Yanks are in the Motor City, start of a four-game set against the Tigers. The wicked one, Justin Verlander goes for the home team; Bartolo Colon starts for the Yanks.

Cliff has the preview.

Why mince words? Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Herve Bertand]

Robbie Cano is not in the line up tonight.

Over at Low Hud Brian Heyman’s got Kevin Long talking Jeter, Posada and Gardner.

[Photograph by Hellen van Meene]

Ivan Nova threw a fine game on Sunday and Curtis Granderson’s three run homer was the difference as the Yanks beat the Jays, 5-2 to take the weekend series in the Bronx.

Here’s Mark Teixeira hitting a dinger in the first inning:

Robinson Cano bruised his hand and is day-to-day; Alex Rodriguez is in a slump. Nick Swisher hasn’t hit. Jorge Posada–who did have a double today–and Derek Jeter have been awful. But again, Nova pitched well, and the bullpen didn’t allow a run. Mariano got his 10th save and the Yanks are in first place.

Look who is in the garden.

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

[Picture by Herve Bertrand]

Easy April ends today. The Yanks wrapped up a very good month by beating the Blue Jays 5-4 for their fifteenth win against only nine losses – good for first place in the American League East.

The Yankees scored all five runs in the second and third innings, and then threw up donuts for the rest of the game. Apart from the explosion on Thursday, the offense has been silent in the late innings on this homestand with only one run after the fifth in all the rest of the games combined.

Burnett bent but never broke in six innings and enabled Plan A out of the bullpen – Joba to Soriano to Mo. Plan A calls for three scoreless innings, and for the first time since April 4th, they obliged. We debate the wisdom of having three strict roles in the bullpen, but this shows how rarely those roles are executed as envisioned.

The Yankees won this one with singles and walks. Their only extra base hit, a double by Teixeira, didn’t factor in the scoring. Don’t be fooled though, they ended this month averaging just under two taters in each contest and I think they’ll rely on the long ball for a long time.

Burentt was in trouble almost every inning but survived. If the rest of the season evolves such that we can re-define this as “bad AJ,” we’re going to be thrilled. Mariano threw 18 pitches and 14 strikes in a one-hit ninth. It looked to be short work, until Jose Molina refused to take a hint and dumped a double into the “gap” in centerfield. I say “gap” because Granderson was shaded so far to right, the ball went almost up the middle. No matter, the game ended a few pitches later and the tension didn’t last long enough for me to find a knife in the silverware drawer.

The team is in first place without being dominant. The Rays have fully righted themselves, and that’s without Longoria. By the end of May, I bet the Red Sox are back at or near the top as well. The good news is that the Yankees look to have another gear in them as well. Hopefully they will find it in May and keep their lead, but with easy April in the rearview mirror, the hard road’s ahead.

We want big, fat, juicy runs, and a lot of them. We also want quick and easy outs from AJ by the handful.

Time for the Score Truck to make a showing.

That is what we want. What we need is to root-root-root for the home team.

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Florian Bayer]

Here is Banter reader and Yankees fan @KRADec at the other night’s Bartolo Colon start, with his homemade colon sign:

Awesomeness. My work here is done.

…like that rally that wasn’t there?

At least not on Friday night at the Stadium. Down 3-2 the Yanks had the bases loaded in the fifth–on a gift, really, as a near triple play for the Jays turned into bases juiced nobody out–Mark Teixeira popped out to short and then Alex Rodriguez grounded into a 6-4-3 double play. In the eighth, Yanks down 5-3, they had the bases full again, but Derek Jeter whiffed–on a pitch out of the strike zone–and Nick Swisher tapped a harmless ground ball to first.

Freddy Garcia labored through five and David Robertson had a tough inning in the sixth; he gave up two runs and made a critical error. Robinson Cano hit two line drive home runs, absolute seeds, like pow!

But the Yanks couldn’t get a rally going and lost 5-3.

Nertz.

From time to time, I’ll be spotlighting key players and highlight moments for the Yankees’ Triple-A team at Scranton/Wilkes Barre. Though I wish the team was still called the Red Barons (back when the city was affiliated with the Phillies), Scranton will be an interesting stopping point for both veteran and younger minor leaguers this season. In this week’s first sampling, let’s take an overview of Dave Miley’s team.

