The Yanks are back in the Bronx. They kick off their longest home stand of the year tonight against the Oakland A’s. Here’s Ted Berg with a preview:

And of course, our man CC does his thing.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

We know the old cliche–heck, when it comes to sports and sports writing, sometimes everything feels like a cliche–“He pitched just well enough to win,” or “He pitched good enough to lose.” Last night, Johan Santana, vexed by bad luck on a bad team, pitched just good enough to lose. Again. Meanwhile, CC Sabathia, a good pitcher on a good team, pitched poorly, but well enough to keep his team in the game.

As Tyler Kepner writes in a good column today about Felix Hernandez:

Mike Mussina used to say that the best pitchers win half their starts. Mussina did that almost precisely over 18 seasons, winning 270 of his 536 career starts. Mussina understood the finicky role luck plays in wins and losses. But he also knew that, over time, a pitcher’s luck tends to even out. He deserved 270 victories, and that is what he got.

When the smoke cleared–presumably from all the fireworks that explode after a White Sox hits a home run–the Yanks survived a wild night of offense, 12-9. A good thing, as the Rays edged-out the Red Sox. Once again, the Yanks and Rays are tied for first place.

For the best and brightest of recaps, check out our friends at: River Ave Blues, Yankeeist, the Daily News, New York Post and New York Times.

Mark Teixeira left the game early and is listed as day-to-day with a bone bruise.

[Picture by Bags]

Ace’s high tonight in Chi-Town. Every game for CC feels like a must-win. Lots of pressure, but he’s usually game.

Fresh from the Lo-Hud Oven, here’s the line-up:

Derek Jeter SS
Nick Swisher RF
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Marcus Thames DH
Jorge Posada C
Austin Kearns LF
Brett Gardner CF
Eduardo Nunez 3B

I say Nunez has a good night….

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

[Picture by Bags]

It’s still summer in the city after a grey and wet week in the Big Apple.

Yanks and White Sox play tonight. We’ll see you then.

[Pictures by Bags]

Of the three players the Yankees acquired just before the July 31st trading deadline, Austin Kearns was the least heralded. He hasn’t had the career of Lance “Big Puma” Berkman, nor the fame of Kerry Wood. He has never been an All-Star, and probably never will. So it is with some degree of astonishment that Kearns has paid just as much in dividends as the rejuvenated Wood and has had substantially more impact than the injured Berkman.

In 16 games with the Yankees, Kearns has reached base 38 per cent of the time, slugged close to .500, and played flawlessly in the outfield corners. He has become a Pat Tabler force with the bases loaded, showing a knack for coming up with timely hits in the late innings. In other words, he has been exactly the kind of player the Yankees needed in attempting to bolster their outfield depth.

In some ways, Kearns reminds me of Lou Piniella, just retired as manager of the Cubs. More specifically, it’s the way that Joe Girardi has used Kearns that is reminiscent of the role that Piniella once filled in the late 1970s. Like “Sweet Lou,” Kearns plays left field one day, right field the next, and DH’s against the odd left-hander.

That’s not to say that Kearns and Piniella are the same type of players; they’re not. Kearns is a much better defensive outfielder with a stronger arm and more power; Piniella was a better contact hitter who batted for a higher average. But they are similar in that they are the kinds of outfielders who could play every day for a bad team, but should play no more than four to five times a week for a playoff contender.

Not too much, not too little. Girardi has been using Kearns just right.

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Well, that’s one way to limit Phil Hughes’ innings.

Like lions attacking a herd of wildebeests (or whatever it is that lions attack herds of), the Blue Jays have spent this series picking off the Yankees’ young – first Ivan Nova, who was good but not quite good enough to escape two nights ago, and now Phil Hughes, who was less good. The Yankees were behind the entire game and lost 6-3 but, thanks to the Angels’ 12-3 thrashing of the Rays, remain in a tie atop the AL East.

