Getting their Nova back

             Ivan Nova had been struggling for a long time since a very good first-half of the season, and the Yankees were hoping a stint of the DL to rest his achy shoulder would get the young starter back into form. The Yanks were able to improve their rotation in one swoop by penciling Nova back in and sending "Five-Inning" Freddy Garcia back to the bullpen. Another piece of the Yankee rotation in question has been CC Sabathia and his less-than-a-ace performances in recent weeks, and he would surely be tested against the Rays and their lethal lefty David Price.



             With cries of small ball from the New York media and Yankee fans as a solution for the team's recent offensive woes, the Yanks pushed across the first run of the series an old fashioned way in the 2nd inning. Russell Martin lead off with a single and was moved to second on a slow ground out by Andruw Jones. Then with two outs and Martin on second base, Steve Pearce blooped a single to center to bring the Yankee catcher home. It looked like perhaps Sabathia had turned the corner when he kept the Rays off the board through the first four innings, but then reality sunk in by the top of the 5th. A lead off double to Chris Gimenez, then a walk to Carlos Pena, a wild pitch, a single, and even an RBI ground out double-play from Evan Longoria, ended up bringing three runs across and the Rays had the 3-1 lead. Curtis Granderson committed lefty on lefty violence with a solo homer off of Price to cut the score to 3-2, but the Yanks couldn't get anymore off of the Rays' starter. Sabathia was sloppy again in the 7th and needed to be removed after allowing a RBI single to Ben Zobrist that made it 4-2 Rays. Cody Eppley got out of the 7th for the Yankees, but in the 8th, served up a solo homerun to BJ Upton on  a 0-2 pitch that gave the Rays a 5-2 lead. Johnny Peralta came in to start the 8th for the Rays and the Yanks had a window to crawl back. Derek Jeter, still as a DH with the bone bruise, started it off with a single, and after Nick Swisher popped up, Alex Rodriguez crushed a pitch to the second deck in right to inch the Yanks closer at 5-4. Rays manager Joe Maddon brought his closer Fernando Rodney in with only one out in the 8th to finally get out of the inning. Joba Chamberlain was called on in the 9th to keep the score at 5-4, but with a runner on third, a ground ball was hit to Eduardo Nunez, filling in at short for Jeter, that would've ended the inning without harm, but the ball went under Nunez's glove and the Rays increased their lead at 6-4. With the energy zapped out of the Yankees and the crowd from the costly error, Rodney breezed through the 9th to close out the 6-4 Rays victory.



             With the Yankees looking more and more pitiful each day and hopes of a long playoff run fading away, it was Ivan Nova's time to give the team a shot in the arm, by using his arm. It was a different Nova on the mound than what he's shown these past few months; accurate with his fastball, getting strikeouts, mixing in his slider and curveball, the DL stint really paid off. The offense gave him some runs to work with against Rays starter James Shields, starting off with a 2-run homer from Curtis Granderson in the 2nd, and then the very next hitter, Eduardo Nunez, back at short after the big error the night before, hit a solo blast off his own to give Nova a 3-0 lead. It wasn't until the 6th that the Rays got on the board when Evan Longoria crushed a solo jack to the Yankee bullpen for a 4-1 Yankee lead. Nova collected himself and finished off the inning. He would start the 7th as well, put was removed after giving up a hit to the lead off batter. Nova gave 6 innings and struck out eight Rays for his 12th win. The Rays drew closer in the 7th when Luke Scott, pinch-hitting, singled in two runs off of Joba Chamberlain. With the score 4-3 Yankees in the 8th, Alex Rodriguez gave Rafael Soriano an insurance run with a RBI single up the middle that pushed the score to 5-3. The former Rays stopper, and now Yankee Soriano, tip-toed his way through a hit and a walk in the 9th to get the save and allow the Yanks to take sole possession of 1st place in the AL East with the Orioles losing later on in the night.



