With the Rays and O’s on their heels, this ain’t no time for the Yanks to let up.

It’s Hiroki vs that sombitch Beckett.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Curtis Granderson CF
Eric Chavez 3B
Raul Ibanez LF
Russell Martin C
Ichiro Suzuki RF
Casey McGhee DH

Never mind the Worldwide Leader: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Via: The Summer Goddess]

Joshua Prager, author of The Echoing Green, has a feature on Derek Jeter and Pete Rose’s all-time hit record today in the New York Times:

“The toughest thing about baseball is you don’t know why you’re doing — or not doing — this or that,” the player, Ichiro Suzuki, said.

Suzuki, a Yankees outfielder, had at that point amassed a combined 3,830 hits in Japan and the United States, a remarkable if unofficial total. But his annual hit total was set to decline for the third straight season. Was age to blame?

“It’s not that your physical body gains weight, but that your thinking gains weight,” said Suzuki, 38. He tightened a belt about a waist that had been 31 inches all his career and explained that expectation was a burden that only grew. The outside world always let you know when a milestone was in reach.

I also like this appreciation:

“I don’t think very many people understand how unique he is, as a hitter,” Bill James, the father of advanced baseball statistics, wrote in an e-mail. “At-bat after at-bat, he is able to hit the ball to right field NOT by swinging late, but by just clipping the inside of the baseball, hitting the ball off-center so that it flares off his bat to right field. Other people do it once in a while by accident, but I’ve never seen anybody other than Jeter do it constantly.”

I don’t think Jeter will catch Rose. Don’t think he’s that single(s)-minded. But it’s fun to consider, isn’t it?

[Photo Credit: N.Y. Daily News]

Whadda ya gunna do? Our man Phelps pitched a solid game. Game up a two-run home run to Adrian Gonzalez in the first inning and it wasn’t even a bad pitch. Thing is, Jon Lester pitched like the old Jon Lester, one we’d come to fear. The Yanks couldn’t get a key hit but the credit goes to ol’ Lester.

Sox 4, Yanks 1. Moving on.

The only drag is that the Orioles and the Rays won. The Rays, man, huge win, and they is making a push now. They trail the Yanks by five.

[Photo Credit: Ben Pier]

The overnight rain cooled things off in New York. The sun is out and it is a lovely afternoon.

Here is worrisome bit of news, however, about Mark Teixeira, brought to us by Brian Heyman over at the Lo-Hud Yankee blog:

“He’s a little bit better today,” Girardi said. “He’s not a player for me today. I wouldn’t imagine so. We’ll see in the next couple of days if we can get him back.”

Girardi is wondering, though.

“Yeah, I’m a little bit concerned if it’s going to get to 100 percent,” Girardi said. “He was better after the few days off a couple of weeks ago. And it seemed to come back a little bit. That raises a little bit of a red flag. You do what you can. Tex is good at playing beat up. He’s used to it in his career. We’ll try to get him back as soon as we can.”

1. Jeter DH
2. Swisher 1B
3. Cano 2B
4. Jones RF
5. McGehee 3B
6. Granderson CF
7. Martin C
8. Nix SS
9. Suzuki LF

It’s Phelps vs. Lester.

Never mind the mercy rule: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Stfujeff]

I had a friend over for dinner last night and we watched the game, rooted for the Yanks, and were happy when they beat the Red Sox, 6-4. But we talked and talked so the details of the game evaporated once it was over. I remember cursing Phil Hughes for giving us flashbacks of Clay Rapada’s botched 1-6-3 double play earlier this season, and then cursing some more when Hughes served up a meatball to Dustin Pedrioa.

Then there was fist pumps and “Oh Yeahs” for the five solo home runs hit by the Yanks, including the 250th homer of Derek Jeter’s career. Also, a long, impressive at bat by Curtis Granderson that resulted in a line drive single, and a “Fuck Yes” for the bloop base hit Jason Nix hit on an 0-2 pitch to put the Yanks ahead for good. Smiles all around when Pedrioa hit one to the wall in the eighth, and hopped in the air as he rounded first in frustration.

I don’t remember much just that the outcome was good.

For clarity see:

Pete Abraham in the Boston Globe; David Waldstein in the Times; Mark Feinsand in the News; and William Juliano at Pinstriped Alley.

[Photo Via: mOrtality]

Can you remember the last time a Yankee-Red Sox series felt this dull this late in the season?

That doesn’t mean we don’t want the Yanks to win the series of course, or that watching these games won’t angry up the blood some. But it ain’t Must-See-TV, that’s for sure.

