A split was never so good

             The Yankees had to be bright-eyed at a four game set against the 4th place Toronto Blue Jays as a road to get more wins than the Orioles en route to another AL East crown, but poor starting pitching and terrible hitting with runners on in Canada caused the Yanks to have to fight tooth and nail to get back to America without dropping into 2nd place.



             It seemed Ivan Nova had found himself after his first impressive start off the DL against Tampa Bay, but things where back in the air after he followed that up with a lousy start against the A's. It would be no better against Toronto as Nova was ineffective again and couldn't even finish the 5th inning. Brett Lawrie opened the scoring in the 3rd with a 2-run homer and Nova gave up two more runs in the 5th from an Edwin Encarnacion double. As for Yankee offense, there was none!! Brandon Morrow shut out the Bombers for 7 innings and the Yanks couldn't even scratch a mercy run against the Toronto bullpen. The only good news of the night was David Aardsma's first relief appearance of the season, but he too allowed a run. The Yanks fell 6-0 and their stay in Toronto was off to a stingy start.



             Hiroki Kuroda has been up and down since that brief period when he was the Yankees' best starter and a quality start was much needed after the Yanks dropped the first game. After getting shutout the night before, the offense wasted no time in getting to Chad Jenkins when Nick Swisher hit a double that knocked in two runs in the top of the 1st. Derek Jeter's ground out double-play an inning later brought another run home to make it 3-0 Yankees. Kuroda was tough early on, escaping a bases loaded jam unscathed in the bottom of the 2nd and didn't surrender a run until a Colby Rasmus solo job in the 5th. Kuroda allowed another run in the 6th before being removed, but by that time the Yankees had grown their lead to 7-2 thanks to a 3-run homer from the Canadian native Russell Martin, his 20th of the season as he has been marvelous these past two months, and then a RBI single from Ichiro. The closest the Blue Jays came to making it a game again was later on from a 2-run homer by Adam Lind that made it 8-4, but the Yanks completely blew it open with a Robinson Cano RBI single in the 8th and then a 2-run homer from Eric Chavez in the 9th that pushed the score to the 11-4 final. The Yanks received a good scare when Cano was hit in the hand by a pitch, but thankfully the x-rays were negative and major disaster was avoided, for now.



             In his first eleven innings in two games since coming back from the DL, Andy Pettitte hadn't allowed a single earned run and had two wins to show for it. In likely his last regular season start of 2012, Andy Pettitte took to the mound again in hopes of keeping those streaks going. Just as in those two previous starts, the Yankee bats gave Pettitte a 1st inning lead with a 2-spot from sacrifice flies from Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson off of Ricky Romero. Pettitte finally gave up a run, a solo homer by Rajai Davis in the bottom of that inning that cut the Yankee lead to 2-1. The Yanks left plenty of runners on the rest of the game, but after that first inning couldn't get any more in. Meanwhile Pettitte was tagged for another run, a RBI infield single by Davis in the 5th and then a go-ahead RBI double by Adeiny Hechavarria in the 6th that would eventually end Pettitte's day before the inning was done. The offense couldn't get anything going, even though Romero was out after three innings, and the Yanks would lose by the score of 3-2 which was nearly as miserable as their 6-0 loss to begin the series. Although he didn't pitch too badly, the lack of run support put Andy Pettitte at 5-4 so far in this comeback year of his, and worse, an Oriole win put both teams at a tie for the AL East lead.



             When the Yankees landed in Toronto they had to be thinking either sweep or at least getting three out of these four games, but already down two to one, the last game became a must-win that turned out to feel like five wins in one once it was all said and done. Phil Hughes was scheduled for this all-important start, coming off a tough loss he had to endure in Minnesota, and didn't look as good as he did on Tuesday when he put the Yankees in a 2-0 hole in the 1st. Eric Chavez cut that in half with his 16th homerun in the 3rd, but the rest of the offense was a no-show early on in this one against Henderson Alvarez. Meanwhile the Blue Jays kept pecking away at Hughes; a 2-run homer by Brett Lawrie in the 5th and then a RBI by Moises Sierra made it 5-1 Jays. Just like Nova a few nights previously, Hughes was only able to manage 4.2 innings before getting the hook. At the time the scoreboard was sporting a huge Oriole lead over the Red Sox in their game together that had the Orioles on track to end the day in sole possession of first place in the AL East.