There’s been much discussion of Hughes’ unspecified innings limit recently, and so it would, in a sense, be nice that he pitched less than four innings tonight – except that he threw 106 pitches in those three and two thirds innings, his shortest outing of the year. They were fairly high stress, and definitely frustrating, as over and over again he got a batter to two strikes before eventually allowing a hit. According to Girardi after the game,  3.2 innings is still just 3.2 innings, but that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to me. Neither does bringing in Javy Vazquez in relief – it would, except I thought the whole issue was he had a dead arm and needed rest, and I don’t see how pitching 4.1 innings on short notice is going to enliven said arm. I assume the Yankee trainers know more about this than I do, so probably it’s fine… but then again with an off-day tomorrow, why push your luck? The Yankees don’t necessarily need Hughes and Vazquez at their best to have some postseason success this year, but it’s hard to see them getting far without at least one of them. Anyway, the good news is Vazquez pitched well (maybe his arm is only mostly dead?), allowing just one run, on an Aaron Hill homer, and finishing out the game.

Meanwhile, Jays starter Brett Cecil is not this good – at least, not against any other team. As the guys at River Ave Blues point out, he’s now got a 1.64 ERA against the Yanks, and a 4.21 ERA against non-Yankees. Whether that’s because he’s doing something particularly effective against the Bombers, or an accident of small sample size, I can’t really say, but in any case he was effective again tonight, allowing seven hits and two walks, but limiting the damage to two runs over eight innings. The Yankees got two runs in the fourth, when Robinson Cano doubled and Marcus Thames, batting right behind him, homered; they tacked on one more in the ninth, when Eduardo Nunez singled home Austin Kearns. It was a short-lived rally, and the Yankees head into their needed off-day still perched on top of the standings, but a bit battered- Nick Swisher’s knee is hurting now, hence his absence from tonight’s lineup.

The Yankees still have two series to play against the Blue Jays, one home and one, the last of the season, back in Toronto. So you haven’t seen the last of these guys. Presumably the Yankees and their coaches will be watching a lot of Brett Cecil video between now and then.

We’ve been away for much of the past two weeks — Seattle, Portland, and Palm Springs, in case you’re interested — and whenever I get away from the day-to-day and hour-to-hour kvetching about the Yankees, I find that the new perspective does me a world of good.  In Seattle I stayed with a college friend and met his seven-year-old son who loves — get this! — the Mariners.  A quick glance at the paper told me that the Mariners had lost almost 70 games, and there at the top of the American League’s Eastern Division, with the best record in baseball, sat the New York Yankees.  Suddenly I was less worried about Javy Vazquez’s dead arm, Joe Girardi’s managerial quirks, and Alex Rodríguez’s power outage.  I’m not saying you shouldn’t be worried, nor am I saying that I won’t be worried about all those things tomorrow, I’m just saying.

Tuesday night’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays, a bottom-dwelling team that’s given the Yanks fits all year long, was the first game I’d watched end to end in quite a while, and it was a great way to get back in the swing of things.  The Score Truck started rolling early, modestly at first with a run in the first (courtesy of Mark Teixeira’s 90th RBI) and another in the second when Eduardo Nuñez beat out a would-be 4-6-3, allowing Jorge Posada to score, but then things started really heating up.  Toronto lefty Marc Rzepczynski (somewhere, Diane Firstman is smiling) was walking a fine edge in the first two innings; he’d fall off in the third.  (And by the way, you know that old probability bit that says if you put a hundred monkeys into a room with a hundred typewriters, you’d eventually get “Romeo and Juliet” if given enough time?  I think if you give one typewriter to one monkey and put him in a closet for thirty seconds, you’d probably get “Rzepczynski”.)

With one out in the third, Teixeira launched a shot to left that warranted no more than a courtesy glance from left fielder Travis Snider.  Robinson Canó walked, and then Marcus Thames launched a shot to left that warranted no more than a courtesy glance from left fielder Travis Snider.  Next up, Jorge Posada launched a shot to left that warranted… you get the idea.

It was 6-0 at that point, but the Score Truckers weren’t finished — Curtis Granderson added a three-run blast in the fifth, and two batters later Derek Jeter homered, his tenth of the year, but his first hit over the fence since way back on June 12th.  Another run would score in the sixth, bringing the total to eleven, and that was enough.

The beneficiary of all this was my friend Dustin Moseley.  He skipped through the first three innings, and when he finally saw some trouble in the fourth, allowing a run by giving up a walk and two singles to open the frame, he minimized the damage by setting down the next three hitters.  He gave up another run in the sixth on a bases-loaded single by John Buck, but this time it was Granderson who minimized the damage as he threw out Adam Lind at the plate to end the inning.  Later in the game, as Ken Singleton and John Flaherty were making small talk in the closing innings of a blowout, Flash said something I never thought I’d hear someone say: “This was a good game for the Yankees, as they got Dustin Moseley straightened out.”  Really?  Dustin Moseley is that important?  I think I’m starting to worry again.