             It had been a very long time since the Yankees had won a series a quality team, and a win to prove it to themselves and to the rest of baseball that they were still the Yankees was desperately needed with the season almost done. Hiroki Kuroda was on the mound for the Yankees and hard-throwing (but slumping) lefty Matt Moore started for the Rays. The Yankees were able to smack around Moore the last time they visited Tampa, and they got too him again for five runs in the bottom of the 3rd. RBI singles from Jeter (DHing) and A-Rod accounted for two runs, and Russell Martin went opposite field for a 3-run homer. Moore threw behind the next hitter, Curtis Granderson, and the home plate umpire felt it was on purpose and warned both benches. Joe Maddon thought the umpire overreacted, and for his opinions Maddon was tossed from the game. Kuroda had to grind his way through the game, giving up a solo homer to Ben Zobrist in the 4th and allowing three more runs in the 6th from a 2-RBI hit and RBI double-play. Kuroda was able to finish the inning and ended up going 6 with a whopping 10 strikeouts. The Yankee bullpen nursed the 6-4 lead the rest of the way and Rafael Soriano polished it off by getting his 40th save of the season. In a rare occurance, the Yanks had beaten out the Rays in a series and out-pitched them in the final two games.



         Back at the twenty games over .500 mark with a 83-63 record, the AL East-leading Yankees get more good starting-rotation news with Andy Pettitte's return scheduled for Tuesday against the Toronto Blue Jays, a team they really should take advantage of as they have the benefit of the easiest schedule left of teams in the AL playoff hunt....

The perfect Independence Day gift

             Tampa Bay has been a destination where Yankees go to die lately, losing seven straight there including getting swept in three games to begin the 2012 season. The dimmed lighting, the fast surface, the bandbox dimensions, the funky catwalk obstructions, and the half-empty stands usually spells doom-n-gloom for the Bombers.



              With CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte still on the absentee list, the spot start of the first game was awarded to Freddy Garcia who has been solid out of the bullpen lately and has worked his way out detention.



             Opposing Freddy and his 84 mph fastball was the hard-throwing Matt Moore and his 98 mph stuff, but in a contrast of pitching styles Freddy was able to bravely keep the game at 2-2 all the way into the 6th inning. Garcia's runs resulted from surrendering two solo homers to Carlos Pena and B.J. Upton. Thanks to some ABC baseball in the top of the 7th, the Yanks were able to plate Chris Stewart for the 3-2 after Jeter moved the runner to third and then Granderson got him in on a sacrifice fly. Then in the bottom of the 7th, more Tropicana Field misfortune fell upon the Yanks. Boone Logan walked Sean Rodriguez with one out in the inning, and then let him get to second base on a wild through. Although Logan was able to retire the next batter, a runner was still in scoring position and Girardi elected to bring out his trusty David Robertson to get the last out. In the usual manner of Joe Maddon getting one up on Joe Girardi, Maddon went to pinch-hitter Brooks Conrad (who?) and he delivered an RBI double off the wall in right to tie the game 3-3. Then the next hitter, the 9th place hitter, Elliot Johnson, cued a groundball to first which Gold Glove caliber first baseman Mark Teixeira misjudged the hop and let the ball go by him. Conrad scored to give the Rays the 4-3 lead and that was it for the Yankees. Fernando Rodney, who the Yanks can never touch, came on to close out the Tampa victory.



             The Yankees were able to toss one of their "realer" starters for the next game in Ivan Nova with his 9 wins on the season. He looked like he was on his way to his 10th win when by the 3rd inning the Yanks had a three-run lead against Tampa's James Shields, capped off by a 3rd inning solo homer from the increasingly impressive Dewayne Wise.  Then Tropicana Field struck again against Nova in the form of a barrage of singles, a stolen base, with a walk mixed in and Tampa had tied the game at 3 in the bottom of the 3rd. Although an inning later the Yanks briefly recaptured the lead at 4-3 thanks to an RBI hit from Eric Chavez, Tampa answered right back in the form of a 2-run homer from Sean Rodriguez. Nova went 6 innings and gave up 5 earned runs. Tampa Bay added 2 more runs in the 7th to make it 7-4, which ruined the Yankee debut of Chad Qualls who was charged with one of them. Once again Fernando Rodney was called in the top of the 9th to put the Yankees away and he did for his 24th save of the season and increased the Yankee losing streak at Tropicana Field to a painful nine games!!



