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Coming into the season, I didn’t think the Angels had the offense to leave their division in the dust the way they did last year when they greatly overachieved relative to their run differential. Thus far, however, the offense has been there, but the pitching hasn’t, and poor team defense (hello Bobby Abreu) isn’t helping. Or so it would appear.

Only two Angels starters have made their full slate of starts this year. Of those two, Jered Weaver, who starts Saturday’s game on FOX, has been excellent, but Joe Sanders, who starts tonight, has been no better than average, adding a run to his ERA of a year ago, seeing his walks and strikeouts converge, and allowing a league-leading 20 homers in just 17 starts.

After starting the season on the DL, John Lackey, who starts Sunday, has gone 3-4 with a 5.18 ERA in 11 starts. His poor performance can be traced to a .353 opponents’ average on balls in play, which would seem to be attributable to that poor team defense. Ervin Santana has been on and off the DL all year and has a dismal 1-5 record to go with his alarming 7.81 ERA. Again, one looks to the defense as Santana sports an absurd .385 BABIP.

So who are the culprits in the field? That’s hard to figure. Going position-by-position, the Angels are rarely more than a tick below average anywhere on the field. Torii Hunter’s not as good as he used to be, but Bobby Abreu’s not nearly as bad as he was for the Yankees last year. Juan Rivera, another former Yankee, who has rebounded from nearly two seasons lost to a broken leg with a strong showing at the plate, has actually been a significant plus in the pastures. The middle infield grades out to about average, and better than that when Howie Kendrick plays, and the corners have been solid.

Gary Matthews Jr. has been awful on both sides of the ball, but most of his playing time came in the outifeld before Lackey and Santana returned from their initial DL stays; it’s hard to imagine a scenario in which he alone could be blamed for their struggles. So maybe it’s not team defense that is the problem. Maybe Lackey and Santana are just all kinds of hittable right now. Either way, it’s bad news for the Halos, who are struggling to stay atop their division and enter this final series before the All-Star break a half-game behind the Rangers in the AL West and four-games out of the Wild Card race.

More bad news hit Anaheim today as both Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero hit the DL. Guerrero, who might be the oldest 34-year-old in baseball, is on the shelf for the second time this season. Meanwhile, Hunter’s replacement in center will be none other than Matthews, the team’s $50 million mistake.

Tonight the Yankees face lefty Joe Saunders, who has allowed 14 runs in nine innings over his last two starts. Saunders has really been hit or miss all season, with his two worst starts coming against the Rangers in Arlington (seven of the 20 home runs he’s allowed came in those two starts). At home, he’s posted a 3.43 ERA, though he was touched up by the Orioles at home his last time out. In addition to the Rangers, Saunders has been particularly susceptible to right-handed hitters, who are slugging .505 against him. That’s good news for the heart of the Yankee order.

He’ll face Joba Chamberlain, who got an ego check his last time out when he allowed eight runs in 3 2/3 innings. Joba’s been a bit obstinate about his performances thus far this season, often giving too much credit to the opposing lineup as well as to his own ability to make good pitches, when in reality he’s been inefficient, nibbly, and his velocity has lacked consistency. He’s still been valuable, but his lack of progress is becoming disturbing. Part of me almost wants him to get his ass handed to him tonight so he has to ugly outings staring him in the face through the All-Star break. The hope being that might put a crack in some of his delusions.

Mark Melancon rejoins the bullpen tonight with Jonathan Albaladejo getting optioned out despite his fine work in yesterday’s game. Derek Jeter gets a half-day off at DH with Cody Ransom, who drove in a pair of runs yesterday, playing shortstop against the lefty Saunders. Nick Swisher bats fifth ahead of Robinson Cano. Melky’s in center, and Jose Molina makes his first appearance since being activated, catching Chamberlain and giving us a chance to see just how much Francisco Cervelli and Ramiro Peña really are going to be missed in the short term.

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As much as I value baseball’s history, from landmark moments such as Jackie Robinson breaking the color barrier all the way down to tacky embarassments such as the White Sox’s short pants and Ten-Cent Beer Night, I’m glad the Yankees have played their last game at Minnesota’s Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome. It’s not that the Yankees didn’t do well there, they finished with a 77-64 (.546) record in the dome and went 4-0 there in the playoffs. It’s not that the place was devoid of history; it hosted two World Series Game Sevens, including the legendary extra-inning Game 7 in 1991, as well as an ALCS, three ALDS, an All-Star Game, Dave Winfield’s 3,000th hit, all of Kirby Puckett’s Hall of Fame career, three Cy Young seasons (by Johan Santana and Frank Viola), and a pair of Rookie of the Year campaigns (Chuck Knoblauch and, uh, Marty Cordova). The problem wasn’t what took place there, it was the place itself. Baseball simply wasn’t meant to be played indoors, on artificial surface, under a baseball-colored roof that disguised fly balls, in front of huge air conditioning vents that mysteriously blew harder when the home team was batting, with a oversized Hefty bag for an outfield wall.

Next year, the Twins will be playing outdoors, on grass, in an actual ballpark rather than a multi-purpose dome. Had that been the case on Thursday, the game would have taken place on a lovely, warm, sunny afternoon. Instead it took place inside under gloomy artificial light. Not that it cast much of a gloom over the Yankees dominance of the Twins.

With Chien-Ming Wang on the disabled list, Joe Girardi tabbed Alfredo Aceves to start on Thursday, but saddled him with a 65-pitch limit that gave him no room for error. Unfortunately, error showed up in the second, when Jason Kubel led off with a homer to dead center and throwing errors by Aceves himself and Cody Ransom, starting at third base, plated a subsequent walk to Mike Cuddyer. Aceves got into trouble again in the fourth when Cuddyer connected for a one-out double which was followed by a Brian Buscher single. Aceves then hit Mike Redmond with pitch number 65, putting him at his limit and handing a bases-loaded situation over to the team’s middle relievers.

Girardi called on rookie David Robertson to get out of Aceves’s jam despite the fact that Robertson has the highest walk rate of any of the men in the Yankee pen. Robertson got the second out by striking out Nick Punto with a 3-2 fastball, but then walked Denard Span and the woeful Matt Tolbert to force in a pair of runs before getting Joe Mauer to groundout on a curveball.

Fortunately, the Yankees had already scored five runs off Nelson Liriano by then, the first two of which came without the benefit of a hit in the second inning. That frame began with a walk and a steal by Alex Rodriguez, a pitch that hit Jorge Posada’s foot, an error by Tolbert that loaded the bases, a walk to Ransom, and a RBI groundout by Brett Gardner. Derek Jeter then drove in the third run with the Yankees’ first hit of the game.

With the Yankees clinging to a one-run lead in the fifth, Mark Teixeira, who set a personal record with his 95th homerless at-bat in the third, broke the streak with a solo shot to left. Robertson then returned to strikeout Justin Morneau, but after a walk to Jason Kubel, Girardi got fed up and called on Jonathan Albaladejo who combined with the Phils and Mariano Rivera to shut the Twins out the rest of the way to preserve the 6-4 win.

