Southside Snoozefest

             A trip to middle-America has caused Yankees fans to start sweating when three losses to the White Sox, coupled with the surging Tampa Bay Rays, have dangerously cut the Yanks' lead in the AL East to just 2.5 games. It's gotten so bad Yankees manager Joe Girardi almost tore off the head of a heckler in a postgame press conference after just have been swept in the Windy City.



             It was a sunny start for the Yankees in the first game when Chicago starter Gavin Floyd was chased by the 3rd inning by the Bombers, and his 0-3 score deficit could've been much worse. Freddy Garcia was cruising along for the Yankees and it wasn't until the 5th inning when the roof caved in on him. Chicago started their scoring with a 2-run homer from the released-Yankee Dewayne Wise.



             Garcia couldn't get anyone else out and was yanked out in favor of Cody Eppley after going just 4.1 innings, but Rapada and Chamberlain would also be needed to finally get out of the 5th, and by then Chicago had taken a 5-3 lead. Derek Jeter brought his hot hitting on the road with him and hit a solo shot to bring the Yanks to 5-4 in the 6th. Both Mark Teixeira and Casey McGehee had RBI singled to reclaim the Yankee lead at 6-5. In the bottom of the frame, the struggling from his return from the minors Chamberlain, still in the game from the 5th, served up a solo homer to the bottom of the order hitter Gordon Beckham to blow the lead and let the game be tied at 6. The Chicago homers didn't end there; Alexis Ramirez went deep on Logan in the 7th and Adam Dunn took Derek Lowe yard in the 8th to give the White Sox the 9-6 lead. Addison Reed came on in the 9th to close it out for Chicago for his 22nd save of the season.



             After blowing a tough game the night before in which the opposing starter was knocked out early, the Yankees got right back up on the horse and busted out into a 2-0 lead in the 1st inning off of old Twins pushover Francisco Liriano. Jeter lead off the game with a homerun, and later in the inning, Curtis Granderson grounded into a fielder's choice RBI with the bases loaded (a double or grand slam would've been nicer). Ivan Nova, who had the Yankees and their fans holding their breath with every start since the All-Star break, gave half one of the runs back in the 2nd from an AJ Pierzynski sac fly that scored Alex Rios, but held Chicago there. It wasn't until the 5th inning that Nova had his usual implosion. With the game already tied 2-2 from a homer Nova served to Konerko in the 4th, Nova gave up another big fly to Kevin Youkilis, but this time the bases were full for a grand slam. Nova was only able to go 6 innings and it was yet another miserable start for the young Yankee right-hander. After the game, and possibly a reason for his poor pitching lately, Nova was placed on the 15-day DL for shoulder tightness, but maybe its just to clear his head as well. Russell Martin added a solo homer in the 7th to bring the game back to a respectable 6-3 Chicago lead, but the White Sox added another run in the 8th to make it 7-3 and that's how the game ended.



             Bad enough the Yankees were facing a sweep and continued to be stymied by the White Sox, but the Jekyll-n-Hide Phil Hughes on the road was on the mound for the finale. Hughes ended up spinning a good game over 7 innings, but the only problem was that Chicago's young lefty Chris Sale was slightly better. The White Sox got on the board first with an RBI fly out by Kevin Youkilis in the 3rd inning. Liking the Windy City air, Derek Jeter hit his third homer of the series in the 6th to tie the game at 1-1, but Hughes surrendered a homer to Alex Rios in the bottom of the 6th to give Chicago back their lead at 2-1. The Yankee bats were quiet again and Addison Reed finished them off in the 9th to complete the Chicago sweep. The Media had also been unfriendly for the Yankees as ESPN reporter Skip Bayless had open speculation that the 38 year-old Yankee Captain Derek Jeter might be using performance-enhancing drugs as a reason for his great hitting lately, and in the wake of positive tests recently from former Yankees Melky Cabrera and Bartolo Colon. After the final White Sox game, Yankees manager Joe Girardi interrupted his own press conference to go over and tell a heckling fan to shut up, which was captured by news cameras.



             With the trailing Rays and Orioles seemingly never losing a game anymore, a series against the terrible Cleveland Indians, with the return of CC Sabathia from the DL, couldn't have have come at a better time...

More Native Americans to battle

             Fresh off the honeymoon of taking two out of three against the Mets in Queens, another team named after Native Americans, put their warpaint on for a visit to Yankee Stadium. After facing the Braves twice in as many weeks, this tribe was the Cleveland Indians. Even though the Yanks used their weapon of choice lately, the sweep, to fend off these warriors, news surrounding the team took a damper as two of the Yankees top starters were placed on the injury shelf. 