                Another loss against the Rays and getting swept again in 2012 in Tampa seemed to be how the Yankees were going to spend their 4th of July holiday with the featured starting match-up of the tough lefty David Price against rookie David Phelps, making the spot start for the Yankees. Surprisingly, Phelps was able to go toe-to-toe with the annual Cy Young candidate Price and only gave up one run in his 4.1 innings of work. Joe Girardi pieced together the bullpen from there and the game was tied in the bottom of the 7th due to a solo homerun off of Price by Mark Teixeira. Anytime the Yanks scored in this series, Tampa was always able to return the favor, and they did it again. Lefty reliever Boone Logan misfired again and served up a 2-run homer to Carlos Pena which gave the Rays a 3-1 lead and it looked like the Yanks were done. Then something strange happened, two moves made by Joe Maddon turned out to not work (odd isn't?). He had old friend Kyle Farnsworth start the 8th inning and he ended up walking four batters, including A-Rod with the bases loaded on a close 3-2 pitch which made the score 3-2 as well. With lefty hitter Robinson Cano due up next, Maddon called on lefty reliever Jake McGee to get out of the jam, but he instead served up a 2 RBI single to the hot-hitting Cano which gave the Yanks the 4-3 lead and provided the Rays with a taste of their own Tropicana medicine. Although he didn't do his job, with the lead Logan was in line for the win. David Robertson redeemed himself from the poor outing two nights before with a scoreless 8th that included two strikeouts, looking very Robertsonish as he regains his armstrength after being on the DL. Former Rays closer and now $14 million dollar Yankee, Rafael Soriano, worked the 9th to seal the stolen 4-3 victory for the Yanks.



              With the next day off, the 49-32 Yankees head up to Fenway Park to try and beat down the sluggish Red Sox who will likely be without Dustin Pedrioa who will likely be on the DL with a thumb issue.....

Climbing up the ladder

             After being in the dumps about two weeks ago, the Yanks returned back to the Bronx after a much needed 6-3 road trip and were looking to leap over the Rays in the AL East standings. Two teams ahead of the Yankees, the Orioles and the Rays, had been struggling in recent games and it gave the surging Yanks a great opportunity to make up some ground.



              Trying to put his subpar start in Anaheim in his rear view mirror, Andy Pettitte took the ball in the first game against the Rays' "Big Game" James Shields, who has been nothing but in his last few starts against the Yankees. Pettitte made it look too easy as he put the Rays to sleep with no runs and two hits over 7.1 innings. Even returning Yankee fan favorite, Hideki Matsui, recently picked up by Tampa to help their offensive woes, wasn't able to make a dent and became one of Pettitte's 10 strikeout victims. The offense kept Shields in the palm of their hands as usual and blasted him for 7 runs in his 5 innings of torture, highlighted by a 4th inning grand slam by Russell Martin of all hitters. The defense didn't help Shields either as a pair of early errors led to two of the Yankees first runs. The seldom used Freddy Garcia made a rare appearance in a winning cause in the 8th inning to finish the Rays off for the 7-0 win.



             In keeping with the theme of strong starting pitching by the Yankees recently, and also trying to repent after an evil performance in Anaheim, Ivan Nova took over where Pettitte left off. Going up against Alex Cobb (I know...who?...) Nova came within inches of throwing a complete game shutout. Up 2-0 thanks to solo homers from Mark Teixeira and Robinson Cano off of Cobb earlier in the game, the offense tacked on 2 more insurance in the bottom of the 8th, which proved to be mighty later on.



             Girardi allowed Nova to come out in the top of the 9th, as he was cruising along all game, to finish it off. But then a lead off triple, followed by another triple made the score 4-1 Yanks with a potential run standing at third. Rafael Soriano entered the game to clean up Nova's mess.



             Like a machine, Soriano refused B.J. Upton, standing on 3rd, to score. First victim Matt Joyce popped up to the catcher. Next, Ben Zobrist struckout, and that set the stage with a familiar face in Hideki Matsui who could make it 4-3 with a swing of the bat, with the dangerous Carlos Pena batting behind him who could make it 4-4 with another swing. Instead, Soriano challenged Matsui with a fastball and Godzilla took it to the very end of the warning track as Yankee fans held their breath, but luckily it safely landed in the glove of Nick Swisher to end the game at 4-1. With Soriano's 8th save of the season, he secured Nova's 7th win and help the Yanks pass the Rays in the standing by a half-game.