Chad Gaudin coughed up a few runs in the eighth, Kerry Wood closed out the ninth, and everyone went home happy.  Yankees 11, Blue Jays 5.

Git it in gear, fellas. That sombitch Bautista hit a game-winning dinger and spit in yer grill last night. You gunna just take that?

We’ll be root-root-rootin’ you on…

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

[Picture by Bags]

Yanks Jays.

No frills, just banter.

Ivan Nova, the World is Yours.

[Picture by Bags]

Sorry about this folks, but the Banter is taking the day off on the count of I’m sick at home. I twisted my lower back over the weekend and am in no position to be doing much of anything.

To keep you busy with baseball news, don’t forget to check out these spots:

Baseball Think Factory, Hardball Talk, The Pinstriped Bible, River Ave Blues and Was Watching.

Oh yeah, and check out this piece by Glenn Stout on Josh Beckett’s historically bad season:

How bad has Josh Beckett been? Using ERA and a minimum of fourteen starts as a measure, every other pitcher in Red Sox history – with one notable exception – has been NABAB – Not As Bad As Beckett. Matt Young in 1991? Sixteen Starts and a 5.18 ERA, but Not As Bad As Beckett. Danny Darwin in 1994? Thirteen starts and 6.30 – NABAB. Frank Castillo in 2002? NABAB. Ramon Martinez in 2000, Jerry Casale in 1960, Gordon Rhodes in 1935, Frank Heimach in 1926? You can look ‘em up, NABABs all. Even the immortal Joe Harris, who went 2-21 for the 1906 Red Sox, was NABAB – his ERA was a sparkling 3.52, a number Josh Beckett and Theo Epstein would both kill for. And the list goes on and on and on and on.

Somehow this historic achievement has gone unnoticed. In a season best defined by the disabled list it has been easy to overlook Beckett’s expressionless appearances on the mound. Then again, they’ve often been so brief he’s been easy to miss. The fact is even with all the injuries, if Josh Beckett was pitching like an average starting pitcher, rather than a historically bad one, the Red Sox would be making plans for October.

We’ll have a game thread up tonight for the game…

[Picture by Bags]

Much has been made of CC Sabathia’s prowess in Yankee Stadium.  Here was what Sunday’s Yankee “Game Notes” had on Sabathia’s hometown hammer:

CREATURE OF COMFORT: Is undefeated in his last 19 starts at Yankee Stadium – dating back to the 2009 All-Star break, posting a 14-0 record with a 2.27 ERA (135.0IP, 34ER) and a .207 opp BA. (100-for-483)…the Yankees have gone 17-2 in those starts…according to Elias, it is the longest active home winning streak in the Majors.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it is the longest undefeated streak of starts by any pitcher at any stadium since Johan Santana’s 24-start undefeated streak at the Metrodome from 8/6/05-4/2/07.

Elias also notes it is the longest undefeated streak of starts by a Yankee at any stadium since Ron Guidry did not record a loss over 19 starts at the original Yankee Stadium from 5/4/85-4/29/86…should Sabathia not lose today, it will mark the longest home winning streak by a Yankee since Whitey Ford from 8/8/64-8/18/65 (21GS).

So, with his win today, he marches up the list of longest streaks without a loss at home.  Yes, that is *the* Kenny Rogers topping the list, with an amazing 38 consecutive starts at home without a loss, spread over four different teams over a nearly three year period.

Wet and damp in the Boogie Down today. Yanks look to win the series.

Go git ’em, boys!

[Picture by Bags]

It started ugly but ended, if not pretty, than well enough for the Yanks today in the Bronx as they beat the Mariners, 9-5. Ichiro! led off the game with a home run against Javier Vazquez and then Russell Branyon became the first man to hit a home run into the right field upper deck at the new Yankee Stadium (Branyon is also the only player to hit the Mohegan Sun bar in center). The Yanks scored four in the bottom of the first (two-run single by Robinson Cano and a two-run dinger by Jorge Posada) but Vazquez gave it back and didn’t last long–three innings. This after not making it into the fifth in his previous two starts.

