The party-poopers

             For scheduling reasons only some MLB head office janitor would know, the Yankees had to face the Atlanta Braves for a second time this season during this interleague phase. Although facing NL teams seems to be a delight to the Yanks, this time the NL struck back and in addition to snapping their fun 10-game win streak, the Yankees were also slapped around at home.



             Things got off to a good start with a rematch of last week's lefty match-up of CC Sabathia and Mike Minor. Previously in Atlanta, Minor had been cruising to the 7th inning with a 4-0 lead, when the walls crumbled on the Braves bullpen and the Yankees reversed it to a 6-4 win. Parallel in this game, Minor had been doing fine with a 2-0 by the 5th inning, when things slipped away again as soon as he reached near the 100-pitch mark. The Yankees in the bottom of the 5th had cut the score 2-1 and had the bases loaded with Derek Jeter at the plate. The Yankee Captain delivered with a 2-RBI single to give the Yankees the lead 3-2. That was more than enough for CC Sabathia who went the distance for his 9th win with a complete game performance that included 10 strikeouts. More runs were tacked on later by the Yanks thanks to longballs from Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano which ran the score up to its 6-2 final.



             The next rematch from last week featured Hiroki Kuroda, who has been on a pitching tear lately, against Tim Hudson. The Yankees had to have been feeling good in the 2nd inning when Nick Swisher hit a double which scored 2 runs, but the Braves answered back in the 3rd with an RBI groundout, and then scored 2 more runs to take the 3-2 leads. Thanks to some sloppy Braves defense, the Yanks were able to tie the score 3-3 on Russell Martin grounder misplayed by Chipper Jones in the bottom of the 4th. Tim Hudson was squeezed on the mound by the homeplate umpire which allowed Derek Jeter to walk to load the bases. On the ropes and about to get knocked out by Curtis Granderson, Hudson got out of the jam with a 3-pitch strikeout.



           The Yankees had a chance to take the lead in the bottom of the 5th when Nick Swisher doubled with Mark Teixeira standing on second base, but the ball was hit hard enough to reach right fielder Jayson Wayward, who gunned the slow-footed Teixeira at home to end the inning. The big out must have energized the Braves, because Brian McCann lead off the 6th with a double off of Kuroda and would eventually come around to score and give the Braves the 4-3 lead. The Yankees had one final shot to get a run and it looked promising when Granderson and Rodriguez reached to put 2 runners on first and second with no outs. Cano moved them over with a sacrifice ground out, then next hitter Teixeira hit a sharp grounder to Chipper Jones who was able to throw out Granderson trying to score at home, and last hitter Ibanez struckout, as he continues to wear down from overuse due to Gardner's injury. In the 9th, the Braves sent out their superman unnecessary hunched-over closer Craig Kimbrel with his 99mph fastball mixed in with 89mph breaking stuff and he made the Yankees first three hitters look childish as he saved the 4-3 game without problems.



             For the rubber match it came down to a pair of pitchers who did not face eachother last week; Phil Hughes and Tommy Hanson. With a heatwave hovering over New York and temperatures at Yankee Stadium reaching 95 degrees, Phil Hughes must have had his brain fried because he simply didn't have it. Already down 1-0 in the first inning, Hughes gave up a 2-run shot to Francisco Freeman to give the Braves a 3-0 lead. Derek Jeter struck back immediately by depositing the first pitch from Tommy Hanson over the right field wall to get one back for the Yankees, but Hughes gave it back in the 4th inning with a solo homer from Martin Prado. Just for good measure Hughes gave up two more homers to Jayson Heyward and even 9th-place hitter David Ross that increased the Braves lead to 6-1. Hughes couldn't even finish the 5th and Girardi had to come and get him out of the sun.



             The hot air helped the Yankee hitters as well as they started to mount their comeback with homeruns from Eric Chavez in the 5th inning, then Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano back-to-back in the 6th to cut the lead 6-4. In the bottom of the 7th, the Yanks had a golden opportunity to tie the score. The Yankees had cut the Braves lead to 6-5 and had runners on first and third with one out and A-Rod at the plate. A sacrifice fly or groundout would tie the score, but instead he did the absolute worst thing he could in that situation, he grounded into a double-play that ended the inning. In the top of the 8th, Boone Logan was on the mound with one out and a runner at first and third for the Braves this time. A ball was hit hard to Chavez (filling in for Teixeira who didn't start) and what would've been a double-play ball to end the threat, the ball was booted by Chavez and the runner scored from third to make it 7-5 Braves. Afterwards, Jayson Heyward ended it essentially with a 2-run bomb to right field that made it 9-5, and the game ended at 10-5 in a homer happy heat drenched afternoon.