It’s Hughes tonight, weather permitting. Supposed to rain all weekend.

1. Jeter DH
2. Swisher 1B
3. Cano 2B
4. Jones RF
5. McGehee 3B
6. Granderson CF
7. Martin C
8. Nix SS
9. Suzuki LF

Never mind those battlin’ BoSox: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Via: The Absolute Best Photography Posts]

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where the teams come from and what their lousy records are, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

I’ll tell you what bores the hell out of me, when a team has all of these good players on the roster, but then trots out a lineup made up of all the bad ones. Every team’s got bad players on it, I’m not saying they don’t. It’s just that when a team is really stacked, I mean when they’ve got hot-shots at just about every position, it’s really boring when those players just take a seat on the bench all afternoon. And the bad ones that play, you’d think they’d seize the opportunity and really show what they’ve got, but more often than not they just go out there and remind you of why they are on the bench in the first place.

Take Andruw Jones, the hot-shot in left field. He couldn’t catch the ball at all today, though I heard he used catch it like a madman. There used to be nobody better at catching the old pop-fly. I admit it. But not anymore. Now he’s the type of outfielder that looks up in the sky on a bright afternoon, gets confused and falls down. Goddamn house-money lineup. It always ends up making you blue as hell.

And that lineup’s not too gorgeous for this pitcher the Yankees have, a pitcher named Ivan Nova. He’s good and all, I’m not saying he’s bad. I’m really not.  But the thing about Nova is that he’s not good all the time. In fact, when you get right down to it, he’s only been very good a few times, but for some reason everybody thinks that’s the norm. If you ask me, I’d say he’s much more the mediocre type, not necessarily bad, but not as good as the phonies tend to give him credit for. All I know is he was lousy today, so mediocre would have been a substantial improvement. It really would.

Old Nova started things off with a bang. He really did. The Rangers had two runs on the board and the ice cubes in my drink hadn’t even started to melt yet. And I hate it when ice cubes melt too quickly. It’s quite a problem during day games. You’ve got this perfectly good drink in front of you, and then you look away for a second, just a quick look at the scoreboard, and sure enough the ice cubes are sweating. It doesn’t totally ruin the drink, I’m not saying that. But it certainly doesn’t do it any good.

Derek Holland, the pitcher for the Texas Rangers, must have been thrilled to see all those Yankee hot-shots sitting on the bench. Old Holland is the type of pitcher that’s actually quite talented but you’d never know it because he sucks so much. He really does. He’s the kind of guy that wears a phony mustache to make you think he’s a sophisticated Ivy League gentleman but what it winds up doing, you see, is making him look like a goddamn pervert. But if you actually watch him pitch, if you sit down and take the time to really watch him sling the old ball at the dish, you’d see he throws it in there quite hard. I have to admit.

I see a guy like Old Holland with all the talent in the world and a five-something ERA and it depresses the hell out of me. I get so down in the dumps I bust out crying right there at the goddamn computer.  It makes me think of these boys I know from the Yankees named Philip Hughes and Joba Chamberlain. You never saw pitchers come up for the Yankees with talent like that, talent so obvious it was practically coming out of their socks. And it’s not like the Yankees never brought up any other pitchers. They did, all the time. But those pitchers, each one was the type of pitcher that’s always allowing first inning homers and then leaving you sitting in the can. What’s all that Yankee dough good for if you’re always bringing up pitchers that give up first-inning homers? Nothing, that’s what.

There he was, Old Holland, wearing that phony mustache in the middle of goddamn Yankee Stadium of all places and trying to sneak a fastball by Mark Teixeira in the sixth inning. And Mark Teixeira, mind you, he just wears Old Holland out like the back seat of a New York City taxi cab. He really does. Old Holland couldn’t get Teixeira out in a big spot if his life depended on him getting that out. But this time in the sixth inning, when Teixeira represented the tying run, what he did was he threw this slider in the dirt to a spot where Teixeira couldn’t get it – it damn near killed me when he threw it in that spot. It was actually quite tricky.

Old Holland must have been feeling pretty good about that slider in the dirt, maybe too good. Because you see what he did on the next pitch to that Andruw Jones, the hot-shot that fell down earlier, he laid one right down the middle. I mean right down goddamn Broadway. And Old Jones, you know he wasn’t feeling too good about falling down, so he must have been so relieved to just see this pitch coming right down the middle. He didn’t look confused on that pitch as he tied up the game at four. He really didn’t.

