jeffrey Livek, Carthage College
904. RHP Matthew Pilgreen, University of Louisiana at Lafayette
934. 2B Christopher Carrara, Winthrop University
963. C Chad Dawson, Indiana State University
992. SS Brian Chavez, University of San Francisco
1,021. RHP Fred Jones, University of Evansville
1,050. RHP Drew Storen, Brownsburg High School
1,079. RHP Gregory Holle, Christian Brother's Academy High School
1,107. SS Daniel Cox, University of Washington
1,135. RF Steven Strausbaugh, Western Carolina University
1,163. CF Erik Komatsu, Oxnard College
1,191. LF Eric Thames, Pepperdine University
1,217. 1B Luke Murton, Georgia Tech
1,243. RHP Jake Shafer, Missouri State University
1,269. 1B Christopher Rader, Coastal Carolina University
1,295. RHP Jason Chowning, Texarkana Community College
1,321. LHP Tyler Herriage, Weatherford College
1,345. RHP Pat Venditte, Creighton University
1,368. RHP Daniel Kapala, University of Notre Dame
1,390. RF Colin Arnold, Daytona Beach Community College
1,411. RHP Joseph Bittle, University of Mississippi
1,432. LHP Kenneth Toves, Carlsbad High School
1,453. C Lawrence Day, University of Connecticut

The 2007 draft is in the books!

If you've read YanksBlog.com much, you know we generally avoid things like this (i.e. we try not to delight in others falling short). However, I really have to mention this. Peter Abraham, Tyler Kepner and Dom Amore all talked about the reaction from the Yankees clubhouse when Schilling's no hitter last night (he went 8 and 2/3 with Shannon Stewart breaking it up).

Kepner:


Amore:

With last night's victory, the Yankees have won 2,000 regular season games with Joe Torre at the helm. As Bryan Hoch points out, he's the only person in baseball history to have 2,000 hits and 2,000 managerial victories. Congrats.

This puts him in 10th place all time. Before the season is over, he'll reach 8th by passing Leo Durocher (2,008) and Walter Alston (2,040). That would place him directly behind Joe McCarthy (2,125).

Heck of a win by the Yankees tonight. I was in Chicago watching the game with some Sox fans so I'll have to be brief. The game is a pretty simple breakdown.

Mike Mussina, perhaps taking a cue from Chien-Ming Wang, decided to pitch one heck of a game over 6 innings. Unfortunately for Moose, Jose Contreras was just as effective in shutting down the Yankees bats. The Yanks scored their first run in the fourth on a Matsui groundout that scored Bobby Abreu after he and A-Rod had started the inning off with singles.

Chicago tied it up in the 7th. Mussina started off the inning by giving up singles to Thome and Konerko before being taken out. Mike Myers then came in for the thankless job of LOOGY and gave up a RBI single to A.J. Pierzynski to tie the game at 1-1. Scott Proctor then came in with 2 on and none out and proceeded to bail the Yankees out of the inning. Rob Mackowiak lined a pitch deep to center but the ball got knocked down by the wind.

The Yankees took the lead in the eighth when Derek Jeter pinch hit, stole second and took third on a single by Melky Cabrera. Bobby Abreu then came up and with one out, laced a double to right to score both Jeter and El Leche. 3-1 Yanks. After the bases got juiced with two walks to A-Rod and Hideki, Abreu scored on a ground-out from Cano. 4-1 Yanks.

In the 8th, Kyle Farnsworth came in and after one quick out, gave up a single to Jerry Owens. After an errant throw to first put a man in scoring position, Tad Iguchi hit a ground rule double to make it 4-2. At that point, Joe had seen enough and brought in Mo. Iguchi did came around to score on a Konerko single to make the score 4-3 but Mariano sat Pierzynski down on some high heat (A.J. promptly got tossed for slamming his bat down in frustration of his ineptitude.)