The win completed the Yankees’ dominance of the Twins this season. After winning four games against them in May by a total of just five runs, they outscored them 20-9 in these three games and never trailed in Thursday’s finale, sweeping the season series in the process. I didn’t much like the Metrodome, but it gave the Yankees a very fond farewell.

Barring a moderately unlikely post-season matchup against the Twins, the Yankees will play their last game at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome this afternoon. The first came back on May 28, 1982, when Ron Guidry matched up against a similarly diminutive and mustachioed righty named Bobby Castillo.

Giving early credence to the new stadium’s “Homer Dome” nickname, the two starters combined to give up seven home runs as the lead changed hands four times in the first six innings. Rookie third baseman Gary Gaetti, future Yankee Gary Ward, and rookie right-fielder Tom Brunansky (twice) all connected for solo shots off Gator. Lou Piniella, Oscar Gamble, and Roy Smalley, who had been acquired from Minnesota for reliever Ron Davis and shortstop Greg Gagne that April, went deep off Castillo.

With the game knotted at 4-4, Gaetti led off the top of the seventh with a double, prompting Yankee manager Gene Michael to go to his bullpen. George Frazier, the 1981 World Series goat, retired the next three batters, stranding Gaetti, after which the Yankees pushed across a fifth run in the top of the eighth on an Oscar Gamble triple that bounced Castillo and a two-out RBI single by Bobby Murcer.

With a 5-4 lead, Michael went straight to Goose Gossage in the eighth, but Goose blew the save, starting with a lead-off walk to Larry Milbourne, who had been traded from the Yankees to the Twins earlier that month in the deal that netted catcher Butch Wynegar. Milbourne was singled to third by Brunansky and scored on a sac fly by pinch-hitter Randy Johnson (not that one, or even the other one, this one).

In the ninth, Twins skipper Billy Gardner turned to Gossage’s former set-up man, Ron Davis, who came over in the Smalley trade the previous month. With one out, Willie Randolph and Dave Collins singled. Randolph then stole third and scored on Gamble’s subsequent single. After getting John Mayberry to fly out for the second out, Davis walked Bobby Murcer to load the bases, then gave up a back-breaking grand slam to Graig Nettles.

Given a reprieve, Gossage retired Gaetti, Ward, and Tim Laudner in order in the bottom of the ninth, punctuating a wild game with a strikeout of Laudner to give the Yankees a 10-5 win.

The loss ran the last-place Twins’ losing streak to nine games, which explained why just 18,854 showed up to see the Yankees’ first visit to the new building. Despite all that scoring, the game took just 2 hours and 29 minutes to play.

That was the first game the Yankees played in the Metrodome. The most significant were the four playoff games they won in the dome in 2003 and 2004:

2003 ALDS: After splitting the first two games in the Bronx, the Yankees win Games 3 and 4 at the Metrodome to defeat the Twins in the series. The combined score of the two games in the dome is 11-2. Jason Giambi, Bernie Williams, Hideki Matsui, and Nick Johnson all double off Johan Santana in the fourth inning of Game 4 as the Yankees score six runs and bounce Santana from the game.

2004 ALDS: Repeating the previous year’s pattern exactly, the Yankees win Games 3 and 4 at the Metrodome to defeat the Twins in the series. The Yankees enter the top of the eighth down 5-1, then score four runs to tie the game, the key hit being a game-tying three-run home run by Ruben Sierra off Juan Rincon. The game goes into the 11th inning, when Alex Rodriguez doubles, steals third, then scores on a wild pitch with what proves to be the winning run of the series.

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The Twins in a nutshell: average offense, average rotation, excellent defense and bullpen.

The offense is three-tiered, with the MVP-quality performances of Joe Mauer (.389/.465/.648) and Justin Morneau (.323/.399/.601, 21 homers, 69 RBIs) on top, the similarly alliterative Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer, Joe Crede, and, uhm, Denard Span at or above league average in the middle, and the punchless skill positions of shortstop, second base, and center field (currently occupied by Brendan Harris, Nick Punto, and Carlos Gomez, respectively) dragging things down from below.

The manner in which the Twins are punting offense at those three skill positions is a throwback to the days when teams couldn’t really expect to get much production from their middle infielders, which is to say, it’s outdated and inappropriate to competing in the DH league in 2009. The Twins are at least getting elite defense from Gomez in center and Punto at second base, but Harris is a complete dud on both sides of the ball, which underlines just how poorly Alexi Casilla (.180/.242/.225 and since demoted to the minors) and Matt Tolbert (.184/.275/.232 and benched) had to perform in order for Harris to make his way back into the lineup.

The presence of Harris in the lineup while Delmon Young rides pine behind Cuddyer, Kubel, Span, and Gomez underlines just how much the Matt Garza trade has blown up in the Twins’ faces. Young has now hit .285/.326/.392 in 204 games as a Twin and is well south of that overall mark this season. Meanwhile, Rays shortstop Jason Bartlett is headed to the All-Star Game on the strength of two and a half flukey months of hot hitting. Bartlett’s bat will come back to earth, but his glove will continue to outshine Harris’s. Meanwhile, Matt Garza helped the Rays reach the World Series last year as the ALCS MVP.

The Twins aren’t hurting for starting pitching. Their rotation of Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Nick Blackburn, Francisco Liriano, and Glen Perkins is comprised entirely of home grown pitchers 27-years-old or younger and includes two lefties (Liriano and Perkins). They have so much home-grown pitching that even their injury replacements come from the farm, as is the case with 23-year-old Anthony Swarzak, who will start for the injured Slowey on Thursday. Still, Garza was likely the best of their bunch given Liriano’s disappointing post-Tommy John performance, and while they tried to deal from that strength to correct a weakness, all they managed to do was create an additional weakness at shortstop. Young is just 23, leaving open the possibility of significant improvement, but he’s heading in the wrong direction for the Twins to hope for a way to salvage that trade.

The Johan Santana trade isn’t looking much better, though that comes as less of a surprise given the lack of bargaining power the Twins had and their rejection of superior offers from the Yankees and Red Sox. Like Young, Gomez is just 23, but he’s never shown any ability to hit in the majors. Most agreed that the Mets rushed him in 2007 due to injury-created need and that the Twins needed to give him more development time in the minors, but Gomez hasn’t spent a day in the minors since joining the organization. He might be the best defensive center fielder in baseball, but that doesn’t make up for his .250/.293/.353 line in 225 games as a Twin.

As for the three minor league right-handers included in that deal, Phil Humber was designated for assignment earlier this year, Kevin Mulvey has been solid but ordinary as a 24-year-old righty in Triple-A this year (4.17 ERA) and is trapped behind the aforementioned home grown starters, and Deolis Guerra has yet to impress in his third full-season in the Florida State League (though he is just 20).

The Yankees swept the Twins in a memorable four-game series in the Bronx in mid-May. The first three wins were all walkoffs, two of them coming in extra-innings. The difference in the entire series was five runs. Since then, the Twins have dropped two of the losing pitchers, letting the A’s claim lefty Craig Breslow off waivers and demoting Jesse Crain to Triple-A. You can bet the Twins remember that series all too well and will come out with some extra fire for this week’s three-game set in the Homer Dome.

