Let the Good Times Roll...

All I have to say is....

I'm lovin' the Yanks right now!!!!!!

Record Since the All-Star break: 10-1
Record Overall: 61-38 (2nd best in majors)

Total team effort ... great starting pitching, timely offense, and a SOLID bullpen.

Only worries? Coke, Hughes, and Mo can't pitch everyday for us. Mitre isn't gonna cut it for us as the #5 starter the rest of the season (true, he has done his job, but he has been giving up wayyy too many hits & allowing teams an opportunity to get back into the game). And worst news of all? Gardner is going to be out AT LEAST a month (he says) because of a broken finger. No speed on the basepaths now or range in the outfield.

That being said....BRING IT ON!

Upcoming matchups:

7/27-7/29: Yankees @ Rays
7/30-8/2: Yankees @ Chisox
8/4-8/5: Yankees @ Jays
8/6-8/9: Red Sox @ Yankees

Yanks gotta play the Red Sox TWO times next month! 4-game series in the Bronx (AFTER a 9-game road trip and they don't even get a day off to travel) and a 3-game series at Fenway.

And the 2nd half begins

Derek Jeter's Throw
To all the people who think Jeter's declining, doesn't have a great range, or whatever, WATCH THAT! Damn, that was a magnificient throw.

The Yanks have started the All-Star Break off right by taking its first 2 games against the Central-leading Tigers. Yes, they have finally beat a 1st place team! and Nick Swisher made a smart play on the basepaths! Maybe they read my blog ;) If they continue to follow the goals I set for them, Joba should probably pitch well tomorrow :) Of course he's facing Edwin Jackson. But the Yankees have faced 2 good pitchers (French & Verlander) so far this series. They came from behind last night. Trailing 3-2 in the 7th inning, the Yankees rallied to take a 5-3 lead on a Teixeira homer. It was launched into the upper deck in right field - a no-doubter on a 98-mph fastball on a 3-1 count. Hughes came in the 7th inning, relieving Burnett who battled through 6 innings (5 bb?! EEK!), and went 2 innings, striking out 6. Mo closed it out.

Today, CC Sabathia was far from sharp (what's with him failing in day games?!) but once again our starting pitcher battled through 2 shaky first innings and lasted 7 innings, giving up 5 hits and 0 runs. While CC wasn't his sharpest, he gave everyone what they wanted - a pitcher's duel. Facing Verlander, the Yanks only managed 3 hits through 6 innings against him (2 were hits by Jeter) until ARod came through in the 7th and launched one - barely - over the right field wall. Verlander looked at ARod sarcastically, not able to believe that what looked to be a flyball, turned out to be a homerun. But hey, maybe he shouldn't have given up a single & double to Cano & Swisher which led to an infield single by Melky. That put his team out of the game, and Melky's single proved to be very important, when Thames barely got one out of the park in the 8th inning. Mo came in for his 2nd save in as many days.

I missed the homerun derby, though I heard it wasn't as great as the one at Yankee stadium - well what could top Hamilton's performance?! I watched the All-star game though and was happy to see the Yanks contribute! Jeter got hit by a pitch (grrr!), reached on a fielder's choice, and then grounded out in his last at-bat (robbed by pujols). He did get 2 runs for the AL. Tex went 0-for-3...he reached on an error by Pujols and in his last-at bat was robbed of a hit by Pujols. Man, he really didn't like the Yanks lol. Papelbon got the win, even though he so didn't deserve it (damn you baseball stats!) because Crawford saved his butt by making a spectacular leaping catch to snag a ball that was going out of the park (and would've given the NL the lead). The next batter almost hit one out, too. Mo closed it out for the AL (who was up 4-3) and got his 4th save in an All-star game - a new record. It was pretty cool seeing President Obama throw out the first pitch (even though Pujols saved him from embarrassment by just catching the ball before it dropped in the dirt). And he stayed faithful to his team - the Chisox - by wearing a Sox jacket. And it was really cool hearing him discuss baseball in the booth. It was a lot more fun than listening tot he Fox announcers.

Anyway I wrote a lot more than I expected. Gonna watch the game on TV tomorrow and hope the Yanks win!

All Star Game 2009

So the All-star break has just begun and the players get a few days off before the 2nd half begins on Thursday (for some teams). The Yankees ended the 1st half of the season by getting swept by the Angels. Yup. The Angels who were without Torii Hunter and Vladimir Guerrero. They had leads in all 3 games and saw all of those leads get swept away. Let's not recount the embarrassment that was this weekend.