In the top of the ninth, the Yankees put the game out of reach. Singles by Jeter and Melky and a walk from Abreu loaded them up and A-Rod brought them home. Grand slam A-rod. 8-3 Yanks. Hideki got aboard on a walk and came around on a Cano triple. Cano scored on a Uribe error on a groundball by Posada. 10-3 Yanks. At that point, the formula was back in play. Bottom of the ninth. Enter Sandman. Game over. Good win, good pitching, good clutch hitting and now, finally some positive momentum. Let's go Yankees.

I'll be updating this blog entry throughout the day with the Yankees picks. Please feel free to post your thoughts in the comments.

30. RHP Andrew Brackman, North Carolina State University
94. C Austin Romine, El Toro High School
124. RHP Ryan Pope, Savannah College of Art & Design
154. 3B Bradley Suttle, The University of Texas at Austin
184. RHP Adam Olbrychowski, Pepperdine University

And there you have it, day one is in the books. :)

From the official site:

From MLB.com:


From Peter Abraham:

From the New York Times:


Via Eric Schultz.

Is it a coincidence that the Yankees have won 4 out of 6 and seem to be turning a corner on the same day that Carl Pavano's Yankees career finally ends with Tommy John surgery?

I'd better stop here: Before you know it, I'll be writing about international banking conspiracies, the Freemasons and Halliburton.

I'll admit it: I'm sold on Tyler Clippard. He pitched big in a big game last night, getting in and out of three major jams in five innings. He demonstrated the walk tendency that we were warned about, but his stuff shows tantalizing promise. In the bottom third, against Thome, we saw three straight slippery curve balls from the Clip followed by a high fastball for the K...a glimpse of a good future. The only damage against him was a single that scored Jermaine Dye from 3rd.

The Yankees offense took its sweet time, but it arrived. The early innings were simply brutal, highlighted by Jeter grounding into 2 double plays in his first 2 ABs. This is so radically out of character that I became convinced that he must have been given a low dose of a slow acting neurotoxin in his food last night..sorry, pardon me, my conspiratorial side is in overdrive today.

The Yankees first run came from a semi-check swing by...Miguel Cairo!??!? The dangerous Miguel's line drive scored Cano from 2nd.

The top 6 was beautiful...I mean it.
-Damon sliced it the other way to start the frame off with a double.
-Jeter bunted (brilliantly calculated move) and was easily safe at first, Damon took third.
-Bobby Abreu (the real one, not the Invasion of the Body Snatchers pod replica who can't draw walks or hit) singled to drive in Damon.
-Alex hammered a double off the wall in center, Jeter scored and Bobby took third.
-Jorge went the other way to Dye in right for a sac fly, it was a close play at the plate but Abreu slid his hand under the tag.
-With the infield drawn in, Matsui grounded past first, plating Alex.

Suddenly: 5-1.

In the top 7th, Alex got another RBI single and added a HR in the 9th that was actually a bit frightening, because it landed about 20 rows back in RF and it looked like a few frustrations were taken out on that ball.

Farnsworth let in a run in the 8th (shocking) and Bruney had some control problems in the 9th, loading the bases. Rivera firmly closed the door on a White Sox comeback, allowing only a run on a sac fly.

This White Sox team is begging to lose 3 of 4 in this series.

PS: My official position is: Give him real estate in Manhattan. Give him a percentage of the team. Do whatever it takes to keep Alex here. I want to see him hit another 315 HRs in pinstripes.

Today, we sent Matt DeSalvo and Kevin Thompson back down to the minors. In their place, we have Sean Henn and Chris Basak. Basak, a 28 year old infielder, hit .311 this spring. He has never seen any time in the majors and has hit .265 at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre this season.

Henn was up earlier this year, pitching in 16 games. The result was a 1-0 record and a 5.19 ERA.

We've published the last interview in the second edition of our Interviewing the Yankees Blogosphere series. So, to draw it to a close, I wanted to take a quick look at all of the people that we interviewed this time around.