Things kick off tonight with a battle of aces. Scott Baker doesn’t lead the twins in any major pitching category, but his 1.41 WHIP and 4.11 K/9 add up to make the 27-year-old righty their best starter despite his 4.99 ERA and .500 record. Indeed, Baker fell one inning short of his sixth-straight quality start in his last outing, but still held the Royals to one run over five inefficient frames. Over those last six starts, Baker is 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA, a 0.97 WHIP, and a 4.38 K/BB. Much to my surprise, Baker hasn’t faced the Yankees since 2006, when he beat them twice.

CC Sabathia takes the hill for the Yankees. CC’s coming off a disappointing outing in which he couldn’t locate his pitches yet still struck out eight Mariners in 5 2/3 innings. Two starts prior to that, he was pulled in the second inning due to tightness in his bicep. Otherwise, he lasted a minimum of seven innings in each of his other nine starts since May 8, going 6-1 with a 2.75 ERA in those outings and only passing 113 pitches once (tellingly in the one loss).

Francisco Cervelli catches CC yet again tonight. Brett Gardner roams center. Hideki Matsui hits fifth behind Alex Rodriguez with Nick Swisher batting sixth and Robinson Cano dropping to seventh ahead of Gardner and Cervelli.

Finally, this series marks the Yankees last trip to the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome barring an only moderately unlikely postseason matchup. Good ridance, I say. I’m happy to have the place confined to my 1987 World Series box set, bringing us one step closer to the end of Astroturf and indoor stadiums in baseball.

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John Hirschbeck’s umpiring crew got, by my count, four calls wrong in Sunday’s game. They split them between the two teams, three going against the Yankees, one against the Blue Jays, but there were moments when it seemed the actions of the players were taking place in a distinct and separate reality from the results of the plays. That didn’t matter much when the Jays were leading 7-1 on the strength of six strong innings from starter Ricky Romero and home runs from Alex Rios (a key three-run shot to the first row of the left-field box seats in the third) and John McDonald (a solo shot in the seventh, his first home run in nearly a year), or when Brian Bruney was helping the Jays add insurance runs in the top of the seventh. When the Yankees mounted a comeback that brought the final score to 7-6, however, one once again began to wonder how things might have been different had the calls been correct.

The first blown call is the one that drew the most post-game attention. After Andy Pettitte worked a 1-2-3 top of the first, Derek Jeter led off the bottom of the first with a walk, was balked to second when Romero stepped toward home on a throw to first, then tried to steal third. Catcher Rod Barajas’s throw beat Jeter to the bag, and Scott Rolen got the tag down, but Jeter, sliding head-first, made a swim move with his right hand, successfully avoiding the tag and reaching the bag before Rolen could adjust and tag his chest.

Nonetheless, third-base umpire Marty Foster called Jeter out. According to Jeter, Foster explained to him in the subsequent dispute that, “I was out because the ball beat me, and that he didn’t have to tag me. I was unaware of that change in the rules.” Baseball is a game of phantom tags and neighborhood plays, and it is often true the when a ball beats a runner, the call will go to the defense, but by telling Jeter he was out because the ball beat him, regardless of the tag, Foster was admitting that he’d blown the call. It’s no wonder, then, that Joe Girardi went out and got himself ejected just two batters into the bottom of the first.

Nick Swisher followed Girardi’s ejection with a single and moved to second on a wild pitch. Was that blown call at third the run that cost the Yankees the game?

The call that went the Yankees’ way came in the bottom of the third. With two out, Swisher hit what looked like a double to left field, but Jose Bautista, who made two great and ultimately game-changing running catches in left, played the ball perfectly and fired a strike to second base. Swisher, realizing he’d been beaten, popped out of his feat-first slide and attempted to vault over John McDonald’s tag. He was called safe, but second-base umpire Wally Bell failed to notice that McDonald tagged Swisher on the foot before Nick completed his leap. Mark Teixeira, whose 0-for-5 day was as much to blame for the Yankee loss as anything else, struck out to strand Swisher, making the blown call moot.

That blown call came on the heals of another miss by Bell in the top of the third. With one out and Aaron Hill on first, Vernon Wells hit a bouncer to the shortstop hole. Derek Jeter gloved it and made a jump throw to second base to force Hill, but Bell called Hill safe. Guess what? Hill was out by at least a foot. Andy Pettitte struck out Scott Rolen for what should have been the third out of the inning but was actually just the second. Bonus batter Alex Rios then stroked his three-run jack, giving the Jays an early 4-1 lead. Was that blown call the difference in the game?

Believe it or not, Bell blew a third call, this one coming in the bottom of the seventh. With none out, Melky Cabrera on second, and Hinske on first, both via singles, Brett Gardner hit a bouncer to second. John McDonald threw to second to initiate a double-play, but his throw sank in front of the bag, forcing Marco Scutaro to come across the bag and trap it in the dirt. The throw beat Hinske by a mile, but Scutaro was clearly well off the bag by the time he caught the throw and never went back to tag the base. Nonetheless, before Hinske could scamper over to second, Bell called him out on what I can only assume was a neighborhood call.

If Bell thought Scutaro actually had the ball and his foot on second base at the same time, he’s a worse umpire than yesterday’s game made him seem. That play left runners on the corners with one out. Derek Jeter followed with a walk, and Nick Swisher singled home both Cabrera and Gardner before Teixeira and Rodriguez struck out to strand the remaining runners. Was the run Hinske wasn’t allowed to score the difference in the game?

Down 7-1 heading into the seventh, the Yankees got scored those two runs to make it 7-3, another in the eighth to make it 7-4, then staged a two-out rally in the bottom of the ninth when Jorge Posada singled, Cano doubled, and Hideki Matsui drove them both in with a pinch-hit single to make it 7-6. That brought it back around to Hinske, who made a nice diving play in the top of the first, then homered off the right field foul-screen in the fifth. Looking to cap off his Yankee debut in style, Hinske, facing Frasor, took to 3-1, checked his swing on a 94-mile-per-hour fastball below the knee but fouled it off to run the count full, then swung through a gut-high slider to end the game. Hinske later said that the first called strike was a slider in the same spot that dropped into the zone. Expecting the same movement, he swung under the 3-2 pitch, which stayed up.

Hinske’s hero-to-goat act should have been the story of the game. Instead it was the umpiring.

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It hasn’t been pretty, or even all that encouraging given the injury to Chien-Ming Wang and Joba Chamberlain’s  first major league disaster start, but the Yankees are on the verge of sweeping this unusual wrap-around series of day games against the Blue Jays. I was going to title my series preview, “Toronto Blue Jays: You Ain’t So Tough,” but I didn’t want to jinx anything. With three games in the bag, however, I figure there’s no harm now.