             When it seemed the Yankees once 10-game lead in the AL East was about to make its final collapse in the 6th, the Yankee bats finally found a spark and the team displayed some of that same grittiness they showed against the Oakland A's last weekend. Cano would score in the 6th from a wild pitch to make it 5-2, and the bullpen, specifically Derek Lowe and Boone Logan (who got the win at 7-2 this season) kept the Jays off the board to keep the game within three runs. In the 7th, the Yanks would storm back to tie it thanks to an Ichiro sacrifice fly, a double by Robinson Cano, and then another wild pitch that allowed Alex Rodriguez to cross home. The Yankees would take the lead an inning later with the help of some small ball and two-out hitting, things the Yanks shy away from. Curtis Granderson lead off the inning with a walk, and Girardi left in Raul Ibanez against veteran lefty Darren Oliver (instead of going to the slumping Andruw Jones) and the non-moved worked out when Ibanez delivered a single to move Grandy to second. Russell Martin sacrificed both runners over with a bunt. Up came Eduardo Nunez and he knocked Granderson in with a sacrifice fly deep to center. With the Yankees now up 6-5, Girardi went to Brett Gardner to pinch run for Ibanez, still on second base. With two outs, Derek Jeter came to the plate and went his typical opposite field with a hit that scored Gardner for a 7-5 Yankees lead. In the top of the 9th, Granderson would come to the plate against Jason Frasor with the bases loaded and smoked a double to score two more and make it 9-5 Yankees. It wasn't a save situation in the bottom of the 9th, but certainly with the Orioles winning the Yanks were in desperation mode and selected for Rafael Soriano to put it away. The Blue Jays refused to go quietly and Soriano was unsharp with his location, soon enough bases were loaded with no outs. Instead of imploding to what would've been one of the worst blown games in Yankee history, Soriano settled down and only allowed one run with a double-play ball and the Yanks would escape with a 9-6 win to stay at pace with the O's in first place.



              The win, coupled by losses elsewhere in baseball on the day, gave the 92-67 Yankees a playoff berth after this injury-plagued and inconsistent-hitting season, but the final three games at home against the lowly Boston Red Sox will determine if they get the AL East title or have to crawl on their bellies with the new Wild Card rules. It's no excuse time for the Yankees as the Orioles have the tougher task of facing the Rays in Tropicana Field......

Snapping out of it

             The Yankees have been sleepwalking the past few weeks and far removed from the period in July when they were considered the best team in baseball. Poor starting pitching, injuries, not hitting with runners in scoring position, and the failure to put any type of winning steak together summarize the pinstripes lately. This wasn't the best time to face the surging Detroit Tigers, a team that has finally woken up in 2012 and are battling the Chicago White Sox for first place in the AL Central.



             The most guilty of pulling a disappearing act during this stretch of the season, Ivan Nova, started on the mound in Detroit. More bad luck for the Yankees to begin this set is that after facing King Felix two days previously and getting shut out, they had the fun task of facing the equally-as-tough Justin Verlander. Nova fell behind 2-0 by surrendering solo homeruns to Prince Fielder in the 2nd and Miguel Cabrera (what's a Yankees-Tigers game without Cabrera hitting on against NY) in the 4th. The Yankees battled back to tie it in the 5th from RBI singles from Jeter and Cano, but as Nova has been doing during his funk, he immediately gave run right back. Two RBI singles and a sacrifice fly by Andy Dirks put the Tigers up by three at 5-2. Nova ran into trouble again in the 6th and allowed two more Tigers to score at 7-2 and needed to be lifted by Girardi after only going 5.1 inning as his poor pitching continues getting tagged for 7 runs on 11 hits. On the other hand, Verlander was absolutely nasty going 8 full innings and striking out 14 batters on a season-high 132 pitches during the Tigers 7-2 win.



              Rick Porcello doesn't throw as hard as Verlander, so they were hoping for better results in the next game, and for a while things look promising when they scored two runs in the top of the 4th from an opposite field homer from Eric Chavez. Phil Hughes, looking to continue from his good start against the Orioles, gave it right on back in the bottom of the inning; starting with (yet another) homerun from Miguel Cabrera (why do they keep pitching to this guy?) and then a Johnny Peralta hit that scored Brennan Boesch. The Tigers weren't done either in the 5th as they scored two more runs on Hughes, and Boone Logan was needed to get out the left-handed hitting Andy Dirks, but instead gave up an RBI double that push it to 5-2 Tigers. Hughes didn't even get out of the 5th inning. The Tigers added a vital run in the bottom of the 8th after the Yanks made it 5-3 on an RBI double from Ichiro (his first hit with RISP as a Yankees - hurray!), Andy Dirks burned the Yanks again with an RBI single that scored Delmon Young. The reason the run was important is that the Yankees looked like.....the Yankees in the top of the 9th for the first time in a long time. With pesky Tigers closer Jose Valverde on the mound, the Yanks put a rally together. With two outs and Eric Chavez on first base, Raul Ibanez worked a tough at-bat and was finally able to draw a walk. The next hitter, Ichiro Suzuki, single to center that scored Chavez and made it 6-4. The low-averaged Russell Martin followed with an RBI double that scored Ibanez at 6-5 Tigers and had Ichiro at third base with Curtis Granderson up at the plate. The former-Tiger had a good swing early that went foul, but soon after popped up to Prince Fielder to end the game at 6-5. Despite the loss and slipping under the '20 games over .500' mark, the Yanks had shown a pulse that would carry over to the next game.