Peter Abraham, The LoHud Yankees Blog
James Varghese, YanksBlog.com
Mark Feinsand, Blogging the Bombers
Benjamin Kabak, River Ave. Blues
Mike Axisa, Pending Pinstripes (now at River Ave. Blues)
Jason O'Connell, YanksBlog.com
Jim Baumbach, On the Yankees Beat (no longer blogging)

IF the Yankees are going to make a run here, they've got to, AT THE VERY LEAST, play .500 ball. If you check out Doug's Stats (which is a great site - go check it out), over the last 20 games...the Yankees are a putrid 7-13.

Also, check out this page which lists the top players in the AL over the same time frame - the only place a Yankee comes in first is errors (Jeter - 5) though Matt DeSalvo comes close in losses (0-3) and Mussina comes close in HRs off (6).

This game started off well. Derek Jeter reached on an error and a great hit and run with Jeter running from first and Abreu doubling led to the Yankees striking first. That's how the 1st would end - with the Yankees leading 1-0.

But, it went south quick. The bottom of the 2nd started with a single from Paul Konerko. Mackowiak was then hit by a pitch, making it 1st and 2nd. Uribe singled to load the bases with no out. But, we could have got out of it. DeSalvo got the next batter, Joe Crede, to ground to A-Rod. A-Rod caught the ball right around 3rd, got the force and then went to first. At the time, I kinda felt he should have just gone home. His momentum was taking him in that direction and he had a shot at the lead runner. Instead, he throws to first - and his throw is bad. The runner on 1st is safe and we only get one out.

Next, DeSalvo got Jerry Owens to ground to Josh Phelps to start a double play. Except, we got 0 outs on it thanks to Phelps throwing to the right of Jeter. Jeter couldn't get it and Jeter got taken out. It wasn't a super hard slide, but one of Jeter's legs/feet/ankles (I forget which) is hurting him, so that just made it worse. Instead of being out of the inning, another run scored and we have runners on first and second with 1 out. Basically, DeSalvo did his job here after he loaded the bases. He got two very manageable ground balls and the fielders didn't execute. This killed us.

And, of course, Iguchi then follows with a single, scoring another run. Here, Torre elected to pull DeSalvo. In the 2nd inning, after 44 pitches. I felt this was a little quick given that he had just induced back to back double play balls that were bungled. That said, Ron Villone came in and did the job, getting a double play from Jim Thome which was turned 4-6-3. At the end of that mess, the Yankees trailed 3-1.

The next scoring came in the bottom of the 4th. Jim Thome followed a 1 out Iguchi single with a home run, making the score 5-1, White Sox. No one would score until the bottom of the 7th when Paul Konerko hit a solo shot off of Chris Britton, which was the only run he allowed in 3 innings of work. Yankees down 6-1 headed into the top of the 9th.

We didn't go quietly, anyway. Posada started off by fouling out, but Matsui followed with a double. Cano walked. With 1st and 2nd and 1 out, Josh Phelps got his first hit of the night, a single to right center, scoring Matsui and moving Cano to 3rd. 6-2, White Sox. Cairo ran for Phelps and Melky hit a sac fly to center which allowed Cano to score. 6-3, White Sox. Cairo took second with Damon next up. Damon hit a weak grounder to the second baseman with 2 strikes, but ran hard, putting pressure on Iguchi who made his second error of the day, a throwing error. This allowed Cairo to score, making it 6-4, White Sox.

The Captain came up with 2 outs and Damon on first, but there would be no magic tonight and Jeter grounded to shortstop and was thrown out to end it.

Matsui and Cano each had 2 hits - Cano was 2 for 2 with 2 walks. Don't look now, but Bobby is 7 for 14 with 4 doubles, 3 runs, 1 RBI and 5 walks in his last 4 games. Mike Myers threw a scoreless 1 and 2/3 at the end. Tomorrow, it'll be Tyler Clippard (2-1, 4.20 ERA) vs. Mark Buehrle (2-2, 3.66) at 8:11 ET.

