Top of the AL East heap

             After all the months of injuries, hot and cold streaks, too many homers, not enough small-ball, it all came down to three games for the Yankees against their heated foe the Boston Red Sox to determine if they'll be comfortably crowned the AL East champs or would have to roll the dice with the new one-game playoff  rules of the Wild Card round. The Yankees showed up in a big way to make their claim as the best team in the division and all the pieces are coming together in just the right time for a successful playoff run.



             While the Orioles, in a dead heat with the Yankees in the standings, were down in Tampa to mettle with the Rays, whose playoff chances were hanging by a string, the Yankees hosted the last place Red Sox and their last place roster with lame duck manager, Bobby Valentine, on his way out the door. CC Sabathia was looking for his fourth strong start and the decimated Red Sox lineup was the perfect opponent. Starting for the Red Sox was the oft-injured Clay Buchholz and the Yankees tore him apart in the 2nd inning and put the first game away immediately. Robinson Cano started the fun with a solo homerun, Curtis Granderson added a 2-run shot, Russell Martin then went opposite field for another, and by the time Cano got up again in the long inning, his double made it 7-0 Yankees and drove Buchholz from the game after 1.2 innings. Mark Teixeira made his return to the lineup after his weeks long calf injury, and he launched the fourth homer of the inning, a 2-run blast off of Alfredo Aceves. With the 9-0 lead, CC Sabathia had things well in hand; just giving up a solo homer to Daniel Nava in the 4th and a sacrifice fly in the 7th. Sabathia went 8 innings and struck out 7 batters to reach his 15th win of the season. Base running expert Melky Mesa had his first hit and RBI in the majors to increase the lead to 10-2, which is where the score ended. The Yankee win, combined with an Oriole loss in Tampa on the night, put the Yankees back in sole possession of first place!!



             If there was a game the Yankees were going to lose in this final regular season series, it likely was the second with tough-lefty Jon Lester starting against David Phelps, replacing the ineffective Ivan Nova in the rotation. Under wet skies the Red Sox took an early 2-0 lead in the 1st inning from a Jacoby Ellsbury single followed by a Dustin Pedroia double. Pedroia would eventually come around to score, but Phelps held the punchless Red Sox lineup from there. Meanwhile the Yankee offense was knocking on the door almost every inning against Jon Lester, but couldn't get that big hit with runners on. In fact, Mark Teixeira painstakingly hit into two double-plays with two runners on. The first Yankee run didn't come across until the middle of the Teixeira hitting gaffs, the 2nd inning, and it took an Eduardo Nunez lined shot to short that wasn't handled well and Curtis Granderson came into score. The score amazingly stayed 2-1 Red Sox to the top of the 9th inning when Rafael Soriano was brought out in the non-save situation. As he has been bit by the homerun bug lately, Soriano gave up another to James Loney that increased the Sox lead to 3-1. With the Orioles winning their game in Tampa, the pressure was on for the Yanks to hold onto their one-game lead. In the bottom of the 9th, the Red Sox went with their free agent replacement of Jonathan Papelbon, Andrew Bailey, and the struggling closer brought the Yankees back to life. A Curtis Granderson single put a runner on, then Raul Ibanez, solid in pinch-hitting scenarios lately, slapped a game-tying over the right field wall which put the Stadium crowd into a frenzy.



            The Yankees would go on to load the bases in the inning, but couldn't push across that winning run, yet. It wasn't until the bottom of the 12th that the Yankees were able to hold serve with the Orioles. After two solid innings of relief from Derek Lowe, which included a frog on the field game pause, the Yankees had a two-out rally. September call-up Francisco Cervelli, in as catcher, was in the hole 0-2 against the tough, tall, hard-throwing Andrew Miller. Somehow, Cervelli worked the count to 3-2 and drew a walk. The next hitter, Curtis Granderson, was the beneficiary of a four-pitch walk, which put Cervelli into scoring position. With that hero again, Ibanez, due up next, Girardi stuck with him instead of going to Andruw Jones for the righty-lefty match-up. The night ended with a well-placed single by Ibanez through the shortstop hole and the speedy Cervelli rounded the bases for the 4-3 game-winning run.