The goddamn game would have ended right there if it had any sense. But, of course it didn’t. It went on for three more innings. It went on long enough for all the bad feelings the Yankees erased in the sixth to become bad feelings again in the seventh. The worst part, the very worst part of the whole collapse is that pitcher I was telling you about before, Joba Chamberlain, came out with the game on the line and they needed him to be his old self, his old hot-shot self. The thing of it is, that guy is gone. This other guy that looks like the same guy but isn’t as good, he’s here to stay. And about the only way you can tell the difference is by looking at that scoreboard. That goddamn scoreboard just about kills me. It’s just depressing as hell.

See that’s what I don’t like about baseball. It’s depressing as hell. You’ve got a guy falling down in the outfield feeling down in the dumps about it. You’ve got the same guy tying the game with a homerun and feeling all warm and fuzzy. And then you’ve got the same guy coming up with a chance to re-take the lead and striking out and going down in the dumps again. Who wants to play a game that can rip you up like that? Nobody with any sense, that’s who.

A lot of people here, especially this one accountant, are asking me if the Yankees are going to win tomorrow when they start their series with the goddamn Red Sox. It’s such a stupid question. How are you supposed to know if they’re going to win a game before they play it? The answer is, you don’t.

Yanks go for an unlikely four-game sweep against the Rangers this afternoon on a beautiful day in the Bronx. Ivan Nova–will he deliver a solid performance or will the Rangers beat him about the face and neck?

Robbie sits for a second straight game…

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Andruw Jones LF
Casey McGehee 3B
Russell Martin C
Jayson Nix 2B
Ichiro Suzuki CF
Chris Stewart C

Never mind the sunshine: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Luis Rodriguez via Zeroing]

One-run games haven’t been kind to the Yankees. So, when they failed to add an insurance run with two on and no outs in the bottom of the eighth, Joe Girardi may have developed a lump in his throat. Then, when an Eric Chavez throwing error, which was actually a missed call by the first base umpire, prolonged the game with two outs in the top of the ninth, the Yankees’ skipper probably swallowed hard once again. Instead of being bad omens, however, these unfortunate late game developments only delayed what turned out to be the Bronx Bombers’ eighth straight home victory against the Texas Rangers. Considering the almost two hours spent waiting for the rain to stop, it was a small price to pay.

The Yankees 3-2 victory not only pushed the team’s record in one-run games to 15-17, but also marked their second consecutive victory when scoring three or fewer runs. Before the series, the Yankees had the second lowest winning percentage in the A.L. when scoring three or fewer, while the Rangers had the best mark when allowing no more than that many, so maybe the team’s luck in low scoring games is starting to change? Or, maybe the Yankees are just getting outstanding starting pitching?

Following the lead of David Phelps and Hiroki Kuroda, Freddy Garcia kept the Rangers off the board until the fourth inning, extending a string of 19 consecutive innings in which Texas failed to score. However, that came to an immediate halt when Josh Hamilton hit a laser shot into the right field second deck. Ironically, it was the first regular season Yankee Stadium home run ever hit by the Rangers’ center fielder, whose home run derby performance in the Bronx remains legend. And, Hamilton must have enjoyed the trip around the bases because in the sixth inning he followed it up a 450-foot blast deep into the bleachers.

Hamilton’s two solo homers chipped away at the Yankees’ 3-0 advantage, which was built in the bottom of the third inning. For the third straight game, Nick Swisher gave the Yankees their first lead of the game, but instead of a home run, the first baseman dunked a double down the left field line that scored Jayson Nix. A sacrifice fly by Curtis Granderson and two-out RBI single by the white hot Eric Chavez, who went 3 for 3, capped the scoring in the inning and, as it turned out, the game.

Aside from the long balls, Garcia allowed only two other hits in 6 2/3 innings before giving way to the trio of Boone Logan, David Robertson and Rafael Soriano, who collectively retired all but one of the hitters (the aforementioned error/bad call) they faced. As a staff, the Yankees have only allowed four runs in three games to a team that entered the series averaging five, so, needless to say, the starters and bullpen have both been equal to the challenge presented by the reigning American League champs.

Will the struggling Ivan Nova be able to take the baton in tomorrow’s matinee? Either way, the Bronx Bombers have made an early statement and, perhaps, reasserted themselves as the team to beat in the American League.

The Yanks have won the first two games against the Rangers but their work is not done–they lose the next two and the series will feel like a missed opportunity. Fab Five Freddy “Chuck n Duck” Garcia is on the hill.