Given the mix of established veterans and legitimately talented prospects the Yankees have assembled at Triple-A, I expected the Scranton/Wilkes Barre Yankees to be a powerhouse this spring and summer. Well, they have not disappointed. Through the first 21 games of the International League season, the Scranton Yankees have posted a record of 14-7, despite playing the majority of their games on the road. Only the Columbus Clippers, the former affiliate of the Yankees, have fared better. The Indians’ affiliate has gone 16-5 to lead the Western Division.

So is there help on the way? Yes, both in terms of immediate reinforcements and future assistance. Francisco Cervelli will be completing his rehab stint any day now; when he does, he’ll take the place of the very limited Gustavo Molina as the No. 2 catcher. The Yankees face a tougher decision with veteran right-hander Kevin Millwood, whose velocity has been spotty. In his first game for Scranton, Millwood pitched a seven-inning complete game (as part of a doubleheader). But then on Thursday night, Millwood was torched for six runs and sent to the whirlpool after only two innings. Here’s the dilemma facing the Yankees. They have a Sunday deadline by which they must promote Millwood to the major league roster, or else he can opt out and become a free agent. The Yankees could always make room for Millwood by cutting the non-descript Buddy Carlyle; Millwood has the better resume and could conceivably work as a spot starter and long reliever. My bet’s on Millwood being promoted, but don’t place any money on that possibility.

From an offensive standpoint, Scranton has two regulars slugging over .650. They are veteran minor leaguers Jorge Vazquez, who’s playing first base, and Justin “Cornbread” Maxwell, who’s been sharing time with Greg Golson in center field. Both have eight home runs, but Vazquez is outhitting Mad Max by 100 points, .345 to .246, and has an OPS of 1.021. He’s also riding a nine-game hitting streak heading into weekend play. Right now, the Yankees don’t have a need for either Vazquez or Maxwell, simply because of how strong the Eric Chavez/Andruw Jones bench has been. One of the Yankees’ corner infielders or outfielders would have to go down with an injury; otherwise, there’s just no room at the inn for the free-swinging Vazquez and the fleet-footed Mad Max.

The two top position player prospects, Jesus Montero and Brandon Laird, have produced a mixed bag of results. Laird is slugging only .265, so he has a long way to go just to build himself up for a September call-up. To no one’s surprise, Montero is hitting a robust .365, but he has only home run and has strangely failed to draw a single walk in 64 at-bats. (He also missed a few games this week with an injured groin before returning on Thursday.) The Yankee brass will want to see significantly more power and patience before even considering Montero as a replacement for the slumping Jorge Posada at DH.

Then there’s the starting rotation, where Scranton has an abundance of riches. Eight different pitchers have made starts, including the five prospects (Andrew Brackman, Adam Warren, D.J. Mitchell, David Phelps, and Hector Noesi). None have been dominant, but Mitchell has been the most efficient, with a 2.95 ERA and one complete game to his credit. Mitchell will have to cut down on his walks, though; he has walked almost as any batters as he has struck out. In terms of the veterans, Mark Prior just made his season debut with a one-inning relief stint, but hefty Carlos Silva remains in no-man’s land. He has yet to be assigned to Scranton, which is only delaying his possible elevation to the Bronx.

All in all, returning manager Miley (one of the better minor league skippers around) and batting coach Butch Wynegar have plenty of options to work with. Miley’s biggest challenge may be finding sufficient playing time for all of his talented regulars; many of them deserve to play every day, but like former Red and Brewer Chris Dickerson, they may be subject to platooning at some point this spring. Still, it’s a pleasant problem to have.

Bruce Markusen writes “Cooperstown Confidential” for The Hardball Times.

It was a tough night to be a baseball at Yankee Stadium. After a stretch of relatively low-scoring games, New York’s offense broke through, apparently trying to give CC Sabathia a month’s worth of run support in one night, and the Yankees split their four-game series with the White Sox, winning 12-3.

Mark Teixeira and Derek Jeter sat this one out, but it didn’t slow the offense any (not that… well, never mind, out of respect for Derek Jeter let’s leave it at that). Things completely unraveled for Edwin Jackson in the third inning, when he walked three batters in a row, and then four good measure a fourth – Nick Swisher, who got the RBI. One sac fly later it was 2-0 New York although at that point Edwin Jackson had a no-hitter going.