Then again, if the Yankees thought they took care of the hard part by out-lasting Roy Halladay on Saturday, they likely failed to notice that this afternoon’s starter, former first-round pick Ricky Romero, enters today’s game with a 20-inning scoreless streak and a 1.91 ERA over his last six starts. Romero completed at least seven innings in five of those starts, all of the Toronto wins. In the exception, Romero lasted just 6 1/3 and the Jays lost 1-0.

Romero faces fellow lefty Andy Pettitte, who is coming off his best home start of the season, a seven-inning, two-run, 98-pitch gem against the weak-hitting Mariners. Andy beat the Blue Jays at the Rogers Centre earlier this year, but needed 106 pitches to get through six and walked four. He’ll have to do better than that to beat Romero this afternoon and deliver the sweep.

Eric Hinske makes his Yankee debut in right field today as Nick Swisher plays first and Mark Teixeira gets a half day off at DH. Hinske can’t hit lefties, so Joe Girardi has set him up to fail in his debut in front of the home crowd. Good job, Joe. Johnny Damon gets a full day off as Melky plays left, giving the Yankees a bottom three of Cabrera, Hinske, and Brett Gardner.

Michael Kay loves calling extra innings “bonus cantos,” but when they come in a regular season game that began with a compelling starting pitching matchup, they feel like anything but a bonus. Saturday afternoon’s contest between the Yankees and Blue Jays began with Chien-Ming Wang dueling Roy Halladay, but ended in the twelfth inning with Brett Tomko and Sean Camp. The Yankees won, but I still feel a little bit ripped off. Some of that feeling likely comes from the fact that, while the Yankees unexpectedly won a game started by Halladay, something they hadn’t done in six tries since Wang bested Halladay on Opening Day of last season, they may have lost Wang.

Wang pitched well for five innings yesterday, getting ten of his 15 outs on the ground. He got into a bit of trouble in the second by walking Lyle Overbay with one out, then giving up a ground-rule double to Vernon Wells and a two-RBI bouncer up the middle to Alex Rios, but killed that rally there by getting Dave Dellucci to hit into a double play. He then allowed just one more baserunner over the next three innings until Marco Scutaro led off the sixth with a double and, after an Aaron Hill groundout, Adam Lind homered to right, erasing what had been a 3-2 Yankee lead.

Wang’s next pitch sailed low and away from Scott Rolen. Jorge Posada, who immediately ran out to the mound and called out the trainer, later said Wang “didn’t throw that ball, he seemed like he kinda spotted it in there.” Wang was immediately removed from the game with what an MRI later diagnosed as a shoulder strain and bursitis. That ruined what had been a long, but seemingly fruitful comeback by Wang, who won his first game in more than a year against the Mets his last time out and entered the sixth with a lead on the great Halladay.

The Yanks got to Halladay early, scoring a run in the first on a one-out walk to Johnny Damon, a groundout that moved Damon into scoring position, and an RBI single to right field by Alex Rodriguez on which Damon just beat Raul Chavez’s tag at the plate. They then added another in the second on a solo homer by Hideki Matsui and yet another in the fourth on a lead-off homer by Posada, which gave the Yankees that 3-2 lead.

Making just his second start since returning from a groin injury, Halladay was clearly off his game. Having walked just 15 men and allowed just seven home runs all year, he issued three of each in this game and ultimately gave up five runs. David Robertson coughed up another run after Wang’s departure by walking the first two men he faced then giving up another RBI single to Alex Rios, but Halladay couldn’t hold the 5-3 lead. With his pitch count in the high-90s, he opened the seventh by giving up a single to Derek Jeter and a game-tying Yankee Stadium homer to the third row in right field to Johnny Damon.

And so it stood for the next five innings as Phil Hughes, Mariano Rivera, Phil Coke, and Brett Tomko combined for five hitless innings (two of them by Coke). The Yankees had their chances before the twelfth. Hideki Matsui hit a one-out ground-rule double off Brandon League in the eighth, but Melky Cabrera couldn’t move him over, and Brett Gardner struck out to strand him. Derek Jeter led of the bottom of the ninth by working a nine-pitch walk off Jeremy Accardo. After Damon struck out, Jeter moved to second on a fly ball to deep center by Mark Teixeira. Cito Gaston then had Accardo walk Alex Rodriguez and brought in Jesse Carlson, who got Robinson Cano to ground out to strand both runners.

Cano was nearly the goat again in the bottom of the twelfth. Teixeira led off with a double off Camp, again prompting Gaston to have Rodriguez intentionally passed. Cano was then assigned to bunt the runners up, but Camp didn’t throw him a strike, so Cano took to 3-0. One pitch away from loading the bases, Cano inexplicably bunted the 3-0 pitch (Girardi later said, “he misunderstood something”). Not only that, but he didn’t get the ball far enough away from home plate, and Teixeira, who was expecting Cano to take and was thus headed back toward second base as the ball neared the plate, was easily forced out at third.

No matter, Jorge picked his teammate up by delivering a game-winning single to center. Game over. Yankees win 6-5, take a 2-0 lead in the wrap-around series, emerged victorious from a Roy Halladay start on a beautiful Independence Day Saturday, and pulled within one game of the Red Sox, who lost to the Mariners. Just try not to think about Chien-Ming Wang’s shoulder while you’re watching things blow up in the sky tonight.

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I said my piece on the Blue Jays’ hot start on SI.com when the Yankees were in Toronto in mid-May, so let’s see how things have changed since then.

Entering their series with the Yankees on May 12, the Blue Jays were 22-12 (.647), the best record in the American League at the time. Since then, they’ve gone 20-26 (.435) and fallen back to their expected place as the fourth-best team in the AL East.

At the time, I pointed to the unexpected health of the Jays’ starting nine as one reason for their early-season success, saying “Injury seems sure to strike the offense at some point, and several of the team’s batting averages, including [Aaron] Hill’s .346, catcher Rod Barajas’ .307 and platoon left fielder/utilityman Jose Bautista’s .311 seem sure to regress.”

The starting nine has stayed healthy, but Hill has lost 45 points off his average, Barajas has shed 40 points, and Bautista has lost 57. Hill was the Jays’ best hitter in the early going, but since going 2-for-4 with a homer in the first game against the Yankees on May 12, he’s hit just .255/.294/.452. Barajas has hit .228/.267/.378 since the start of the Yankees series; Bautista .191/.353/.309.

Scott Rolen, on the other hand, is hitting like he did before his shoulder problems derailed his path to the Hall of Fame. Rolen went 6-for-11 with three doubles against the Yankees and has hit .341/.405/.508 since, though with just six homers on the season. Accordingly, Cito Gaston has moved him back to the cleanup spot after having demoted him from that spot upon taking over for John Gibbons last June. Adam Lind and Lyle Overbay have also maintained their hot starts, the latter by virtue of not having to face left-handed pitching thanks to the presence of platoon partner and Yankee killer Kevin Millar. Marco Scutaro has come back to earth a bit, but has hit a still-respectable (for a fine fielding shortstop) .290/.364/.403 since the Yankee series and still leads the league in walks (though Nick Swisher is in hot pursuit).