            There was one game left and the AL East, along with the best record in American League, was in front of the Yankees for the taken. A win would not only secure them the AL East title, but with the Texas Rangers limping to end the season, the Yankees also had the opportunity to give themselves home field advantage through the AL rounds. Two Japanese imports would take the hill, Boston's also oft-injured Daisuke Matsuzaka and his mythical gyro-ball versus the solid Yankee Hiroki Kuroda. Boston grabbed a quick 1-0 in the 1st inning, but Curtis Granderson erased that and then some with a 3-run homer in the bottom of the 2nd. An inning later, Robinson Cano went deep as well on Dice-K with a massive 2-run shot that made it 5-1 Yankees and eventually would make Bobby V to have to call upon his overworked bullpen.  Cano wasn't done with just the first homer, he smoked another in the 5th inning and then poked a 2-run single with the bases loaded in the 6th. The rout was on for the Yankees and the AL East was only inches from their grasp, as the Orioles were also trailing in their final game in Tampa. Boston would score again in the 7th to make it 9-2, but Curtis Granderson responded with his second homer of the night, the 43rd of the season. Just about every Yankee hitter got into the action one way or another and by the time the 7th inning was done, the Yankees had a massive 14-2 lead. Kuroda went 7 innings and picked up his 16th victory of the season. The Orioles ended up losing anyways, which would've given the division to the Yankees, but the Yanks stormed their way to finish the regular season with the 14-2 and Robinson Cano elevated his hitting to a whole new level before the playoffs are about to start.



              On Friday night the Orioles and Rangers play the one-game Wild Card playoff to determine which team faces the 2012 AL East Champion Yankees. Meanwhile the 95-67 Yankees can rest up some of their overused and overworked players and prepare for Game 1 of the ALDS. The Bomber line-up finally resembles what GM Brian Cashman and manager Joe Girardi had in mind with all the sluggers back healthy and Ichiro making his impact. CC Sabathia looks strong again, and Andy Pettitte is as sure as a bet as their is for postseason starts. There's no Mariano Rivera for those automatic saves, but a few days rest should serve Rafael Soriano well. Meanwhile Bobby Valentine would be relieved of his managerial duties in Boston after just one season of turmoil, Miquel Cabrera would be the first Triple-Crown winner since 1967, and the Mets had another wasted season. All is right in Yankeeland for the time being......

Almost another massacre

             The Boston Red Sox have had a miserable start to the first half of their season which has seen a boatload of injuries and too many poor performances from whatever healthy starting pitchers they had available. The Yankees wanted to do the honorable thing before heading into the All-Star break and kick Boston hard while they're down. The injury bug helped the the Yanks do some of the work when the pesky Dustin Pedroia was sent to the DL with a thumb issue before the Bombers even landed in beantown. With infamous Yankee slaughter jobs at Fenway in 1978, and more recently in 2006 when the Yankees took five out of five games during one long weekend, the conditions surrounding both teams opened the door for another in 2012.



             Things were looking slaughterish immediately after the Yankee offense had jumped on Josh Beckett in the top of the 1st inning to put a 5-spot on the scoreboard to start things off. Gallantly, a Red Sox roster saturated with minor league call-ups to fill in the many injured holes, fought right back and put a 5-spot  on the Yankees as well in the 1st inning off of Hiroki Kuroda and like that it was 5-5. Things were shaping up to be a long weekend at Fenway Park after the 43-minute first inning of the series. Yankee-Red Sox games are infamous for taking on average four hours to complete, and a laundry list of Red Sox injuries wasn't changing that.



             Both Beckett and Kuroda settled down an little, although there were threats on each side almost every inning, and by the end of the 6th inning the Red Sox were actually a inch ahead at 7-6. Then the tall Boston lefty reliever Andrew Miller made the fatal mistake of walking the lead-off hitter in the top of the 7th, lefty-hitting Curtis Granderson. Alex Rodriguez was able to reach on an infield single to put two runners on, and after Miller struck out Cano for the first out, the second fatal mistake was Bobby Valentine's decision to bring in Vicente Padilla to face Mark Teixeira and keep the switch-hitter batting left-handed where he already had an RBI hit earlier in the game. Once teammates in Texas, Padilla and Teixeira have developed a rivalry over the years due to Padilla's knack for beaning hitters. Teixeira certainly got the latest laugh by crushing a 3-2 fastball that plated two and put the Yanks up 8-7. Raul Ibanez followed with an RBI double, and after a pitching change, Eric Chavez chipped in with an RBI single to pad the score 10-7.



             Cody Ross flicked a homer over the Green Monster in the bottom of the 7th to cut into the lead at 10-8, but by the 9th inning the score was the same and Rafael Soriano was on the mound to nail down the first of four games the team would play over the weekend. There would be no comeback for Boston as Soriano breezed through the inning for his 20th save of the season, causing a certain shirt to be untucked.



