Wouldn't it be nice if we could enjoy the historical pitching of yesterday? It should have been magical to see Wang pitch 7 innings of shut-out ball, followed by Joba and Mo who each struck out 2 of the three batters they faced. Unfortunatly, that all was overshadowed by that fact that Posada is going on the DL for the first time in his career. He had previously been diagnosed with a strained muscle in his shoulder but Jorge believes it is something more serious and is going to have it checked out further. Along with Jeter - Jorge is something of a leader for the team and he will most definitely be missed.

In other disappointing baseball news: how about this Clemens affair scandal?  As if things could get any worse for Roger's reputation..... I feel bad for the guy - I mean the whole steroid thing he brought on himself but now all his dirty laundry is going to be aired for the whole world to judge. I wouldn't want to be in his shoes right now....

Now hopefully Moose will follow in Wang's footsteps today. We need to tie this series up.  

Just a thought.......maybe we should have left that Ortiz jersey burried. Since digging it up, Boston has risen to the top of the AL - and Big Papi's average has gone from .083 to .188. Not to mention the grand slam that he had two days later. But hey, what's done is done. We just have to fight back.

I have to admit, I was getting a little worried last week, but with the return of Joba - and three straight wins, things are looking up. That all too familiar knot in my stomach has subsided and I am ready for Phil Hughes to settle in and get that win he deserves tonight.....

 

Once again we chose to have Moose pitch to Manny. At some point shouldn't we just stop pitching to him? I mean, when he's hot - he's hot. It's almost inevitable that he is going to hit that ball, and hit it well. Ramirez hit not 1 but 2 homers off Moose. One solo shot in the 2nd and a 2-run shot in the 3rd. Moose was not bringing his best stuff either - which should be a clear indication to pitch around Manny. At any rate, we fought back but not hard enough. Two runs scored off Papelbon in the 9th is an encouraging change for us. There was also a familiar tension between the two teams yesterday when Farnsworth pelted a 98 mph fastball off Ramirez's helmet causing an immediate bench warning to both teams. No retaliation was initiated - probably because of a pitch that struck A-Rod on the back the day before. Even though we won't be seeing Boston again til July, these little confrontations are not to be forgotten with these two teams.

In other baseball news - how about that 22 inning Padres/Rockies game? Something like the 9th longest game by inning in history - 147 at bats and 15 pitchers. Strangely the 6 hour 16 minute game wasn't much longer then Red Sox/Yanks game on Sunday. Alright, I may be exaggerating slightly........... 

Lastly, I'm sure you all heard about them spending 5 hours digging up that Ortiz jersey under the future Yankee Stadium. If you want to see how the auction is going click here. As I am writing this it's already up to $53,000 - of course all proceeds are going to a good cause.  

First off, I am sorry I haven't been posting as much as I would like. I have a horrible full time bartending job at night which restricts my time.....

Ok so we won the last two. Let's leave it at that. We had mediocre to good pitching, but nothing spectacular. All I know is that Wang is sharing first place for the most quality starts in the majors and I think that should make us happier then any batting stat thus far. Yea, if our boys can start hitting consistently, it's all good but we all know that our fate lies in the pitching. Joba will probably be out for the Boston series which isn't great news, but we give him our blessing and prayers. With Joba and Mo, we have pretty much the best closing staff in baseball and if Joba needs a few days off out of 160 games, we can live. Plus our boys are starting to hit....look at the game yesterday - three solo shots in the first two innings. That means we are definitely seeing any weak pitch that is thrown and acting on it. The Rays may have come back and fought a good fight but  it wasn't enough and we took this series by a longshot.......

Now it's time to look to tomorrow. Back to the most exciting games of the year........playing the Red Sox. The two pitchers should look very familiar from our first game last week. Seeing as how spectacular Wang has been - tomorrow should be very promising....although Buchholz isn't going to go down without a fight. Go Yanks!

The first two games of this series proved to be encouraging - even Saturday's game was a very close one, but yesterday was just heart wrenching for us. First off, Phil Hughes showed his rookie status by letting the pressure of the Red Sox rivalry get to him. It was almost painful to watch as he gave up 7 runs over 2 innings (6 of them earned). Even more painful was watching the Red Sox take complete advantage of Jorge's hurt shoulder, after he was forced into the game when Betemit was put in to pinch run for Molina. The Yanks really fought back - and were effective against Matsuzaka who was also not having the best start of his career - but overcoming a 6 run deficit isn't easy.

Not to point fingers - but I have to say that I think the biggest mistake in this series was Joe G. leaving in Moose to pitch to Manny in the 5th on Saturday. Manny has batted against Mike more then any other Red Sox player and knows him like the back of his hand. That first at bat where Ramirez hit the homer, looked to me like Manny knew exactly what Mike was going to throw and was waiting for the right pitch. It's not very often that you see a hitter psych out a pitcher but that seemed to be the case. I thought for sure that Joe would take Moose out in the 5th when he started to look tired - but not the case and once again Manny took advantage of Moose and hit a double that ended up tying things up......and picking up his 3rd RBI of the game.

Not to worry, we have plenty more times to tie things up with Boston. The drama of this match-up has just begun.  