On the flip side, Alex Rios and rookie slugger Travis Snider weren’t hitting in mid-May, and they’re still not. Rios, another Yankee killer, still managed to go 4-for-10 with a double and a homer against the Yankees in May, but has hit just .256/.311/.421 since. Snider was demoted to Triple-A then aggravated an old back injury and has since been replaced by former Yankee David Dellucci, who was released by the Indians at the end of May and signed a minor league deal with the Tribe. Dellucci was just called up this morning.

As for the pitching, I raised red flags about the unsustainably low opponents’ batting averages on balls in play being recorded by starters Scott Richmond and Brian Tallet, and relievers Jason Frasor, Jesse Carlson, and Bill Murphy. Richmond, who starts Sunday, was bounced by Yankees in the second inning on May 13, but rebounded with seven shutout innings against the White Sox and has posted a 3.18 since his Yankee disaster. His season BABIP has actually dropped a point over that stretch. Similarly, Tallet, who starts this afternoon, has been solid with a 4.30 ERA over his last nine starts while his BABIP has also shifted just one point (up to .228).

The rotation suffered from Roy Halladay’s DL stay, but Halladay is back and will pitch on Saturday, still leading the majors with ten wins. Meanwhile, the return of former first-round pick Ricky Romero has further solidified the rotation. Romero will bring a 20-inning scoreless streak into Monday’s game and has posted a 1.91 ERA in six starts since the calendar flipped to June.

As for those relievers, Frasor’s BABIP has increased by 54 points, but that hasn’t hurt his bottom line much. Carlson’s BABIP has increased 85 points, as has shown up in his performance as he’s posted a 7.32 ERA since the start of the Yankee series. Murphy was optioned to Triple-A right after the Yankees left town.

The man Murphy made room for was B.J. Ryan, who has posted a 3.14 ERA since coming off the DL, but with more walks than strikeouts and without a single save opportunity. Those opportunities were going to Scott Downs, but he’s replaced Ryan on the DL, leaving the closing duties to Frasor and his tight-rope act and 2007 closer Jeremy Accardo, who started the year in Triple-A after a forearm injury ended his 2008 campaign prematurely.

All of that adds up to . . . well, the fourth-best team in the AL East, just like everyone thought.

A.J. Burnett faces Tallet today in the first game of an unusual, wrap-around, Independence Day weekend series in which all four games will start at 1:05pm. Burnett gave up five runs in 7 2/3 innings to his former team on May 12, but has been nails in his last three starts posting this line: 20 1/3 IP, 10 H, 2 R (1 ER), 10 BB, 26 K, 0.98 WHIP, 0.44 ERA. Amazingly, A.J. lost one of those three starts, having matched up against the ace of his other former team, Josh Johnson of the Marlins.

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After waiting nearly an hour to start Tuesday night’s game, then needing an eighth-inning rally to win it, the Yankees had it easy Wednesday night, winning a crisp, well-pitched game that was over before 9:30pm.

Andy Pettitte, who had just two quality starts in his first eight outings at the new Yankee Stadium, needed just 98 pitches to get through seven innings and walked just one man along the way. The Mariners managed just two runs against Pettitte, a leadoff double by Jose Lopez in the fourth that came around to score and a solo Yankee Stadium homer by Ken Griffey Jr. (number 621 on his career) into the box seats in right field.

The Yankees did all of their scoring with the longball, a solo shot to right by Johnny Damon in the third, a solo bomb by Melky Cabrera over the left-field foul pole in the fifth that held up upon review, and a two-run jack to dead center by Alex Rodriguez in the sixth that plated a leadoff single by Mark Teixeira to break the 2-2- tie.

Alfredo Aceves and Phil Coke combined for a 1-2-3 eighth, with Coke retiring lefties Ichiro Suzuki and Russell Branyan with ease, and that man again Mariano Rivera came on to get save 502 in the ninth on a trio of groundballs.

All that took just two hours and 17 minutes. Nice and easy and done. Yankees win their seventh straight, 4-2

Food for thought: Cabrera’s homer was his fourth of the season from the right side. It’s a tiny sample, but he was hitting .281/.359/.491 from his former weak side even before that bomb. It could be that a strict platoon between Cabrera and Brett Gardner is finally a viable option in center field.

The Yanks have won their last six games by a combined score of 45-19. Tonight they have a match-up of veteran lefties as Andy Pettitte takes on the Mariners’ Jarrod Washburn. The 34-year-old Washburn is having his best season as a Mariner and has turned in a quality start in ten of his 14 outings, including his last two against the dreggs of the NL West. The 37-year-old Pettitte has been all over the map, lasting just 3 2/3 innings his last time out in Atlanta after pitching a gem in Miami the turn before.

Joe Girardi drops Robinson Cano a spot against the lefty, puts Melky in center, and gives Alex Rodriguez a half-day off at DH with Cody Ransom drawing the start at third base. Eric Hinske is in the house and could pinch-hit for Ransom against a righty late in the game. Ramiro Peña is off to make his Triple-A debut for Scranton.

Neither Joba Chamberlain nor Brandon Morrow was particularly impressive Tuesday night, though neither got hit particularly hard either. Morrow gave up a pair of runs in the second, thanks in part to an error by replacement third baseman Chris Woodward, then allowed another run in the process of wiggling out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth. Chamberlain gave up a solo homer to light-hitting replacement shortstop Ronny Cedeño in the third, then in the fifth gave up a run to Ichiro Suzuki (who reached on an infield hit, stole second and third, and scored on a Russell Branyan single), and another when Jose Lopez (who replaced Branyan via fielder’s choice) stole second and scored on another single.

Morrow loaded the bases again in the fifth and was pulled with two outs having thrown 98 pitches. Chris Jakubauskas came on to get Hideki Matsui to ground out to end the threat. Joba was pulled with one out and a man on second after throwing 96 pitches through 5 1/3. Phil Coke came on to retire Ichiro and Branyan to strand the runner.

With both starters out, the game held at 3-3 until the bottom of the seventh. With Jakubauskas still on the hill, Johnny Damon led off by lacing a ground-rule double down the left field line, and Alex Rodriguez cashed him in with a no-doubter two-run jack into the 200 level in left field.

Phil Hughes had used just nine pitches in working a 1-2-3 seventh inning before the Rodriguez homer, but Joe Girardi, determined to restablish Brian Bruney as the eighth-inning guy, went to Bruney in the eighth to protect the two-run lead against the bottom of the Mariners’ weak-hitting order.

Here’s how that went: single, single, single (run scores), runners bunted up to second and third, intentional walk to Ichiro, sac fly (run scored game tied), groundout.

With the game tied 5-5 and Sean White on in place of Jakubauskas, Hideki Matsui, who had his family in the house, led off the bottom of the eighth with a double to the wall in the right-center-field gap. Nick Swisher then laid down a perfect bunt down the third base line and beat it out to put runners on the corners, and Melky Cabrera put the Yankees back out front with a double. Derek Jeter then cashed in both Swisher and Cabrera with a single, and Mariano Rivera got save number 501 with 11 pitches in the ninth. Yankees win, 8-5.