New York Yankees' Goals for the 2nd Half of the Season:

1. Actually beat Boston for once. The Yankees CAN compete with the Red Sox and are just as good as them. There's a reason the two teams have flip flopped between 1st and 2nd place and are generally only a few games apart. The Yanks will not go 0-18 against them. Or I really hope not....
2. Beat good teams! Or at least 1st place teams. Of course they've shown they can't even beat terrible teams like the Nationals. They're going to be facing the Rays a lot the rest of the season and will be seeing the Red Sox 8 more times. They also see the White Sox, Tigers, Mariners, Rangers, and the Angels.
3. Nick Swisher needs to stop making dumb plays on the basepaths. You're not Brett Gardner. The same could be said for other players on the team as well.
4. Johnny Damon needs to get back into the swing of things. Jeter's been known to get lead-off singles and it'd be great if Johnny could move him over (whether it's a sacrifice or a base hit).
5. ARod should get his days off. We know what he starts to look like when he doesn't. He should be refreshed after the break, or maybe not if he's gonna party hard with Kate Hudson.
6. Brian Bruney needs to start pitching well. Phil Hughes has taken over his spot as the 8th inning guy, or at least the go-to guy when the Yanks need someone they can trust in a tough spot (if it's not the 9th inning, or the 8th with less than 2 outs).
7. Joba needs to start pitching well, too. His crap starts are just unacceptable. The least he could do is get to the 6th inning. FYI, you have the stuff to be a great starting pitcher, but you choose to nibble around the strike zone and lose guys on 0-2 counts. YOU ARE NOT PITCHING AS WELL AS YOU THINK YOU ARE.
8. While AJ & CC have been great as of late (maybe not CC against the Angels, but I wasn't watching the game, so I wouldn't really know), but the rest of our rotation? Eeek! Step it up guys. Hey, maybe we'll see Sergio Mitre!

Well, that's all I could think of so far. & with that being said, a recap of the 1st half of the season written by Mark Feisand of the Daily News:

* They are 0-8 against the Red Sox.

* Chien-Ming Wang is 1-6 and on the DL for a second time.

* Brian Bruney missed 40 games over two DL stints and hasn’t found his groove since he returned.

* Joba Chamberlain has been erratic every five days.

* Mark Teixeira hit .190 in April and went 95 at-bats without a home run in June/July.

* Alex Rodriguez missed a month after hip surgery.

* His replacement, Cody Ransom, then went on the DL himself, leaving third-base to scrappy minor-leaguer Ramiro Pena and aging 31-year-old Angel Berroa until A-Rod came back.

* Jorge Posada (22 games) and Jose Molina (54 games) have both been on the DL, leaving catching duties to Double-A call-up Francisco Cervelli and journeyman Kevin Cash.

* Robinson Cano went about two weeks without an RBI and hasn’t hit with guys on base all year.

* Xavier Nady played for a week before blowing out his elbow.

* Andy Pettitte’s ERA at Yankee Stadium is almost 6.00.

* Damaso Marte pitched terribly and has been out with a bum shoulder since April.

* Edwar Ramirez and Jose Veras stunk and were sent down/released.

* The Yankees are 51-34 and tied for first place in the American League East.

*****NOTE: This was before the series against the Angels.

With that being said, I'm excited to watch the homerun derby and the all-star game. If only it didn't count. They should really follow the NHL on this one. The team with the better record should get home-field advantage. Whatever. I'm also happy Pedroia isn't going to be the 2nd baseman. It's a bummer he had to leave because of a family emergency though :-\. Oh well, there are still a ton of red sox players on the roster, ughhh. Go AL!

5 more games before the all-star break

The Yankees took 3 of 4 from the Jays and last night took the opening game in the Twins series. It was the first time the Yanks came to town this season, so I was very excited to see the 2009 Yankees in person! They won the game 10-2 on 16 hits and 7 solid innings from CC Sabathia. He only gave up 1 run, a solo hr, and only 3 hits. It was nice to see him rebound from a poor start his last time out. And I was very happy to see him pitching well, as I was in attendance. As for the offense, they worked the count against Baker and got some hits and drove in runs. While some of the hits in the early going were little bloopers, flares, and broken-bat hits, they got it done, loading the bases a few times. The key to their offense was their 2-out hits with RISP.

Recap of the Scoring:

1st inning: Jeter lead-off single, K Damon, Tex single, ARod popup, RBI Single Matsui, K Swisher.
2nd inning: Cano lead-off single, infield single Gardner, deep sac fly Cervelli, popup Jeter, infield hit Damon, RBI single Tex, K ARod
4th inning: Cervelli lead-off single, walk Jeter, walk Damon, pop-up Tex, deeeeeeeep sac fly ARod, walk Matsui, walk Swisher, groundout Cano.
6th inning: Tex single, walk Arod, walk Swisher, single Cano, triple Gardner, double Cervelli.