Rain is in the forecast.

Never mind those thunderclaps: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Coffeesforclosers]

On those nights when I get home late, I have to look for clues about what’s going on the in the Yankee game. My phone’s itching to tell me the score from the confines of my bag, but taking it out on the walk home isn’t a great idea.

Tonight I started my journey around 8:30 and it was already weird because I hadn’t had any score updates yet. I figured it must be busted – no way both of these teams were going scoreless for 90 minutes. The next clue came as I got off the subway at 207th st. it was about 9:20. I spotted guy in a Giambi shirt and fitted Yankee cap exiting as well. That looks like a gamer, I thought. I was sure they had come from the game when his girlfriend trailed him up the stairs wearing her Jeter shirt.

At 9:20? No possible way a Yankee-Ranger game was over by in two hours and change. I figured it was a blowout one way or the other. Neither Giambi nor Jeter was giving anything away however. Couple a Tom Landrys. I hoofed it up Broadway and passed the first bar that would have the game on. Commercial on one screen, slo-mo, extreme-closeup replay of a guy in a gray jersey taking a big cut on the other. Shit, that’s gotta be a Ranger roadie, I thought.

The next spot was the cigar shop and I had to slow my stride to take in the full scene. They had their screen split four ways, taking in action all across the league. The Yanks game was such a dud it didn’t even make one of the quarters. OK, now I was convinced. 16-0 Rangers.

I came home and did those things you have to do even though all you want to do is to go right to the scoreboard. But my wife wasn’t feeling well and I took care of her for a little while. She had real news to convey about one of the kids messing up his forearm in a scooter fall. We might need X-Rays. Well shit, that blowout doesn’t seem so important now. I took my shower, I poured my wife some water and helped her off to bed. I ate a slice of cheese in the kitchen. OK, no more stalling, time to face the music.

Holy Shit! I said it loud enough to startle my wife. Hiroki Kuroda just went out and dropped a complete game shut out on one of the best offenses in baseball. He did it with style too, taking a no-hitter into the seventh before Elvis Andrus lucked into an infield single with one of the most lifeless hacks you’ll ever see.

From the numerous highlights of Kuroda’s offerings, you can see how almost every batter is wrong-footed. He’s hiding the ball so well, and releasing each pitch from the same spot that the hitters can’t gauge the speed until it’s too late. From the clips, his location looks good, not superb. It’s that he has the entire lineup deceived. Kuroda’s final, glorious numbers, 9 innings, 2 hits, 2 walks, 5 Ks.

The only problem tonight was that the Yanks couldn’t score any runs. Kuroda gets the least run-support by far among all Yankee starters – a full run behind the rest of the rotation and over two runs behind CC, and tonight it actually went down.

In the seventh, they finally gave Kuroda something to work with. Jeter collected his second hit of the night (and passed Nap Lajoie on the all-time hit list) and knocked effective starter Matt Harrison out of the game. Ron Washington called on Alexi Ogando, a hard thrower to be sure. Nick Swisher worked him over but good and when Ogando tried to beat him with a high hard one on a full count, Swisher jumped the 98 MPH gas and launched it into the bullpen. Just for shits and giggles, Mark Teixeira ripped a 99 MPH pitch into the seats as well.

The final was 3-0 and it took 2 hours 35 minutes to complete. I guess Giambi and Jeter bolted after the no-no was busted up and the Yanks hit their homers. Can’t blame them, the game was over.

Kuroda’s game reminds me a lot of those ALDS games against the Rangers in 1998 and 1999. The Rangers could hit all day, but in those games the Yanks shut them down. Whether it was El Duque, Pettitte, Wells… didn’t matter. Now, these Rangers are a much better vintage than those late nineties teams. They’ve got a few starters that are still healthy and a fierce bullpen. The teams are a lot closer now than they were back then. That’s what makes this game so damned good – it might have even impressed McKayla Maroney.

Photos by Seth Wenig/AP

Once again, it’s our pal Hiroki.

1. Jeter DH
2. Swisher RF
3. Teixeira 1B
4. Cano 2B
5. Jones LF
6. Granderson CF
7. McGehee 3B
8. Martin C
9. Nix SS

How about some run support, fellas?

Never mind letting up now: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Afrikaan]

What a lovely night to return to recapping. Summer hit my apartment like a solid right hook this June, sent us sprawling around the East Coast for months. Vacations in Pittsburgh, DC, Gloucester and Maine. Work travel to more cities than I can list.