Frankly, I was surprised he was left in that long, along he did manage to get himself out of the inning with just two runs in, and recovered to pitch a clean fourth. In the fifth, he had the opposite problem he’d had in the second – now he was throwing strikes, but too much so. The first four batter Jackson faced there combined for a cycle – Brett Gardner homered, and as if that wasn’t unlikely enough Eduardo Nunez doubled, then Curtis Granderson tripled, and Swisher singled, scoring Granderson and finally driving Jackson out of the game. New pitcher Tony Pena (no relation) didn’t fare much better, as Robinson Cano singled, Alex Rodriguez doubled, and so on and so forth until Pena left with discomfort in his elbow. Will Ohman restored order, but by the time he got the third out twelve batters had come to the plate, and the Yankees left the inning with an 8-0 lead. The Yankees kept tacking on later, most notably via a Nick Swisher home run, his first of the year and clearly a weight off his shoulders. He and Ozzie Guillen famously did not get along well – I’ve never quite understood why, since Swisher seems plenty affable whatever else he is, but maybe he was less affable when he was hitting so poorly in Chicago. I imagine he particularly enjoyed breaking out of his slump while the Sox were still in town. A tree stump could have broken out of a slump tonight*, but still.

*No offense to Jorge Posada, who was 0-4.

As for Sabathia, he struggled a bit in the early going and had to pitch his way out of a few jams, but he kept the White Sox off the board until the seventh inning, after the game was essentially clinched, and pitched through the inning. Lance Pendleton took it from there, and did not even have to fall back on his hefty cushion of runs. Next up: Toronto, and the slightly less-than-marquee match-up of Ricky Romero and Freddy Garcia. As Ozzie Guillen said just the other night, baseball is crazy, so who knows what kind of game we might end up with?

It rains and then it stops, it’s dark and then light. Who knows what tonight will bring? But if there is a game being played in the Bronx know this: we’ll be root-root-rootin’ for dem Score Truck Kids. Mr. Sabathia is on the hill…

Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Picture by Bags]

Stanley Woodward would not approve, but that’s okay…I can’t resist.

Here’s Ozzie:

“I remember in the old park in the World Series, (Braves manager) Bobby Cox told me to pinch-hit against him. I said, ‘Pack it in. We’re going to be seeing a celebration. I ain’t going to get a hit,'” Guillen said. “And I know what’s coming. Everybody knows what’s coming.”

Guillen doesn’t believe there will ever be another closer like Rivera.

“There is nobody better than this guy. Nobody. Not Goose (Gossage), not (Lee) Smith, not (Trevor) Hoffman,” Guillen said. “That mold was made in Panama and they threw it in the ocean. They don’t make a closer like that ever (again). Nobody in the history of baseball is going to be like this guy, ever.”

Here’s Brian Lewis in the Post with more on the Phil Hughes injury news.

I don’t know what surprised me more: that tonight’s Yankees game was barely over two hours long, or that Bartolo Colon pitched eight one-run innings. Actually, I guess Colon pitching eight good innings isn’t really all that surprising anymore… and that is, in itself, kind of surprising. If you think that last sentence was confusing, well, we live in a world where Bartolo Colon has been the Yankees’ second-best pitcher, so yeah. Things are confusing. Yankees 3, White Sox 1.

It does bear repeating that these are the offense-challenged White Sox, and batting Juan Pierre leadoff is tantamount to giving your opponent a handicap, but still – Colon’s shown by now that he’s not just getting lucky here. Another team might have hit him harder, certainly, but he’s got decent enough velocity and very good control (just one walk allowed tonight, with 7 hits scattered around), although he also hit a batter – Carlos Quentin, who is having kind of a rough series. Mariano Rivera closed it out with a reassuring perfect inning.

The Yankee hitters aren’t doing as well as their pitchers this series – once again all their offense came on a Robinson Cano homer, which scored Jeter and A-Rod in the first inning. But there are worse way to win a ballgame, so far as that goes, and I don’t think scoring runs will be what holds the Yankees back this year. Meanwhile, Mark Teixeira was removed for Eric Chavez in the 8th inning, for what’s being called a “sore shoulder”; here’s hoping it’s minor.