              Brian Cashman gave CC Sabathia a boat-load of money in 2009, and re-structured his contract before the start of the 2012 season for one main reason: to be an Ace. Part of that role includes stopping losing streaks, and CC was needed for the third of four games for any hopes the Yanks could leave Detroit with at least a split. The offense did their part early, with perhaps a little help from manager Joe Girardi tinkering with the lineup; dropping the slumping Granderson to 6th and moving Nick Swisher up to 2nd in the batting order. Already up 2-0 by the top of the 3rd inning, with two runners on and one RBI already in the books for the night, Curtis Granderson hit a 3-run homer that gave the Yanks a 5-0 lead. The Yankee bats were really busting out and added two more runs by the 4th inning to give Sabathia a 7-0 lead to work with.



             The game was still early and with Detroit's dangerous offense, seven runs was nearly not enough. The Tigers began chipping away with a run in the bottom of the 4th and two more in the 6th. After running into some trouble in the 7th by giving up a hit to Austin Jackson to lead off the inning and a throwing error from newcomer Casey McGehee playing third base that eventually resulted in the Tiger's 4th run. Sabathia left after going 6.2 innings and painstakingly watched from the bench as David Robertson came out of the bullpen and allowed another 3 runs that closed the gap to 8-7 Yankees. Not to be overcome on this night, the Yanks for a change responded with two runs in the top of the 8th with an Mark Teixeira RBI single and then a Chavez RBI groundout that scored Cano. Detroit kept fighting with a solo homer from the newly-acquired Omar Infante in the bottom of the same inning that made it 10-8 Yankees, but the Yanks doubled that up with two more runs in the top of the 9th to make it 12-8. Although not a save situation. Girardi was looking to end all the madness of the night and had Rafael Soriano toss an inning to put this one to bed at 12-8 Yankees. Even though it wasn't a save, Soriano still felt it necessary to untuck his shirt after the third out. Since the Yankees never lost the lead, the win went to Sabathia, his team-leading 12th of the season, and it also put an end to Detroit's 10-game home winning streak.



            There wasn't much time for rest after the long fight the night before, an afternoon game was scheduled for the travel-day finale and Hiroki Kuroda was going against Doug Fister. For the third consecutive game, the Yankees took a 2-0 lead on the Tigers, this time in the 2nd which included another RBI hit from the hit-happy Ichrio after the Yanks were already up 1-0. Kuroda let that stand until the 5th inning when the Tigers tied it on a 2-run homer from Johnny Peralta and then scored a go-ahead double from catcher Alex Avila which caused some controversy. On the double, the ball seemed to have hit the left field foul line, but the umpire's first reaction was to throw his hands up which is a signal for a foul ball. This caused left fielder Raul Ibanez to slow down his motor, but soon after the umpire changed the call to fair ball and the run had scored for Detroit and the took the 3-2 lead. The flip-flop call by the umpire caused Yankees manager Joe Girardi to come out and argue with the entire umpiring crew which caused his ejection, but not after he got his money's worth in hand gestures.



             When it seemed like lethargic play and bad luck would continue for the Yankees on their way to the airport, the Bombers called on their best friend this season, the homerun ball, to bail them out. Jim Leyland had Joaquin Benoit out for the 8th inning, and best known for getting out of a huge jam against the Yankees in Game 5 of the Divisional Playoffs last season, the Yankees would get some small measure of revenge on this rainy afternoon in August. Mark Teixeira smoked a line drive homer to right that was out in a hurry to tie the game at 3-3, and then the very next batter, Eric Chavez, took a pitch over the opposite field wall that turned the lead back to the Yankees 4-3 and caused the Yank bench to explode (just to show how much they needed this game). The Tigers made sure not to go away without a fight and Rafael Soriano was needed for a 4-out save after he was needed to get out of a jam in the 8th. Soriano was back out in the 9th and gave himself the jam of jams by surrendering a lead off double to Alex Avila, and then a single to Omar Infante to put runners on first and third with no outs. To his credit, Soriano buckled down and got the next two hitters to weakly pop up to the infield, and then the last batter, Andy Dirks, who killed the Yankees all series, to fly out to Granderson in center for the exciting 4-3 Yankees victory. It was Rafael Soriano's 27th save of the season, even though he started the year as the 7th inning guy, and it closed out perhaps the Yankees most important win to-date of the 2012 season...more than enough of a reason to untuck a shirt.