Right now, it’s CC Sabathia and pray for the Score Truck…

Jason Vargas, meanwhile, retired fifteen straight Yankees after the tough first inning. The score remained tied at four until the bottom of the sixth when Eduardo Nunez got his first big league hit–punching a high change-up, well out of the strike zone, through the hole in the right side of the infield for an RBI single. The ball came back to the infield and was passed over to the Yankee dugout. On its way, Nunez, briefly held it. He was standing on first, smiling. He kissed the ball, smiled some more and tossed the ball to Gene Monahan, the Yankee trainer, for safe keeping.

The Yanks added a couple of more runs, then another one in the ninth on their way to the win. Mariano Rivera, that bum, that zero, that dog, allowed a run in the ninth raising his season ERA to 1.18 (bum!). Otherwise, the Yankee bullpen was terrific, especially Chad Gaudin, who pitched three scoreless innings.

A nice win for the Yanks, though another rotten outing for Vazquez does nothing to help the digestion. On top of that, Alex Rodriguez is headed to the DL. “We’re going to play it safe,” Joe Girardi said after the game. “We don’t think he’s any worse than the time before.”

Right-handed pitcher Ivan Nova will take his place on the active roster. Nova will make his first major league start on Monday.

* * * *

Elsewhere, around the majors, Cliff Lee got beaten about the face and neck again today, this time by the Orioles (eight runs in 5.2 innings). The Red Sox and Jays play at 7, the Rays are in Oakland again later tonight.

[Picture by Bags]

The summer is almost over. The city is relatively quiet. The farmer’s markets are bursting with corn and tomatoes and peaches and all that good stuff.

Javier Vazquez hasn’t impressed lately. Perhaps he turns it around today. We’ll be root, root, rootin’ him on.

Let’s Go Yan-Kees.

Taking the Mrs downtown for a bite today. We’re gunna go slurp some soup dumplings.

[Picture by Bags]

Earlier this summer, former Yankee left-hander Dennis Rasmussen visited the Cooperstown area to play in the annual Hall of Fame Classic old-timers game. A six-foot, seven-inch left-hander with a good overhand curve, Rasmussen won 91 games and posted a 4.15 ERA over a 12-year career in the major leagues. The Yankees liked Rasmussen enough to trade for him twice–once as part of a deal for Tommy John and later as part of a package for Graig Nettles. At his best, Rasmussen won 18 games for the Yankees in 1986, one of five seasons in which he won in double figures. After a four-year stint with the Yankees, Rasmussen pitched for the Reds, Padres, Cubs, and Royals.

Approachable and friendly in spite of his intimidating size, Rasmussen talked about his previous visits to Cooperstown, the way that he dealt with being traded, and his feelings toward the Yankees.

Markusen: Dennis, coming to Cooperstown, this is very much Yankee country, and you’re wearing the pinstripes, a recognizable figure from the 1980s. What does it feel like when you see so many fans who remember you from 25 years ago?

Rasmussen: Well, it’s very refreshing and humbling at the same time. New York fans were the greatest fans ever. I was fortunate to play there my first four years in the big leagues [after a brief debut with the Padres]. And they haven’t forgotten me. I was just in the city, and I ran into a couple of people that recognized me. It’s kind of amazing. It probably has to a lot to do with my size. They figure I must have done something and then recognize me.

It’s a lot of fun coming to Cooperstown. I haven’t been here since ‘98, when I was coaching in the Red Sox’ chain. And then before that, I pitched in the ’87 Hall of Fame game against the Braves, which was a big thrill. I didn’t know it at the time, but that was a make-or-break game for me. I was told to bring all my stuff to meet the Yankees and join them on a road trip. I pitched well enough to join them, I pitched seven innings, gave up one run. They told me, “Kid, you’re on the bus. You’re joining us back in New York.” So that was a big thrill.

Today was great. The clinic we did yesterday [in Cooperstown] was great. We had about 150 kids who came out for a free clinic. A great weekend.

Markusen: What did you work on with the kids at the clinic?

Rasmussen: I happened to be at the pitching station, but I’ve done a lot of different parts to the clinic. Just teaching them some of the basics, like we always do [with the Major League Baseball Players Alumni Association]. We showed them how to throw the ball, depending on how old they are; I stressed to them the importance of going to school, getting the job done in the classroom, and being a good sport.

I always enjoy asking them the question, “What is the best pitch in baseball?” They normally can’t answer. Of course, I tell them, “It’s a strike.” They like that!