All around, it was a team effort. The bottom of the lineup was excellent. I'm bummed Cervelli is being sent down because he had a great game. But now we have Posada and Molina catching, and Molina is one of the best back-up catchers. We'll see Cervelli soon, I'm sure of it :). And we're a very fortunate team to have him in the minors.

I think the highlight of the game was when Arod was robbed of a grand slam. Man, that thing was going out and everyone knew it, too. However, Gomez made a great catch and if he hadn't caught it, it was out because his glove was over the fence. Funny thing is, I said after ARod's first at-bat that he would hit one out that night. If it weren't for Gomez, that would've been true and it would've crushed every Twins fan in the dome because the game would've been 7-1 at that point. And it would've shut up their damn booing, too. At least that didn't matter too much as the offense kept pouring it on and were relentless. It sucked because Matsui almost hit one out, too, but it was caught. Next time, they shouldn't aim for dead center (408 ft).

It sucks that I had to go to the game with all Twins fans. Luckily I was next to a father and son who were Yankee fans. The son was so cute and had a Jeter jersey on, awww!! We both were so bummed about the Arod and Matsui should've-been-homeruns. Plus, there were a lot of Yanks fans in the building. There were definitely some loud cheers when they scored :). Man, those Yankees sure are sell-outs. They have fans everywhere. and man, Jeter is such a sell-out too. I mean appearing in his 10th all-star game? Clearly him getting the most votes in the AL means he's a sell-out and is a terrible shortstop. Scratch that, the whole organization is a sell-out because they know how to spend their money and get the best players and even have great young players in their farm system who are playing in the majors this year and are greatly helping the team out. And those 26 world championships? What a farce! Boo the Yankees for being rich because they know how to build a team and have the best fans in baseball. Hahahah, some people need to learn how to NOT be jealous.

Anyway, it was a great game and my record for games now moves to 4-0!!! Woohooo!!!

4/9/07: 8-2 W (WP: Pavano - Yeah, I know, I can't believe he actually had a quality start and was actually pitching for the Yanks lol)

5/30/08: 6-5 W (WP: Moose)

8/12/08: 9-6 W, 12 innings (WP: Veras - Mo blew his save :( )

7/7/09: 10-2 W (WP: CC Sabathia)

Tonight AJ Burnett faces Glen Perkins. Hopefully AJ will stay hot as well as the offense. Thursday, since CMW is on the DL....AGAIN!, Alfredo Aceves takes his spot. He will face rookie Anthony Swarzak. This is a game I'm not sure the Yanks will win. Aceves has made only 4 career starts, but was great in almost all of them and it was down the stretch, too. However, while I'm only a little worried about how he will pitch, I'm more worried about the offense facing Swarzak, a pitcher t hey've never seen before. We all know how those games go *rolls eyes*. Then they have to face the Angels. Ughhhh. The Angels are a much better team this time around (just like the Twins) but the Yanks always suck against them. I'm hoping that will change and they can take this series and then the series against the Angels before the all-star break. Btw, Congrats to Mo, Jeter, and Tex for making the team!

500, 501, 502, 503...

Happy 4th of July!

*Today is the 70th anniversary of the great Lou Gehrig's speech. "Today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth" - one of the most famous lines. The Yankees honored him by wearing "4ALS" patches, a #4 on 1st base, and reciting lines from his speech. They also donated $25,000 to the ALS Association of Greater NY.
*The Yankees had lost 3 in a row and 5 of their last 7 before their win against Atlanta in the second game of the series. It was sparked by Joe Girardi arguing with the 1st base umpire after he said Gardner was picked off 1st base (when clearly he was SAFE!). That sparked the Yankees as Cervelli hit his first major league homerun and the rest of the offense woke up. It also sparked them to a 7-game winning streak (a series win against Atlanta, a sweep of the Mets, and a series win against the mariners).


*Sunday night the game was on ESPN, so I was able to see Mo get his 500th save!!!! :) Congrats to him. It was just as awesome seeing him come up to the plate and work a bases loaded, 2 out walk to drive in a run and get his first major league rbi. Thanks, K-Rod.
*CC had a terrible last start (6 runs on 10 hits) against the Mariners. I'm hoping that he rebounds from that and has a great start next game because that's the game I am going to! I'm so freaking excited. Considering I saw Moose pitch the two games I went to last year and Carl Pavano the year before that, it's going to be great seeing one of the Yankees best pitchers this year and one of the newest. The Yankees have to face Scott Baker who struggled with his pitch count last time out, but only gave up a run. Of course, they were facing the Royals. He's 2-0, 1.50 against the Yankees, so I'm hoping they'll work his pitch count and get some runs off of him. I would love to see a series opening win from the Yanks.
*The Yankees pitching has been great and the offense has scored just enough runs to get some wins. It would be nice to see that continue over this 4-game series with the Jays as well as the series against the Twins.

GO YANKS!!!!