Former Yankee Clete Boyer has died. Our thoughts are with those close to him.

This is my weekly recap of the performance of the YanksBlog.com teams in the Yankees Bloggers Fantasy Baseball League.

Last Week

After it was all said and done, James and Dave (Pride of the Yankees) ended up all square at 5. Dave took 4 out of 5 offensive categories and James took 4 out of 5 pitching categories. Offensively, Dave was led by Vladdy Guerrero who hit .423 with 2 home runs, 5 runs and 8 RBI. Brad Hawpe also hit .438. James was led by Manny Ramirez (4 runs, 1 home run, 2 RBI, .455 average) and Gary Matthews, Jr. (2 runs, 1 home run, 7 RBI, 2 stolen bases, .261 average). Neither pitching staff was particularly impressive with a 4.60 ERA and 1.40 WHIP winning out. On Dave's side, Dan Haren, Dontrelle Willis and Jason Isringhausen had wins. His lone save came from Solomon Torres. Meanwhile, James' lone win came from Brad Penny, who chipped in 8 K's. Ted Lilly struck out 9. Valverde led the staff with 2 saves while Billy Wagner and Jenks each had 1.

Like James and Dave, I tied 5-5 with Joseph (River Ave. Blues). The categories were pretty mixed with me taking runs, home runs, stolen bases, saves and strikeouts and Joseph taking RBI, average, wins, ERA and WHIP. RBI were as close as it gets with Joseph topping me by 1 - 42 to 41. My offense was led by Dan Uggla (.385 AVG, 7 R, 3 HR, 7 RBI) while Joseph was led by Victor Martinez's 4 R, 4 HR, 11 RBI, .346 AVG performance. Scott Rolen hit .538, as well with David Ortiz (.412) and Aaron Hill (.409) hitting over .400. I had 1 win (Barry Zito) and 3 saves (2 for Mo, 1 for Dotel). Joseph had 3 wins (Harang, Bedard and James Shields) and 1 save (Jonathan Papelbon). Freddy Garcia pitched in 14 K's on my side.

Finally, Seamus lost to Ben (River Ave. Blues), 6-4. All 4 of Seamus' wins came on the offensive side with Ben sweeping pitching. Ben's O was led by Pudge Rodriguez, who hit .440 with 6 runs, 1 HR and 6 RBI. Seamus' offense was carried by Sheff, who scored 11 runs, hit 4 homers, drove in 9, stole 2 bases and hit .345. Eric Byrnes (8 R, 3 HR, 3 RBI, 1 SB, .400 AVG) also had a big week. Ben had 3 wins (Lackey, Sabathia, Chris Young) and 2 saves (Wickman). Seamus had 2 wins (Brandon Webb, Ervin Santana) and 0 saves. Santana came up with 12 K's.

Top 3 teams in the league:

1. Mike (River Ave. Blues) (56-31-3)
2. Ben (47-41-2)
3. James (46-41-3)

This Week

James (3rd, 46-41-3) vs. Joseph (7th, 41-44-5).

Patrick (9th, 36-48-6) vs. Ben (2nd, 47-41-2).

Seamus (10th, 34-51-5) vs. Jen (NoSenseWorrying.com) (8th, 37-46-7).

Last night's win against the Red Sox was sweet and who knows, after many bad losses and quite a few stops and starts, maybe this team is finally going to get going. Anything's possible, right? Still, even after last night, the record stands at 24-30 after 54 games, which is exactly 1/3rd of the season.

To get to 95 wins, the Yankees will have to go 71-37, a winning percentage of .657. Know how many teams had a winning percentage like that through the first 54 games? 1...Boston.