             Looking for the sweep of the Tampa Bay Rays, the Yankees had to like their chances with sending their 7-2 ace CC Sabathia to the hill. Opposing him was the equally difficult David Price at 7-3, but the Yanks had been able to rough up Price in his last few visits to the Bronx. This time Rays manager Joe Maddon didn't put Matsui in the lineup and it seemed to have a reversal of fortunes for the Yankees. Tampa had a 5-1 lead by the 4th inning with Sabathia not being sharp at all, plus Jayson Nix having a difficult time playing in left, as Brett Gardner's eminent return can't come soon enough. An inning later, the Yankees had a sign of life to possibly tie the game with one swing, or at least cut into the deficit. With bases loaded and only one out, Alex Rodriguez battled David Price to work the count to 3-2 and fouled off pitch after pitch, until Price finally got A-Rod to strikeout. Rodriguez returned to the bench to a chorus of boos from the crowd. Cano after that grounded out and that was the Yanks last big chance of the night. Although they added another run in the 8th to make it 5-2, the Rays answered back with 2 more runs in the 9th and the game ended with a 7-3 final. With the win, the Yankees got the series, but the Rays took back their half-game lead in the standings.



                 With a third of the season already gone, A-Rod stands at a whopping 9 homers and only 22 RBIs, and for thirty-million a year in salary is on course for 27 homers and 66 RBIs. He'll get his chance to erase the bases loaded strikeout from fans' memory as the 31-25 club enters Round 1 of the Subway Series against the surprising Mets...

Life without Mo, Part I

             The Yankees returned home with a large part of their soul torn out with the season ending loss of Mariano Rivera (think "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan" when the Enterprise returns to base after the death of Spock).



              It was on with the show as the Tampa Bay Rays came to town, looking to add onto their six game regular season win streak against the Yankees. "Big Game" James Shields (with no rings but is still "Big Game"...?....) opposed the Yanks number two guy, Ivan Nova. Bouncing back from his previous bad start against the Orioles, Nova went 7 strong innings with 8 strikeout and only gave up 2 earned runs to pick up the win. Raul Ibanez, making Brian Cashman look wiser by the week, whacked two homers, on off of Shields. The Grandy Man added a homer of his own as well. The big moment came in the top of the 9th when a save opportunity was there to be had, and there was no Mo to be called on. Girardi went with David Robertson and although he loaded the bases for the dangerous Carlos Pena, Robertson was able to get Pena to look at a called third strike to end the threat, as well as the game. The Yanks snapped the Rays streak with a 5-3 victory.



           The second game was even more of a nail bitter as the Yanks spent the bulk of the game clinging onto a 1-0 lead. David Phelps made his second start of the season and gave a decent 4.2 innings of work, needing Boone Logan to bail him out of a bases loaded jam in the 5th inning. The Yanks lone run occurred in their first at bat as Cano doubled in Jeter to take the early lead. Jeff Niemann for the Rays kept the Yanks at bay and it all came down again to the top of the 9th when there was another save opportunity to be had. Even though he threw 25 pitches the night before, Girardi went with Robertson again for the save, and again Robertson made it dicey with a bases loaded situation. Unfortunately for the Yankees, this time Robertson wasn't able to escape this water-tank trick and ended up surrendering 4 runs to the Rays, highlighted by a 3-run homer by Matt Joyce. The Yanks couldn't answer back and took the painful 4-1 loss.



             Licking their wounds from a bad loss the night before, the Yanks had to look down the barrel of facing tough lefty-pitcher David Price.



             The good news for the Yankees was that they had their own powerhouse lefty on the mound to combat Price. CC Sabathia fell behind early 2-0 thanks to two errors gift wrapped by Eduardo Nunez's continued feeble attempts to play defense. The offense chipped back, starting with a Curtis Granderson solo homer, who continues to haunt Price with the deep ball.



              CC Sabathia breezed through the weak-hitting Rays lineup going 8 innings and only giving up those two unearned runs. Robinson Cano finally resembled a number three hitter this season by getting three hits, including a mammoth homerun which went over the Yankees bullpen and into the right field bleachers. With David Robertson shut down for the night after pitching the two previous nights, Rafael Soriano and his $14 million a year as a set-up man contract was given the mission to save the game. Sory was up to the task and smoothly saved the 5-3 win for the Yankees. Tampa did plate a run in the 9th inning, but it was originally caused by an infield single which Jeter momentarily bobbled. Other than that, Soriano went off without a hitch.


               At 17-14 and 2.5 games out of first place, the question for Joe Girardi becomes; next save situation, who gets the ball, Robertson or Soriano?....