And pitching for the New York Yankees...

You may be asking yourself, did the Yankees call someone up to go to the bullpen? But no, ladies and gentlemen, that is Nick Swisher, first baseman/outfielder and now relief pitcher...for one game at least. Swisher is one crazy mofo. It's true, I disliked him when he was on the A's and the White Sox. But now that he is a Yankee, i have to like him, just a little. After appearing in the last 10 games, Swisher has really started to grow on me. He's the clubhouse's unofficial DJ, which I think the Yankees need. They have the reputation of being stiff, not-gonna-have-fun players. But Swisher can liven the place up. His batting avg has dropped to .371 (oh no!), but he's hit 4 homeruns and has 11 rbi. While many people have been up in arms about Swisher smiling on the mound, I thought it was ok. I mean, he was pitching in a 5-15 game, and he was just having a good time out there. He allowed the first 2 men on base, but then pitched out of the jam, striking out Gabe Kaplar with one of his 70-80 mph pitches. If a first baseman pitching a scoreless inning in a blowout game doesn't put a smile on your face, I don't know what will. The one thing I really dislike about the Rays fans (besides their incessant use of the freakin' cowbell) is that they're not classy fans at all. Most Yankee fans are and you'll even find some classy Red Sox fans (those who know the game well and are loyal to their team -- aka: did not become a fan after '04). The Rays were up 12-3 in the game when they started a "Yankees Suck" chant. Oh, that was very creative. I wonder where they came up with that one. First of all, the Yankees are used to this. Second of all, they, of all people, should not be chanting that when 1) they're blowing out the team and 2) THEY HAVEN'T EVER WON A WORLD SERIES. They can go win 26 world series, then chant that. Or first, why don't they win the actual series against them rather than one game? While I like the actual Rays players (like BJ Upton, Jason Bartlett, Matt Garza), their fans need to shove their cockiness aside after one good season.

Anyway, the Yankees record thus far is 5-4 and they're 3rd in the division behind *gasp* the Jays and O's. WTF? The Jays aren't as surprising as the O's though. The Jays have great pitching (well, even though they lost Burnett) and their offense has been scorching - what they were missing last season. The Red Sox are off to one of their worst starts since 1996 (YAY!) and the Yankees are struggling with stringing more than 2 wins in a row. They should've swept the Royals, but didn't. However, they have won 2 series in a row, and hopefully they'll win the 4-game series against the Indians this weekend. They're 1-1 so far. They lost just an awful home opener yesterday. CC didn't pitch as well as he should have. He gave up 1 run, but only made it through 5 2/3 innings, throwing a ton of pitches (122). Joba pitched pretty well in today's game, but needs to work on limiting how many pitches he throws in the innings. He only made it through 4.2 innings today. Luckily the Yankee bats were eager to hit homeruns and Jeter was able to capitalize on that in the 8th inning.

Andy Pettite and AJ Burnett have been absolutely phenemonal for the Yankees. (1-0, 2.51 - bruney got the win in his 2nd start, thanks to a come-from-behind victory and 2-0, 2.70 respectively). Burnett threw a no-hitter into the 7th against the Rays, gave up 2 runs in the inning, but his teammates backed him up by rallying for the win.

I'm anxious to see the rest of the rotation pick it up, especially Wang. CC had a terrible first game, a muchhh better second game, and a so-so game yesterday. Wang's been just awful, let's not even get into his ERA. And Joba's been pretty good. His teammates let him down after a solid start against the Royals - the bullpen coughed it up. What every Yankee fan has feared about the bullpen is coming true. They were very good at the start, but over the past few games have not been so good. Bruney's been the only one who has been really good. Mo, too, it goes without saying. Jose Veras makes me nervous everytime he goes out there & Marte, too. Phil Coke was solid in spring training, not so much in the regular season. Edwar is okay - he has his good days, and his not-so-good days.

Chien-Ming Wang (0-2, 28.93) vs. Fausto Carmona (0-2, 9.00) tomorrow on Fox at 3:40ET.