To get to 91 wins, the Yankees will have to go 67-41, a winning percentage of .620. That bumps up the total teams who've played at that clip to 3; Boston, Cleveland and the Mets. The LAAngels come close too at .611.

Here's something else that I noticed. They've got 108 games left against 17 total teams but there's a significant number of games left against teams that at the beginning of the season, you would expect the Yankees to beat up on: 15 against Baltimore (.474), 14 against Toronto (.482) , 14 against Tampa Bay (.426) and 10 against Kansas City (.368). That's 53 games - and if the Yankees take all those series (a .667 winning %), they'll be at 59 wins over 107 games (.551). That would certainly make getting to the playoffs easier...now they just have to win the games.

Ian Kennedy has been promoted to AA Trenton. It's too bad they don't have many position prospects to make that Trenton lineup a little more interesting.


With one or two more good starts, I'm sure Joba will be right behind him.

A couple of pitching notes. Pettitte exited with back issues last night, but expects to be ready for his next start.


Apparently due to Doug going down, the Yankees will not pitch Igawa today, but DeSalvo.

We talked about the New York/Boston media game played in May in New York. They played one in Boston yesterday and they lost, 14-7. Peter Abraham, Tyler Kepner and Bryan Hoch have their thoughts. Apparently, they almost had a brawl of sorts.

Don Mattingly, on Johnny Damon not playing first base in the near future, according to Peter Abraham.

Peter Abraham reports that Mientkiewicz will miss at least 6-8 weeks. It looks like Andy Phillips may be promoted.

A-Rod homered off of Boston ace closer Jonathan Papelbon to put the Yankees ahead 6-5. The long ball came with two outs in the top of the ninth and two strikes on him.

The Yankees had jumped out to an early 1-0 lead on a base hit up the middle from Josh Phelps. They added three more runs off of undefeated Josh Beckett to extend the lead to 4-0. A-Rod got an RBI on an infield single and another run scored on the same play due to a throwing error. Posada extended the lead to 4-0 and the Yankees for a while were cruising.

Pettite's back stiffended and the Bosox came all the way back with a five spot. Pedroia hit a two run double and Ortiz hit a liner to right which got past Abreu for another run and Ortiz ended up on third. He would eventually score the go ahead run on a sacrifice fly.

The Yankees bullpen pitched well and the Yankees were able to tie the game late on a single from Matsui and a triple from Robinson Cano. Cano was left stranded on third, despite being there with no outs.

Vizcaino, Bruney and company held the Red Sox in check and A-Rod hit the big bomb off Papelbon in the ninth to take the lead. Mariano Rivera was able to go through the heart of the Red Sox order to save the game.

Marcellus Wallace once said:
"Pride only hurts, it never helps."

This morning, I must disagree. The Yankees demonstrated pride last weekend. They fought through NFL tactics on the basepaths, concussions and even multiple appearances by Luis Vizcaino.

For one weekend, they played like the team we expected. I know I'm obligated to throw in the usual caveats about being under .500, 12.5 games back, etc.

Forget about all of that...it is an undeniably good morning to be a Yankees fan.

ESPN reports that Randy Hendricks (Roger Clemens' agent) said, in a radio interview, that Clemens is looking to pitch on Saturday against the Pirates. We'll see if it happens.

I'm sure that a lot of people are aware of this (the first video posted was January 15), but I wasn't, so I wanted to mention it. YES Network has a YouTube Channel. Mostly, they post postgame stuff, but they do have other features, as well. Worth subscribing to, I think, especially for those that keep up with the Yanks over the internet.

Joseph points to MLB Trade Rumors which cites Ken Rosenthal as saying that the White Sox were thinking about a Dye for Abreu deal about 10 days ago. Dye is a couple of months older and, according to Cot's, is in the final year of his deal and is being paid $6.75 million this season. Both players are obviously slumping something awful (see their numbers this season below), but it's probably something to consider.