Mo also threw out the ceremonial first pitch in recognition of his 500th save on Sunday. He’s the baddest man alive, don’tcha know (and one cool customer).

Bruney, meanwhile, had the worst night of the 15 Yankees to get into the game, but came away with the win, again underlining the absurdity of that statistic.

Seattle Mariners

2009 Record: 39-36 (.520)
2009 Pythagorean Record: 36-39 (.480)

2008 Record: 61-101 (.377)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 67-95 (.414)

Manager: Don Wakamatsu
General Manager: Jack Zduriencik

Home Ballpark (Park Factors): Safeco Field (96/97)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

• Russell Branyan replaces Raul Ibañez
• Ken Griffey Jr. replaces Richie Sexson and Jose Vidro
• Franklin Gutierrez replaces Jeremy Reed and Willie Bloomquist
• Rob Johnson (minors) replaces Jeff Clement (minors)
• Chris Woodward is filling in for Adrian Beltre (DL)
• Ronny Cedeño is filling in for Yuniesky Betancourt (DL)
• Mike Sweeney replaces Bryan LaHair (minors)
• Josh Wilson replaces Miguel Cairo
• Mike Carp replaces Willie Bloomquist
• Ryan Langerhans replaces Brad Wilkerson and others
• Garrett Olson is filling in for Erik Bedard (DL)
• Jason Vargas is filling in for Carlos Silva (DL)
• Brandon Morrow is taking over the starts of Ryan Feierabend (DL) and R.A. Dickey
• David Aardsma replaces J.J. Putz
• Sean White replaces Sean Green
• Chris Jakubauskas replaces Rowland-Smith’s relief innings

25-man Roster:

1B – Russell Branyan (L)
2B – Jose Lopez (R)
SS – Ronny Cedeño (R)
3B – Chris Woodward (R)
C – Kenji Johjima (R)
RF – Ichiro Suzuki (L)
CF – Franklin Gutierrez (R)
LF – Wladimir Balentien (R)
DH – Ken Griffey Jr. (L)

Bench:

R – Mike Sweeney (1B)
R – Josh Wilson (IF)
L – Mike Carp (1B/OF)
L – Ryan Langerhans (OF)
R – Rob Johnson (C)

Rotation:

R – Felix Hernandez
L – Garrett Olson
R – Brandon Morrow
L – Jarrod Washburn
L – Jason Vargas

Bullpen:

R – David Aardsma
R – Mark Lowe
R – Miguel Batista
R – Sean White
R – Chris Jakubauskas
R – Roy Corcoran

15-day DL: 3B – Adrian Beltre (bone spurs in shoulder), SS – Yuniesky Betancourt (hamstring), LHP – Erik Bedard (shoulder inflammation), RHP – Shawn Kelley (oblique strain)

60-day DL: LF – Endy Chavez (ACL), RHP – Carlos Silva (labrum, rotator cuff), LHP Cesar Jimenez (shoulder and biceps tendonitis), LHP – Ryan Feierabend (TJ)

Typical Lineup:

L – Ichiro Suzuki (RF)
L – Russell Branyan (1B)
L – Ken Griffey Jr. (DH)
R – Jose Lopez (2B)
R – Franklin Gutierrez (CF)
R – Kenji Johjima (C)
R – Wladimir Balentein (LF)
R – Ronny Cedeño (SS)
R – Chris Woodward (3B)

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The Yankees acquired a left-handed bench bat today, picking up 2002 Rookie of the Year Eric Hinske from the Pirates for minor leaguers Casey Erickson and Eric Fryer. The move comes on the same day that Xavier Nady is visiting Dr. Lewis Yocum to determine if he does indeed need a second Tommy John surgery.

Hinske is a decent addition to the bench, but before we get to how he fits on the team, lets take a quick look at what the Yankees gave up to get him.

Eric Fryer was the catcher/outfielder obtained from the Brewers for lefty Chase Wright. A tenth-round pick out of Ohio State in 2007, the righty-hitting Fryer, now 23, was hitting .250/.333/.344 with 11 steals in 16 attempts for High-A Tampa, spending most of his time in left field. This is just his third professional season

Pitcher Casey Erickson is also right-handed, 23, and a former tenth-round pick (the Yankees’ in 2006). He’s bounced between starting and relieving in his brief professional career. Though he made a strong showing in short-season Staten Island’s rotation last year (2.76 ERA, 4.6 K/BB), he has pitched primarily in relief for Charleston of the Sally League this year. A groundballer in his first full-season in a full-season league at age 23, he’s nothing special, particularly in the Yankees’ pitching-rich organization.

That’s not much to lose, a pair of 23-year-old A-ballers with very little projection, one a mid-round draft pick and another the bounty for a player who had been designated for assignment. That’s certainly a price worth paying for an immediate upgrade to the major league team’s 25-man roster.

So, is Hinske an upgrade? An if so, how much of one? That partially depends on who he replaces on the roster, which we likely won’t know until just before game time tonight. Here’s my guess.

With Jose Molina set to return from his quad strain, the Yankees are likely on the verge of sending both Francisco Cervelli and Ramiro Peña down to Triple-A to get regular playing time. Cervelli and Peña are both 23, and neither has played a game at Triple-A. Cervelli may yet prove to be a viable starting catcher in the major leagues, but will need more development time to achieve that potential. Peña still seems more like a reserve infielder to me, but the Yankees will never find out if he could be more without letting him play every day at Triple-A.

As much of a revelation as Cervelli has been, he’s still only hitting a Molina-like .269/.290/.343 and has made just eight starts in the last month. Peña’s line is a near match at .267/.308/.349, and he’s started just five games in the last month. In Peña’s case, that line is simultaneously impressively and alarmingly close to his career minor league line of .258/.316/.319.

Replacing Peña, Hinske will be a clear upgrade at the plate. He arrives in New York hitting .255/.373/.368 on the season and is coming off  a season in which he hit 20 home runs for the AL Champion Rays. Hinske’s worst major league season came for the Red Sox in 2007, and even that .204/.317/.398 would be an upgrade on Peña, as would Hinske’s career line of .254/.337/.436. The one catch is that the left-handed Hinske flat-out cannot hit left-handed pitching (.221/.298/.363 career), though even that line rivals what Peña has done at the plate in the major leagues. The flip side of that split, of course, is that Hinske’s career line against right-handed pitching  is a solidly league-average .264/.347/.456.

The acquisition of Hinske is above all else a smart solution to the Yankees’ need to have an extra infielder on hand to back up Alex Rodriguez. Hinske isn’t a great defender, but he can play the four corners (third, first, left and right) well enough to spot start against right-handed pitching. Though he’s played just 21 games at third base over the last four seasons, only 11 of which have been starts, he hasn’t made an error in any of them.