             The Yankees wasted no time in getting to Indians starter Josh Tomlin in the opening game when in the bottom of the 1st, Robinson Cano kept the hitting with runners in scoring position trend lately with the Yanks alive by smoking a 2 RBI double to put his team up 2-0. Cano himself was tagged out on the play trying to make it to 3rd base because of a throw to home first in which Teixeira was safe. An inning later, in quite a shocker, Dewayne Wise who was playing centerfield to give Grandy a night off, smacked his first homerun of the season (he would also add an RBI triple in the 6th as well). In the 3rd inning both Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher kept their longball magic from Sunday night by going back-to-back on solo shots in the 3rd inning.



             Old friend Johnny Damon, who joined the Indians a few weeks ago, was greeting kindly by the Yankee Stadium crowd, especially when he took his spot out in left. Yankee fans were also happy Damon did nothing threatening in the game as Hiroki Kuroda cruised along and was absolutely brilliant in 7 innings of shutout baseball to lead to his 7th victory of the season. Leading 7-0 in the 9th, the Yankees bullpen gave up a mercy run and then shut it down from there for the 7-1 win.



             Looking to bounce back from an awful start in 100 degree weather last week, Phil Hughes took the ball in the next game and picked up where Kuroda left off the night before. Facing Hughes was Justin Masterson and his array of heavy sinkers which has rendered tough on the Yanks in the past. Chris Stewart had a puzzling at-bat in the 2nd inning with a runner on third. After failing to bunt for a hit twice to put himself into an 0-2 count, Stewart a few pitches later flared one which hit off the 3rd baseman's glove and allowed the run to score to make it 1-0 Yanks. Up 4-0 in the 7th with Masterson out of the game, Alex Rodriguez crushed a solo homerun into the second deck out in the left field stands to add to the lead at 5-0. Hughes didn't allow a single run through his eight innings on the mound and left things to Cory Wade in the 9th to finish out.


             The Indians decided to wait till final inning to actually make a contest out of it. Wade, who hasn't been reliable in his past few appearances, was smacked around for four hits, including a 3-run homer to Jose Lopez, that made it 6-4. Even though Wade was able to get two outs, Girardi used the save situation to bring out his closer Rafael Soriano to get the final out for his sweet 16th save of the season.



             With the Yankees riding high with the best record in baseball and Andy Pettitte on the mound for the sweep against the cupcake Indian lineup, Wednesday had the makings of the perfect day. Things took a damper early when it was announced before the game that the ace CC Sabathia pulled an abductor muscle during his last outing against the Mets (which would explain his bad control and low velocity on Sunday night) and would have to go onto the 15-day DL. Missing 2-3 of CC's starts is one thing, but in the 4th inning and leading 2-1 thanks to a 2 RBI double from Eric Chavez off of Ubaldo Jimenez, Andy Pettitte took a hard liner off his ankle from the bat of the well-traveled Casey Kotchman. Pettitte tried to stay in the game, but in the first official pitch after that, a sharp pain shot into his foot and he needed to take himself out. An x-ray showed a fracture in the ankle which wouldn't require surgery, but would keep Pettitte out for at least two month. With Pettitte's arrival came more consistency from the starters and a better rested bullpen, now the rest of the staff will need to keep that going without their two lefties.



             The gritty game continued and the Indians took the lead in the 5th after a mishmash of pitching changes from Joe Girardi. Freddy Garcia was finally brought to get out of a jam and keep the score held at only 3-2 Indians. Jimenez looked untouchable at times during the afternoon, but the Yankees finally managed to get a few more of him in the 6th. After an A-Rod excuse me double to right field, Robinson Cano flicked an outside pitch with his wrists and the ball traveled far over the left field wall for a 2-run homer. Garcia gave 2.1 innings to earn his 2nd win of the season, and Eric Chavez already with 2 RBIs on the day, had another RBI from a single in the bottom of the 8th which would actually end up being a lifesaver. Rafael Soriano was brought into the 9th to close it out as always, but his heavy workload during the Mets and Indians series seemed to take their toll on him. Soriano wasn't sharp and had loaded the bases loaded with one out and Johnny Damon at the plate as a pinch hitter. Damon did his former team a favor and struck out, but Soriano walked in Michael Brantley thereafter and made the score 5-4 with the bags left loaded. Looking at a terrible disaster of a blown game on top of losing CC and Pettitte for the day, the next hitter Asdrubal Cabrera flied out to left and let the stadium crowd breath a sigh of relief.



                Instead of an old friend, an old enemy in Kevin Youklilis and his new team the Chicago White Sox are next to visit Yankee Stadium to start a rare 4-game set while the Yanks figured out how to get by without their two stud lefties.....