 NAME    G  AB  R  H 2B 3B HR RBI SB CS BB SO   BA  OBP  SLG
+------+--+---+--+--+--+--+--+---+--+--+--+--+----+----+----+
 Dye    49 187 23 43  9  0 10  29  1  1 15 43 .230 .290 .439
 Abreu  53 205 34 49  8  0  2  22  8  3 26 44 .239 .325 .307

Thoughts?

From BostonHerald.com:


Hernandez has a career record of 25-33 to go along with a 5.38 ERA. He was 0-3 with a 3.06 ERA at Pawtucket so far this year. I don't see where he'd fit on the major league roster (unless things go really, really bad... like, worse then they are now... try not to think about it), but if he's cheap... what's another arm in the minors, I guess.

Maybe we're interested in him so that he can tell us all the Red Sox secrets?

George King:


Via ESPN.

From the official site:


Brett Nycz says that we'll be without him for 9-12 weeks.

Yesterday afternoon, the Yankees played yet another close game with Boston before completely breaking down in the 7th inning to seal the the defeat.

Any worries that Schilling would continue the fine form he showed against Cleveland last week were dispelled as Melky curved a line drive around the Pesky pole for the game's first run, 1-0.

A 30 minute rain delay interrupted a rough bottom 4th for Mussina which saw the Red Sox take the lead 3-1. Schilling fared no better in the 6th, when Jorge blasted in Alex and Hideki in with a 390 foot HR to right-center. Cabrera then doubled and Minky drove him home, 5-3 good guys.

Mussina ran out of fuel in the 6th as well, as HR's by Lowell and Varitek tied the score 5-5. Then the horrible 7th...

... the top 7th was fantastic, seeing the Yankees take the lead 6-5 on a Jeter solo shot over the green abomination. The bottom of the 7th was marred by poor play in the field by Abreu, Cano and Jeter, who had two errors in the frame. Throw in poor pitching by Proctor and Bruney and you have 5 runs for Boston and a 10-6 lead.

Mike Lowell had a good day offensively, and he had two interesting plays on the base paths. 1) He unloaded an NHL-style body check on Cano who somehow succeeded in tagging him out and throwing to first for a DP as he was tumbling to the ground. 2) Lowell also kneed Mientkiewicz in the head on a close play at first, causing multiple injuries including a concussion and a broken wrist.

I'm of the take no quarter/give no quarter school. Collisions happen in baseball... but make no mistake, sooner or later, what comes around goes around.

The Red Sox got one more run in the bottom 8th for the final 11-6 tally.

As difficult as yesterday's game was, the Yankees have the stalwart Pettitte going tonight. If they win, they'll have taken 3 of the last 4 games and will actually have a foundation to build on as they climb back to .500 and hopefully well beyond.

During the game on Fox, they just said that a story was making rounds around the press box - the New York Times is reporting that Clemens will not pitch Monday due to soreness in his groin. Kei Igawa will apparently make the start.

Update: They just said that he could miss up to 2 weeks.

I'm watching the Yankees game (well, in the background, anyway) and Ken Rosenthal was just on there saying that Proctor will not be suspended or fined. I have kind of a hard time believing it was intentional, so I think it was a pretty good call. But, apparently, some of the Red Sox are upset.

ESPN.com has Torre and Cashman's take on A-Rod's yell.

Before yesterday night's game, reliever Chris Britton was brought back up from the minors with Matt DeSalvo being demoted. But, Britton isn't here to stay and will be sent back down to make room for Clemens on Monday.

Via noMaas.org.

Yeah, I'm making fun of this whole thing a little bit. The truth is, though, if you are going to bring up the original gossipy story as I did, you also need to bring up this story (with picture):


I'd like to hope that this would be the end of that plot line. But, I know better.

Via Tony Gicas.

From the AP:


While rounding the bases on a home run? Life happens, I guess.

Edit: Kevin Thompson has been promoted.

Via Yahoo! via KFFL.