Playing for his fourth AL East team, Hinske is familiar with the pitchers in the league and the division and unlikely to suffer from a return to the harder league, where he spent his entire career prior to this year. The only real complaint I have about the move is that Hinske is left-handed. Yes, pairing the lefty-swinging Hinske with the right-handed Cody Ransom will allow Joe Girardi to play matchups at third base on Rodriguez’s weekly days off, but the only other exclusively right-handed hitters on the team are Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, leaving Hinske little value as a pinch-hitter when Ransom’s not in the game. A right-handed bench bat could be used to hit for Brett Gardner or Hideki Matsui against a tough lefty. I suppose Hinske could also hit for Molina after his return, but since such a move would require inserting Jorge Posada for defense, there’s no reason not to simply use Posada’s superior bat in those circumstances.

Nonetheless, Hinske is a valuable and versitile reserve. He’s also been on the last two American League pennant winners. Here’s hoping he extends that streak with the Yankees.

Stealing home seems to be the hot throwback play this year. It happened twice yesterday, and Ted Keith has an article on the phenomenon over at SI.com, pegged to Jacoby Ellsbury’s swipe against Andy Pettitte earlier this season.

I have a complimentary piece up that lists the top-10 steals of home of all time, including one by Mr. October in October, and one by the Yankees against Boston 105 years before Ellsbury finally turned the tables.

Dig it.

The Yankees beat the Mets handily by a 9-1 tally last night. CC Sabathia was perfect through four before giving up a solo homer to Gary Sheffield leading off the fifth for the Mets’ only run of the game. After two more singles that inning, one of which didn’t leave the infield, he was perfect in the sixth and seventh as well. Sabathia showed no lingering effects of the sore bicep that bounced him from his last start, striking out eight against no walks.

While Sabathia was in the game, the Yanks sat tight with the four runs they picked up against Mike Pelfrey in the top of the second. That inning got started when Melky hit a tapper toward third base that David Wright charged and threw past Nick Evans at first base, allowing Melky to go to second on the error. After Francisco Cervelli struck out, Ramiro Peña shot a double over Wright toward the left-field line that plated Melky. CC Sabathia then singled up the middle, plating Peña. Brett Gardner, who led off the game with a single, hit a blooper to shallow left to move the lumbering Sabathia to second. Johnny Damon then hit a would-be double play ball to short, but Alex Cora side-armed his throw and flinged the ball into shallow right sending CC home, Gardner to third, and Damon to second. Mark Teixeira then grounded to Evans at first, but Evans flat-out dropped the ball as he went to step on the bag allowing the hustling Teixeira to reach and Gardner to score.

For those not keeping track, that was four runs on three errors and just three balls hit out of the infield, none which got past the outfielders. Wright’s error was on a tough play, but Cora’s was inexcusable, and Evans’ was something out of The Bad News Bears, as was the entire inning by that point.

Later, in the top of the eighth, reliever Rob Parnell balked Robinson Cano to second by dropping the ball as he brought his hands together before his windup, then sent him to third on a wild pitch. Cano didn’t score, but he didn’t have to. Elmer Dessens had already inflated the score to 7-1 by giving up Brett Gardner’s third major league homer, walking Teixeira, then giving up an opposite-field bomb to the rejuvinated Alex Rodriguez (who also walked three times in the game). It was that kind of game for the Mets, but then what else could they expect from running out the 38-year-old Dessens.

In the ninth, Gardner, who was moved to leadoff spot at the last minute when Derek Jeter was scratched due to the flu, capped off a five-hit night with an RBI triple, then scored on Johnny Damon’s subsequent double. Gardner’s now hitting .303/.374/.441 on the season.

So much for the team-wide hitting slump. Since averaging three runs per game against the Nationals and Marlins and being shutout in their first game in Atlanta, the Yankees have scored 28 runs in three games. Alex Rodriguez is 5-for-10 with two homers, eight RBIs, five walks, and just one strikeout since getting his overdue days off. With Gardner and Peña going a combined 8-for-11, the Yankees scored nine runs last night without Jeter, Jorge Posada (who got the night off after Thursday night’s marathon in Hotlanta), or a DH.

Special bonus factoid: in their three wins against the Mets this season, the Yankees have scored 33 runs, four of which have been unearned.

The Yankees were lucky to take two of three from the Mets two weekends ago. Literally. Only Luis Castillo dropping a pop up in the first game—one of the flukiest plays I’ve ever seen giving the fact that it turned the last out of a Mets win into the last play of a Yankee win in the course of the ball falling six feet to the ground—prevented the Mets from winning that series.

Since then, the Mets have gone 5-5 and added Carlos Beltran to their list of key players on the DL (along with Jose Reyes, Carlos Delgado, John Maine, Oliver Perez and J.J. Putz). That means more major league exposure for 20-year-old top prospect Fernando Martinez, who enters the series on an 0-for-14 bender and is hitting .167 on the season. It ain’t pretty, but it should make Mets fans appreciate the .336/.425/.527 line Beltran put up before hitting the DL.

Tonight the Mets send 25-year-old sophomore groundballer Mike Pelfrey to the hill tonight. Pelfrey had a great run of seven starts from late April through the end of May in which he posted a 2.96 ERA while the Mets went 6-1, but he’s been unimpressive since, even tossing out his stinker against the Pirates on June 4.

The Yankees counter with CC Sabathai, who left his last start in the second inning with discomfort in his left bicep, but has reported no further problems since. The injury interrupted a streak of eight-straight games in which he completed seven innings. Sabathia was 6-1 with a 2.92 ERA over that stretch. The Yankees noticed Sabathia was hurting his last time out because he wasn’t finishing his pitches and was leaving everything up. Look out for that in the early going today.

Melky Cabrera, who missed yesterday’s game with the flu, is in right field tonight as Nick Swisher takes a seat. Brett Gardner, who has hit .342/.432/.513 since May 13, seems to be winning the center field job back. Francisco Cervelli, who hit his first major league homer on Wednesday night, will catch Sabathia for the seventh time this season.

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The man was complicated and disturbed, but the talent was a clear and bright and breathtaking. Here are a few of the highlights via youtube:

And since those are all lip-synced, here’s a live clip of a great song. Sadly, you can see him descended into self-parody as the performance progresses.

The destruction of the vibrant performer in the first four clips was complete soon after.

The last two decades of his life are best forgotten, but the music and the moves from his first 15 years at the top of the pops remain unassailable and a fundamental part of my musical and physical vocabulary. I know there are at least two entire generations that feel the same way.