             Due to a rainout when the Yanks were visiting Boston earlier in the season, a make-up game was needed, and it would be a day-night doubleheader on Saturday with Freddy Garcia getting another start after pitching well in Tampa and going against Boston's Franklin Morales. Instead of scoring five runs in the 1st inning like they did the night before, the Yankees only scored four this time thanks for a 3-run homerun from Nick Swisher that went over the Green Monster from hitting right-handed. Then Andruw Jones, in to play against the lefty Morales, followed that up with his solo shot also over the Monster for an early 4-0 lead. Freddy Garcia didn't choke it back and was a delight over his 6.2 innings of work in which he only surrendered one run. With the strong start, Garcia puts himself in line to take Pettitte's spot in the rotation until the veteran lefty returns sometime in late August. In the 4th inning Andruw Jones launched his second solo job, and then the usually quiet Jayson Nix cracked a bomb of his own over the Monster to increase the Yankee lead 6-0 and the game ended at 6-1.



             The nighttime task was handed to Phil Hughes to keep the Yankee avalanche going over the Red Sox and more 1st inning magic continued with Mark Teixeira's 3-run homer over the centerfield wall off of Felix Doubront. The newly acquired former Red Sox Darnell McDonald helped his old team out when he was playing right and distracted Curtis Granderson enough to drop a routine fly ball that helped Boston climb back at 3-2. Another thing the Yankees weren't counting on was a career day for minor league call-up Pedro Ciriaco who took Dustin Pedroia's role in being pesky. The Youngster went 4 for 5 at the plate, including the RBI double past the glove of third baseman Jayson Nix which gave Boston a 5-3 lead. The Yankee hitting hero earlier in the day, Andruw Jones, popped yet another homer over the Green Monster to bring the Yanks back closer at 5-4. Cory Wade was recalled from the minors thanks to a rule concerning extra pitchers for doubleheaders, but apparently he didn't learn a thing down there as he relieved a bad Boone Logan performance and ended up getting belted for three earned runs of his own that eventually put the game out of reach at 9-4. Eric Chavez did homer in the top of the 9th to make it 9-5, but Boston closer and former Yankee Alfredo Aceves was able to stop it there and finally helped put a Boston win up against the Yanks in 2012.



              With a chance to tie the series and hold onto some shred of dignity before the halfway point of the season, Boston sent their tough lefty Jon Lester to the mound against Ivan Nova who was searching for his 10th win of the season. The Yankees scored in the 1st inning of each game, so why would this one be any different? A Mark Teixeira RBI double and Nick Swisher RBI fielder's choice grounder gave Nova a 2-0 cushion to work with. In the bottom of the 3rd inning, a rare error on a pop-up by Derek Jeter put the really-annoying Pedro Ciriaco on base and he would eventually score on a David Ortiz double that made it 3-2 Yanks. As Nova kept Boston off the board after that, the Yanks were able to tack more runs on in the 5th from an RBI triple from A-Rod and then an RBI single from Andruw Jones. Speaking of Andruw Jones and the three homers he hit in total the day before, number four of the weekend came in the 7th with Swisher on base to make it 7-2. The bullpen for the Yankees wasn't sharp after relieving Nova, racking up six walks and giving back one run that took a 7-3 lead into the bottom of the 9th. Although not a save situation, getting outs in Fenway isn't easy, so Joe Girardi called on Soriano to put the exclamation point on the series. Things were looking a little dicey with two runners on, but Sory fanned Jarod Saltalamacchia, who had a horrible strikeout marathon all weekend, to end the game and give Ivan Nova his team-leading 10th win of the year.



           After the poor starting pitching in April and May, the poor hitting with runners in scoring position most of the first half, losing Mariano Rivera for the season, losing Andy Pettitte for the next couple of months, with hardly seeing Brett Gardner at all, and David Robertson down for a few weeks in the middle, the Yankees have displayed championship caliber mettle with a terrific 52-33 record, only one game shy of being twenty games over .500. The Yankees sport the best record in baseball and sit a lucky seven games on top of the AL East. The main concern now just has to be Robinson Cano not hurting himself in the upcoming homerun derby.....

The Dream Weekend at Fenway

            The Yankees brought their hot bats into Fenway Park and achieved something great short of winning the World Series, that is totally humiliating the Boston Red Sox and their jackass of a manager, Bobby Valentine.