             With the 10-game winning streak seemingly like a long distant memory after two frustrating losses, the 41-27 Yankees go for one final NL match-up, this time a rematch against the Mets, hoping the don''t turn things around like the Braves did....

The sweep goes on

             After sweeping the Mets in New York over the weekend, the brilliant idea must have struck in the Yankees brain because they decided to do it to the Atlanta Braves as well. In a rematch of the 1996 and 1999 World Series, the Yankees headed down to the confederate state to lock horns with Ted Turner's boys.



             Ivan Nova took the ball for the first game and was just as dominant as his past start last week against the Rays. Staked to a 3-0 lead, Nova knocked them dead for 7 innings and only allowed one Braves hitter to reach second base, which was done via a called balk on the pitcher. His adversary, Randall Delgado, only lasted 5 innings and was darn luckily he only give up 3 runs as Yankees put runners on each inning, but the hitting with RISP plague continued. Nick Swisher robbed Brian McCann of a 2-run homer with a nice over the wall catch, and Nova flashed some leather himself by catching a line-drive comebacker, and then tossing it to first for the doubleplay.



             Rafael Soriano was listed as unavailable due to a blister on his finger, as well as a blister on his brain for saying he doesn't care about the fans, in response to him getting unfairly booed off the Yankee Stadium mound after blowing a save against the Mets. Girardi instead had to piece a bullpen by committee and eventually it was Boone Logan sealing the 3-0 win.

 

              The next game wasn't as easy and actually it was the Yankees who were behind 3-0, and then 4-0, after another run was tacked on later. CC Sabathia, who has actually been the sloppiest starter during this hot streak the Yanks are on, gave up 3 of the runs immediately in the 1st inning. Braves lefty Mike Minor got the start and baffled the Yankees over 7.1 innings of work, but then an innocent single by Jeter started an avalanche.



             Braves manager Fredi Gonzalez brought in Jonny Venters, and luckily for the Yankees, the reliever probably had the worst game he would ever have in his career. Thanks to a single and then a walk, the bases  were loaded for Alex Rodriguez. With one swing of the bat, the ball barely tucked over the left field wall and the Yanks had tied the score 4-4. For for the first time in ions, a Yankee hitter delivered with the bases loaded. The historic shot tied A-Rod with Lou Gehrig on the all-time grand slam list with 23, keeping it in the Yankee family.


              After giving up another single to Cano, Venters was finally pulled in favor of Cory Gearrin, and he did no better. The next batter, Nick Swisher, smacked a 2-run homer to right and put the Yanks up 6-4, which also put CC Sabathia in line for the win, despite the unsatisfactory start. Back from the blister blues, Rafael Soriano got back into the save column with his 10th for the exciting 6-4 comeback win. The victory also brought CC to tie Nova in the number of team wins with 8.



              It was a rainy night in Georgia for the final came as the Braves sent Tim Hudson to the mound to try to salvage a win out of the series. Former US President and Georgia-native Jimmy Carter came out to support the home team and it turned out to be as useful as his tenure in the White House. Alex Rodriguez kept the hitting with RISP thing going from the night before to drive Derek Jeter in the 1st inning for an early 1-0 lead. Hiroki Kuroda continued to shine as he battled on the mound with the Braves have runners during every inning. The rain came down harder and harder, and both Kuroda and Carter toughed it out.



              Eventually, the Braves would break through for once with one of their runners on as Brian McCann hit a 2-run homer, this time over Nick Swishers glove to give the Braves a 2-1 lead. Curtis Granderson answered back immediately in the 6th inning by poking a 2-run homer out of his own to re-take the lead for the Yankees 3-2. Joe Girardi had the work the bullpen magic once again with the new kids on the block, and side-winder Cody Eppley threw a huge doubleplay ball to get the Yanks out of a dangerous first and third with one out scenario to hold onto the lead. The ever-pleasant Rafael Soriano was called upon again to finish it off and  the blister must be gone-gone as he was able to get the save, and the sweep.

 

              Thanks to help from the Mets, who seemed to take their Yankee fustrations out on the Tampa Bay Rays, a stunning sweep of the Rays put the Yanks in 1st place in the AL East. At 37-25, twelve games over .500, the Yanks head to Washington DC to visit the also red-hot Nationals, winners of their last six games as well. If things haven't been happy enough lately in Yankeeland, it was announce reliever David Robertson should be able to join the team in DC to improve an already strong Yankee bullpen....