Atlanta Braves

2009 Record: 33-36 (.478)
2009 Pythagorean Record: 33-36 (.478)

2008 Record: 72-90 (.444)
2008 Pythagorean Record: 79-83 (.488)

Manager: Bobby Cox
General Manager: Frank Wren

Home Ballpark (Park Factors): Turner Field (99/99)

Who’s Replacing Whom:

• Casey Kotchman replaces Mark Teixeira
• Nate McLouth replaces Mark Kotsay
• Garret Anderson replaces most of Gregor Blanco (bench)
• Matt Diaz reclaims playing time from Josh Anderson
• Diory Hernandez is filling in for Omar Infante (DL)
• David Ross replaces Corky Miller, Clint Sammons (minors), and Brayan Peña
• Derek Lowe replaces Tom Glavine and Mike Hampton
• Javier Vazquez replaces Tim Hudson (DL) and Chuck James
• Kenshin Kawakami replaces Jorge Campillo (DL) and James Parr (minors)
• Tommy Hanson replaces Jo-Jo Reyes (DL) and John Smoltz
• Eric O’Flaherty replaces Will Ohman
• Mike Gonzalez reclaims his innings from Vladimir Nuñez
• Rafael Soriano reclaims his innings from Julian Tavarez and Jorge Julio
• Peter Moylan reclaims his innings from Blaine Boyer
• Kris Medlen is filling in for Buddy Carlyle (DL)

25-man Roster:

1B – Casey Kotchman (L)
2B – Kelly Johnson (L)
SS – Yunel Escobar (R)
3B – Chipper Jones (S)
C – Brian McCann (L)
RF – Jeff Francoeur (R)
CF – Nate McLouth (L)
LF – Garret Anderson (L)

Bench:

R – Matt Diaz (LF)
R – Martin Prado (UT)
L – Gregor Blanco (CF)
R -Diory Hernandez (IF)
R – David Ross (C)

Rotation:

R – Derek Lowe
R – Jair Jurrjens
R – Javier Vazquez
R – Tommy Hanson
R – Kenshin Kawakami

Bullpen:

L – Mike Gonzalez
R – Rafael Soriano
R – Jeff Bennett
L – Eric O’Flaherty
R – Peter Moylan
R – Manny Acosta
R – Kris Medlen

15-day DL: PH – Greg Norton (hamstring), UT – Omar Infante (broken hand), LHP – Jo-Jo Reyes (hamstring), RHP – Buddy Carlyle (upper back strain/Type-1 diabetes)

60-day DL: RHP – Tim Hudson (TJ), RHP – Jorge Campillo (shoulder tendonitis)

Typical Lineup:

L – Nate McLouth (CF)
R – Yunel Escobar (SS)
S – Chipper Jones (3B)
L – Brian McCann (C)
L – Garret Anderson (LF)
L – Casey Kotchman (1B)
R – Jeff Francoeur (RF)
L – Kelly Johnson (2B)

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Here’s last night’s game in a nutshell: Both starting pitchers were excellent, both gave up an run following a defensive miscue, but A.J. Burnett also allowed a solo homer; Fish win 2-1.

A.J. Burnett struck out eight men in 6 1/2 innings, but he also grooved a fastball to Dan Uggla in the bottom of the second, and Uggla hit it over the center field fence. Burnett didn’t walk a man until the sixth, when he issued a four-pitch pass to speedy out-maker Emilio Bonifacio to start the inning. Given a reprieve when Jorge Posada threw Bonifacio out trying to steal, Burnett walked Hanley Ramirez. A.J. then hung a slider to Jorge Cantu. Cantu hit it to the gap in left, but Johnny Damon lined it up . . . then missed it. The ball just barely hit the pinkie of Damon’s glove then appeared to nick his foot as Damon tripped over his own leg and tumbled to the turf. Ramirez motored around and scored. That was the ballgame.

The Yankees scored in the next half inning after the Marlins failed to convert a one-out double play ball. Prior to the seventh, Josh Johnson had allowed just two baserunners: a walk to Damon in the top of the first, and a bloop single into no man’s land behind first base by Burnett in the third. After Damon grounded out to start the seventh, Johnson walked Mark Teixeira, who was replaced by Posada on the botched double-play. Robinson Cano then picked up the Yankees second hit, singling Posada to third, and Nick Swisher singled Jorge home with the first and only Yankee run, but Johnson struck out Melky Cabrera on three pitches to end the inning and his night.

In the eighth, Joe Girardi sent Hideki Matsui up to hit for Angel Berroa against Leo Nuñez. Matsui singled. Brett Gardner then ran for Matsui and stole second. Alex Rodriguez hit for the pitcher and walked, putting the go-ahead run on base with no outs for Derek Jeter, but Jeter couldn’t get the bunt down and wound up grounding into a rally-killing double play. Dan Meyer then came on to strikeout Damon. Facing closer Matt Lindstrom, Mark Teixeira led off the ninth with a single off first base, but Jorge Posada popped out and Robinson Cano, for the second time in four games, ground into a game-ending double play.

Damon fell on his sword after the game, and Burnett blamed himself for allowing the homer to Uggla, but the Yankees should win games in which they only allow two runs. Josh Johnson was simply too good and the Yankees blew the one real opportunity they had against the Marlins’ bullpen in the eighth.

Adding valor to victory after the game, Johnson absolved Joe Girardi of the infamous rain-delay incident I mentioned in my pre-game post. Per Pete Abe:

Johnson absolved Girardi, saying his elbow was tight before that and that he was determined to stay in the game. Girardi, he said, was not to blame.

“It’s something that just happened,” he said. “I was hiding from Joe, there’s no way he was taking me out of that game.”

Josh Johnson, who starts for the Marlins tonight, had an impressive rookie season under then-Marlins manager Joe Girardi in 2006. After working out of the bullpen in April, Johnson moved to the rotation in May and went 11-5 with a 3.14 ERA in his first 23 starts. Then, on September 12 of that year, Johnson’s start against the Mets was interrupted by an 82-minute rain delay, after which Girardi left the then-22-year-old right-hander in the game. Soon after, he developed elbow soreness. Johnson didn’t pitch for the Marlins again until mid-June of 2007, but after four starts, he was back on the DL and headed for Tommy John surgery.

Johnson finally returned to the Florida rotation last July and went 7-1 with a 3.61 ERA over the remainder of the season. Now 25, he enters tonight’s game against Girardi’s Yankees with a 6-1 record and 2.76 ERA on the season. The forecast calls for rain.

Johnson has been flat-out awesome this season. All but two of his starts have been quality starts. The Marlins are 11-3 when he takes the mound. His only two hiccups this season were a six-run outing against the Nationals back on April 18 and a four-inning outing against the Brewers on May 19 in which he held Milwaukee to two earned runs on three hits but walked five and left early due to a twinge in his pitching shoulder. Since then, he’s turned in six quality starts in six tries and completed at least seven innings in each of his last five starts, going the distance for the win over Toronto his last time out.

The Yankees counter with former Marlin A.J. Burnett, who was briefly a teammate of Johnson’s in 2005 (in fact, Johnson and Jeremy Hermida are the only remaining Marlins from that 2005 team and both were September call-ups that year). Burnett rebounded nicely from his failure in Boston his last time out, holding the Mets scoreless over seven innings while striking out eight. That was his seventh quality start in 13 tries for the Yankees. Burnett has put up consecutive quality starts just twice this season, once doing so by facing the same team, the Texas Rangers, in consecutive starts. A.J. has never faced the Marlins before, but he does have a career 3.20 ERA in Mrs. Arrllssberg Stadium.

Jorge Posada will catch Burnett tonight. Angel Berroa’s back at third base as the lineup repeats last night’s. Emilio Bonafacio is back at third for the Fish and hitting second.