              During the offseason, the Red Sox front office forced out long-time manager Terry Francona for losing control of the clubhouse and allowing his players to get fat from Popeye's chicken.



            To combat the fattening clubhouse calamity and awful September collapse of 2011, the Sox surprisingly hired former Mets manager Bobby Valentine and his clownish antics. Bobby V's pinnacle of success was in 1999 when he brought the Mets into the NL Championship Series and got wiped out by the Braves in 5 games, and then in 2000 he brought the Mets into the World Series against the Yankees and was also wiped out in 5 games. With some recent success in Japan (where the players probably had no idea what he was saying) and spending last season as a commentator for ESPN Sunday Night Baseball with his hair dyed a different color each week, this was the solution to all the Red Sox problems.



            The Friday game was proceeded by a ceremony to celebrate the 100th year anniversary of the opening of Fenway Park (which was also in the same week the Titantic sunk, any correlation?). Terry Francona, stilled bummed out on how the front office leaked stories to the press that an alleged addiction to painkillers hindered his ability to manage last season, changed his mind and joined the on field festivities which included a large amount of other former managers and players who once wore the Red Sox uniform. Pedro Martinez and Kevin Millar led the entire Fenway crowd into a gigantic toast, and that was about as good as it got for Red Sox fans from there on out.



            The Yankees got to business right away, scoring Derek Jeter in the top of the first, thanks for a fielding error on a pop up by Dustin Pedroia to start the game. Then from there the Yanks played the long ball game against Clay Buchholz with homeruns from Nick Swisher, Russell Martin Alex Rodriguez, and two from Eric Chavez (who doubled his total from last year in just one game!). The 6-2 final score was actually generous by the Yankees, who left a ton of runners on base throughout the game. Ivan Nova was great yet again and improved his record to 3-0 this season with 6 strong innings. Restless Red Sox fans unhappy with the team's 4-8 start this season, let Bobby V hear it as he went out to make his pitching changes. The manager also ruffled Red Sox feathers by publicly calling out fan favorite Kevin Youkilis a few days before for "not being into it" like he used to, although Valentine claimed his words were twisted. Dustin Pedroia had to remind his manager, "that's not how we do it around here". Didn't the front office know what type of clown they were getting?


            After trashing the 100th year anniversary party a day before, the Yanks sent Freddy Garcia to the mound to help pile it on the sliding Red Sox, but instead the Red Sox actually showed a pulse. Garcia was battered around for 5 earned runs and wasn't able to even get out of the second inning. This is now three lousy starts from Garcia, which looms large as it appears Brian Cashman traded a top blue chip prospect Jesus Montero for a busted flatscreen from Kmart, as new pitcher Michael Pineda has now been shutdown again due to shoulder tendinitis and needs an MRI.



            Red Sox starter Felix Doubront was having his way with the Yankees lineup as he cruised through 6 innings, only surrendering a solo homerun to Mark Teixeira. Down 9-1 in the 7th inning, the Yankee bats started to chip away the Red Sox biggest Achilles heel this season, their bullpen. With Daniel Bard moved to the starting rotation, Jonathan Papelbon leaving for free agency to Philadelphia , and new closer Andrew Bailey hurt; the Red Sox bullpen has been about the worst in all of baseball so far in 2012. A Nick Swisher grand slam and a two-run homer from Mark Teixeira (his second of the game) highlighted a seven-run seventh inning for the Yanks and cut the score to 9-8 Boston.

           Scoring seven runs in an inning was so fun the Yankees decided to do it again in the 8th inning and went up ahead 15-9. Bobby V couldn't stop the avalanche of the Yankee bats as each bullpen move only resulted in the need to come out again to the mound shortly thereafter. The Red Sox faithful, having witnessed about one of the most brutal blown games in recent regular season history, booed the manager louder and louder on each of his mound visits, and even chanted for the front office to bring back Tito (Francona). With nothing else to do or say about the matter, Bobby V reached into his usual bag of foolish
behavior and actually tipped his cap slightly to his adoring public.



              The Red Sox were able to run into a little luck as Sunday night's game against the Yankees was rained out, so they dodged facing Yanks ace CC Sabathia and a likely weekend series sweep. After losing their first three games of the season, the Yanks at 9-6 are about the hottest team in baseball and square off against another hot club in the Texas Rangers.

               Bobby V and the rest of the Ringley Brothers head to Minnesota to face the Twins....