In the meantime Yanks went up, up, down, splat and are now back to somewhere around sea level. I was happy my first game back at the Banter would be a CC start – best chance for blowout win. So much for that. David Phelps got the call instead. Lucky for me, he can pitch.

As David Cone and Paul O’Neill covered in an especially jovial night in the YES booth, Phelps has the requisite arsenal to pitch in the big leagues and enough confidence in his various offerings to throw any pitch at any time. His numbers tonight aren’t going to knock you out, but this wasn’t the Blue Jays farm team, this was the defending American League Champion at something close to full strength.

With an 80-pitch limit, Phelps completed five innings and allowed six hits, walked one and hit another. He struck out three, but more impressively, other than David Murphy, nobody could square him up. Murphy, a bench bat on a “Yankee-killer” team, blasted a homer and double, but the rest of the contact was weak. When guys got on, Phelps deftly picked them off. He was very good.

There is a possibility that this was just an off-night for Texas since a Wight (that’s a reanimated corpse for those of you who have not been to Westeros) resembling Derek Lowe came out and dazzled them for the final four innings. But given that Phelps has been effective most of the year, I’m giving him the benefit of the doubt.

Ryan Dempster took the ball for Texas. The Yankees and Rangers have both been crushed by pitching injuries and ineffectiveness this year. The Yanks have survived on internal options. The Rangers went out and got Oswalt. Then they got Dempster. I don’t necessarily remember anyone advocating for either of those guys for the Yanks, but certainly Dempster seemed a better option than Freddy Garcia or Hughes and Nova at their worst. Maybe not.

Dempster’s been pretty bad for Texas and the Yanks got to him in the third. I went into the kids’ room for bedtime down 2-0 and as I came out I thought to myself “5-2 Yanks.” Granderson was up with bases loaded and missed a grand slam by about ten feet. The sac fly to center  made the score 5-2. Sorry Curtis, I should have been greedier. I rewound to watch Swisher’s grand slam. Chavez added another homer in the sixth. Both were mature-content homers – Swisher’s never bothered to start descending.

The Yankees took the first game of this four-game series 8-2. Perhaps fans place too much importance on certain regular season match-ups, but it occurs to me that this would be an excellent week to kick some ass. Let’s get to Sunday and look back at Monday as the nail-biter.

Photo via AP/Seth Wenig

A big week for the Bombers–4 against the Rangers, 3 against the Red Sox–begins tonight at the Stadium.

Beautiful night for it, too. David Phelps on the hill; D. Lowe in the pen.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Eric Chavez 3B
Curtis Granderson CF
Russell Martin C
Raul Ibanez LF
Ichiro Suzuki RF

Never mind the cattle prod: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Bags]

Phil Hughes got his tits lit today and the Yanks were getting trashed 10-1. Happens. But they came back before they lost 10-7. Nice effort, got to like this team’s fight but this game will be remembered for Raja Davis’ sensational catch. Robbed a homer Casey McGeheeand will never forget it either.

[Photo Credit: Fred Thornhill/Reuters]

Hughes and the Yanks go for the sweep this afternoon in Toronto.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano DH
Andruw Jones LF
Curtis Granderson CF
Casey McGehee 3B
Russell Martin C
Jayson Nix 2B

Never mind those brooms just yet: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Humans of New York Via It’s a Long Season]

Ivan Nova was good today as the Yanks zipped to a 5-2 on the strength of Casey McGehee’s three-run home run. Here’s the recap by David Waldstein in the Times.

After the game, the team placed C.C. Sabathia on the 15-day DL with a sore elbow. “As for our concern,” said manager Joe Girardi, “it’s pretty low-level.” That takes C.C. out of the Texas and Boston series but Yanks are thinking big picture, of course.

Bummer but sounds like it could have been much worse.

[Photo Credit: Rock the Pixel; Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images]

Ivan Nova looks to regain his touch this afternoon in Toronto.

Never mind the exchange rate: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Via NBC]

Freddy Garcia kept the Yankees in the game and then some last night. It helps when you face a team of hacks like the Blue Jays. Took four pitches for Garcia to get through the sixth inning when the game was still 3-2 Yanks. Then a late barrage from the Score Truck, seven runs in the last two innings, and the Yanks cruised to a 10-4 win.

You never know what to expect when Fab Five Freddy is on the mound. Here’s hoping the Yanks pile up the runs for him.

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Andruw Jones LF
Jayson Nix 3B
Russell Martin C
Ichiro Suzuki CF
Casey McGehee 1B

Never mind customs: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Photo Via: Mortality]