More troubling shoulder news: apparently it’s possible that Phil Hughes has something called Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, which sounds like it should involve dinosaurs and power plugs, but is actually way less cool. If it requires surgery it could cost him the season, but recovery time varies and nothing is known for sure yet. So stay tuned, as the Yankees go for a series split tomorrow…

Not "Thoracic Outlet Syndrome" apparently

I don’t think we’re going to see another low scoring game tonight. Nope, I expect to see the ball flying around out there. Let’s hope the Yanks are the ones putting the crooked numbers up on the board.

Never mind the Sizzlean–bring home the bacon and let’s go Yank-ees!

[Photo Credit: Flavor Pill]

Remember…

Tomorrow night at 10:00 p.m. on the National Geographic Channel:

Break it Down: Yankee Stadium

Over at The Yankee Analysts, EJ Fagan thinks it is time for Jesus Montero to replace Jorge Posada as the Yankees’ regular DH.

[Picture by François-Marie Banier]

Well. At least the starting pitching’s been good?

Ivan Nova was nearly as good as AJ Burnett was the night before — granted, this is the White Sox, who have not been tearing things up at the plate lately — and he ended up with no more to show for it.  Yep, tonight’s game has to be the leader for Most Frustrating Loss of the early season.

Given that Brian Cashman was (perhaps unwisely) honest about not wanting to sign Rafael Soriano at all, his leash with his new team is even shorter than the one most middle relievers get. And after his disappearing act on Monday night’s pop-up, a strong performance tonight would have been… nice. Instead, he gave up a two-run homer to Paul Konerko, and the lead along with it. A homer to Paul Konerko isn’t anything to be ashamed of in and of itself; the guy had 369 of them already. But it was preceded by a hit batter and followed by a walk, and while I don’t believe it’s wise to read too much into a player’s “body language” while sitting on my futon, Soriano’s general demeanor did not inspire confidence. There was much angry stomping around.

Meanwhile, the Yankees’ only offense came via a Robinson Cano homer in the 2nd, and a Brett Gardner (!) solo shot in the 5th. This against Gavin Floyd, who went eight innings and struck out 10. At least that’s less embarrassing than the previous evening’s stifling at the hands of Philip Humber.

There are plenty of questions to ask about Joe Girardi’s management last night (starting with: has anyone seen Joba Chamberlain anywhere? Someone want to check under the clubhouse sofa cushions?), including his choice to go to Soriano at the most crucial point of a one-run game (current ERA: 7.84), and, although it didn’t matter in the end, following him with Boone Logan and Buddy “Who?” Carlyle. Never trust anyone named Buddy, my mother didn’t used to tell me but probably should have.

Adding injury to injury, if you will: after Soriano plunked Carlos Quentin, just before the Konerko home run, he was taken out of the game and replaced with Brent Lillibridge… who went on to make not one but two game-saving catches in the bottom of the ninth inning. Derek Jeter led off the inning with a dribbler of a single, Granderson bunted (which I didn’t like, but can see the argument for in the ninth inning of a one-run game). The Sox pitcher was Matt Thornton, who leads the AL in blown saves with 4, and Ozzie Guillen wasn’t messing around this time – once Thornton walked Mark Teixeira he was out of there. Two on, one out, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano coming up… enter Lillibridge, with an excellent catch against the right-field wall and another on a flat-out dive.

Via LoHud, here’s Ozzie Guillen after the game:

“When Alex hit the first one I said, here we go again. The last guy that I wanted to see in that situation was Cano. When you look at the lineup that’s going to be due up in the last inning, you know you have to bring your best bullets. The ball bounced our way tonight. That’s just the way the way the baseball is. Baseball is so crazy.”

This is definitely the kind of loss one might stew over if one were so inclined. Perhaps some sort of sacrifice to the Baseball Gods is in order, to make things right.

—

Fun fact: I was at Monday night’s game, which it turns out is tied for the lowest-scoring game ever at the New Yankee Stadium with one other… a 2009 15-inning Red Sox match which, as it happens, I also attended. Flee before me, runs!

Yes, Mr. Nova. A lot more. You may begin showing us more tonight, thank you very much..

We’ll be cheering: Let’s Go Yank-ees!

[Image Credit: Jahlal Drut]