Markusen: Tell us what it was like for you after you had success here, winning 18 games, and then I believe it was the following year, you’re traded to the Reds for right-hander Bill Gullickson. Was that a devastating thing that happened, was that real difficult?

Rasmussen: I wouldn’t say it was devastating. I looked at everything as a new opportunity. I was looking forward to that. I guess when you’re getting traded, somebody wants you. And I always looked at it that way.

I was there a brief time, in Cincinnati, and then went on to San Diego. I had some pretty good years there and continued to develop as a young pitcher. I looked at every place, and every release, and surely every trade, as an opportunity, and took advantage of those opportunities. That’s the nature of the game, and most of the guys will tell you that you’re going to get a series of jolts. It’s going to go up and down. You take advantages of certain opportunities at the right time, and you’ll look back at it, and you’ll have played 10, 12, 14 years.

Markusen: You can’t have too many bad feelings for the Yankees, because you’re wearing the pinstripes today.

Rasmussen: Oh, I have great feelings for them. They treated me great. I enjoy working Yankee fantasy camp. It’s a lot of fun wearing the pinstripes, plus they’re probably slenderizing. [laughing] So that might be part of it. But no, it was my first true opportunity to play in the big leagues. When I got called up in 1984, [manager] Yogi Berra said, “Kid, you’re here. You’re gonna get the ball every five days. Show us what you can do” And I did. I took every start–one pitch, one hitter, one inning at a time–and didn’t want to give up the ball every fifth day.

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The Mariners are in town for a three-game series this weekend. As usual, our man Cliff has the preview over at the Pinstriped Bible.

Felix Hernandez has pitched thrown two complete games against the Yanks this year, allowing just one run. 

Here’s hoping to woim toins tonight and the Yanks show the King who is:

Let’s Go Yan-Kees!

[Picture by Bags]

The Red Sox are playing the Angels at home tonight. They are 9-0 against the Halos this year, my Goodness. Later on, the Rays play in Oakland.

Free free to fall through and banter.

[Picture by Bags]

Fresh direct from the Lo-Hud Yankee oven, today’s line-up:

Brett Gardner LF
Derek Jeter SS
Mark Teixeira 1B
Robinson Cano 2B
Nick Swisher RF
Jorge Posada C
Curtis Granderson CF
Austin Kearns DH
Ramiro Pena 3B

Also, Lance Berkman has been placed on the DL. Drag. Eduardo Nunez was been called-up.

Meanwhile, tough day for Mr. Clemens.

[Picture by Bags]

From his first pitch, which nailed Brett Gardner on the right leg and prompted some pointing (and possibly a warning, more on that later) from the home plate umpire Eric Cooper, Jeremy Bonderman exhibited the disposition of a dull teenager enduring the facts-of-life lecture from prattling parents. His annoyed expression and frequent shoulder shrugging suggested he wanted to anywhere else but on the hill at Yankee Stadium. Despite his best efforts to the contrary, he managed to stick around for five innings, seven runs and three homers. In fact, after he drilled Brett the Jet and let up back-to-back jacks (courtesy Teixeira and Cano) in the first, it crossed my mind that Bonderman just might rear back and fire one at Swisher’s melon to earn the automatic heave-ho and the warmth of an early shower. With times being tough all over, I guess the probable suspension was too much of a financial risk, and luckily for the Yanks, he stayed in the game.

As soundly as the Yankee hitters pounded Bonderman’s weak offerings, Dustin Moseley prevented the game from becoming a laugher. For awhile, he was holding the non-Cabrera portion of the lineup at bay, surrendering “only” two solo homers to Miggy through the first four innings. But when Don Kelly brought his .279 career slugging percentage to the plate in the fifth and deposited a hanging breaking ball a few feet over Austin Kearn’s outstretched glove for a two-run home run, the game took on an ominous, too-close-for-comfort feeling that persisted (for me anyway) until it was over.

The battle of the bullpens got interesting in the seventh when Boone Logan and Kerry Wood loaded the bases on three singles. With one out, Wood dug deep and produced big-time strikeouts of Santiago and Raburn. (Other than a few too many walks, Wood has had a really fine first nine innings for the Yankees) Then the Tigers tried to walk the same tight rope, but Austin Kearns played the bully and sent them spilling to the earth with a booming ground rule double to plate two runs and increase the Yankee lead to five.

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