Now for more bad news. Apparently we don't know who our catcher is going to be going into the series against Tampa Bay tonight. Molina hurt his hamstring on a slide into home on yesterday's game. Look's like they will move Betemit to the disabled list for pink eye and move up Chad Moeller from Triple-A.  Wow, I am having strange deja-vu's from the beginning of last season when we could not seem to stay healthy. Let's hope this isn't a trend that's going to continue much longer..... 

....To steal words from Derek Jeter. You know the season is back in full swing when we have the first Yanks/Sox match-up. Chien-Ming Wang against Clay Buchholz. We all know Buchholz from his no-hitter last winter in what was only his second major league start. Pretty amazing stuff, although his only start this year was not so great - giving up 3 earned runs in 5 IP. Wang was pretty outstanding his last outing and we hope to repeat that performance tonight.

No Jeter tonight still....alittle uncharacteristic of these rivalries but we will make it through. On an ironic side note...... In case you haven't heard, some dirty Boston fan working construction at the new Yankee Stadium put a Red Sox shirt in with the wet cement under what will be the visitors clubhouse. Apparently he was trying to put a curse on us. Good try bro - but watch your back when it ends up putting the curse back on the Sox..........

Ok, not to say that baseball is a joke this month, but seriously - what in the hell is going on? Baltimore has the best record in the AL? And the Tigers have the worst? They finally won a game lastnight but to balance out the unequality of the universe - we managed to let the Royals shut us out. Horrible. I mean, in all reality, it is April and we have only played a handfull of games, but my 4 year old god-daughter could have made better predictions about what would happen so far in the season......

I don't really have much to say about yesterday's game - as nothing really happened on our side. No RBI's, weird pattern of pitchers, some rain.....that about sums it up. Joe G. thought the rain would bring a delay mid-game, which made him scratch Ian Kennedy as the starter and start Bruney (who pitched 2 scoreless innings). In theory - then the starter would pitch relief after the delay - as if he was starting. I think that's the idea? Confusing. Strangely, I was at the Dodger game last week where Joe Torre did the same thing with the Dodger's starter. Let's learn a lesson from that boys - it didn't work for either of you.

In other Yankee news, hopefully Jeter will be playing again tomorrow. He's been treating a strained left quadricep muscle the last couple games which has caused the Yanks to bring up Alberto Gonzalez from Triple-A and send Shelly Duncan down. Posada is out for a couple games with a strained shoulder - but shouldn't have to be placed on the DL. I know all these injuries seem like a horrible nightmare of last year's early season but let's not start stressing it yet. Both boys are expected to be back for the Red Sox duel this weekend so we shall see.......

Well, if there is a silver lining to this series it's that we actually started hitting - even if we aren't producing the runs we should. It's not a new thing for us to lose a series to the Rays and then go to Boston and sweep. Thus is the crazy world of baseball. Look at the Royals. Did ANYBODY out there really think they would sweep the Tigers in the opening series of the season? I for one, am not taking credit for that....

It was good to see Pettitte back and healthy, and although we lost 6-3, Andy's only big mistake was on a single pitch over the plate to, ironically, Jonny Gomez. The result was a 3 run homer in the 5th. In case you missed it, Gomez is the Ray who got suspended along with our Melky and Duncan for the altercation during spring training. The other runs for the Rays were scored on an error by Shelly Duncan and a homer by Aybar off Ohlendorf.

As for the bombers, we had 9 hits but the only ones of importance were the double from A-Rod in the 1st that knocked in Damon, and a Jorge single in the 8th that scored 2 runs. Jackson pitched well, and got himself out of trouble multiple times - leaving 5 Yanks stranded while he was behind the mound.

Maybe our boys are having difficulty being without their new manager, who has been out sick the last two games. We wish him a speedy recovery, especially as things haven't looked so good since he's been gone.........

Alright so we took the first series. As long as we keep taking series I don't care if we don't win every game. Mark my words too......the Jay's are going to be hard to beat this year. Being in the hardest division in baseball and not making the playoffs every year is going to eventually catch up with you and those Jay's are ready to fly........

 

OK, now for the game. All I have to say about Phil Hughes is thank God. He is just the ray of sunshine that we need this year. As we all know, the Yanks problem always lies in the pitching....and spending big money on veteran pitchers equals injuries. I don't want to jinx anything but this kid is 21 years old so I don't think that's something we have to worry about right now. At any rate, he pitched 6 innings, gave up 4 hits and 2 runs. Traber and Bruney wrapped up the 7th and Joba got the job done in the 8th. Then we had Mo to close things up. I think that pattern of pitchers is something that we will see alot of in the future........

 

As for the offense - it was all tied up in the 8th when Abreau hit an RBI single that ended up winning the game. Strangely, the previous runs were scored on wild pitches, bloops, and bunts. Not something that we are used to seeing from the bombers. I have to make a note of Giambi though. Even in a bit of a slump, that guy has the most amazing eye - maybe even in the entire sport right now......

 

All and all we took the Jay's despite Rio's hot Yankee hitting streak, and youngster McGowen's stellar pitching. Funny, he is like the Phil Hughes of the Jay's. Young and smart....although he had a few more months under his belt last season........

 

Tomorrow we go from the Jay's to the Ray's - beware of drama in that match-up.....