            With an extra spring in their step and the resemblance a first place team, the 65-46 Yankees cross into Canada to continue their win streak against the Blue Jays after sweeping them in the Bronx a few weeks ago.....

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.....

If there was any doubt

             As much as the Yankees organization dreads it, they had to pack the equipment and head over to Queens for the next installment of the 'no-win' situation against the Mets in their updated CitiField. If the Yanks win, well, they're supposed to beat the Mets, they're the Yankees. If they ever lose, how could you lose to your weaker hometown rival? With CitiField an absolute failure of a designed ballpark, during the off-season the fences were brought in to pull more homeruns from the weak-hitting Mets' teeth. These shorter dimensions could also serve to benefit visiting ball clubs who like to whack them out, and that's exactly happened with the Yankees.



             Things got interesting before a pitch was even thrown when Mets (unreliable) closer Frank Francisco stated that the Yankee hitters were a bunch of chickens and he couldn't wait to strike them out. Then when asked to clarify his statements, he changed his tune to say the Yankees are a bunch of crybabies, as if going from chickens to crybabies softens the blow.



             The Yankees played it down, of course, and focused to getting to business with Andy Pettitte on the mound against Jonathan Niese. If there was any anger to make Francisco eat his words, the Yanks didn't show it in the first inning. After failing to get a hit with two runners on in the top of the 1st, the Mets pounced on Pettitte and gave him perhaps one of the worst starts in his career. A clutch two-out hit by Justin Turner with bases loaded followed by a 3-run homer by Ike Davis which barely went over the right-field wall and dodged Swisher's glove, put the Mets up 5-0. Pettitte was able to settle down and give the team 6 innings as a way to not tax the bullpen. The Yanks chipped away with solo shots from Alex Rodriguez and Andrew Jones, and when the Mets added a run to make it 6-2, Robinson Cano added a 2-run homer in the 8th to put the score at 6-4. With the save situation for the Mets and the drama too good to be true, Francisco went out in the 9th to shut the door on the team he earlier referred to as chickens.



             Russell Martin lead off the inning with a booming shot to center that would've easily been a double, had not for a great running catch by Andres Torres. Pinch hitter Jayson Nix drew a walk, Derek Jeter then hit a single, and the Yankees were set up to make Francisco eat his words with two on, one out, and the heart of the order coming up. As rain started to drip from the skies, Francisco collected himself and punched-out Curtis Granderson looking at a called strike three fastball right down the plate, and then then got Teixeira to hit an infield pop-up. Frank Francisco had escaped the danger of putting his foot in his mouth and lowered his commanding ERA to 4.97.



             Maybe things weren't that great for Francisco because the next day he had to take himself out of being available when he complained on a pulled muscle on his side. Perhaps over extending himself the night before in order to backup his 'chicken' comment had cost him and the Mets in the long run. The Yanks sent Ivan Nova to even the series and up against him was Mets starter Chris Young. Kirk Nieuwenhuis got things started off for the Mets in the 3rd with an opposite field homerun which dunked over the wall in left. An error by Alex Rodriguez and Nova serving up an RBI single to the opposing pitcher of all people increased the Mets lead to 3-0. Although solid enough, Nova was only able to go 5.2 innings and needed Rapada to finish the 6th. The Yankees finally got to work in the 7th with a borderline called walk to Mark Teixeira, then a hit by Swisher which rightfielder Lucas Duda misplayed which put two Yankees on. Raul Ibanez, who has been very quiet lately, came up roses and slapped a Chris Young pitch into a line drive homerun that scooted over the right field wall and just like that the game was tied 3-3. In the same inning, with Jon Rauch in to pitch and pinch-hitter Eric Chavez up at the plate, Chavez hit a solo homer to the opposite field as well, nearly where Nieuwenhuis hit his previously in the game, and the Yanks took the 4-3 advantage. The Yankees bullpen held down the fort and Rafael Soriano closed it out to even the series and put and end to the Yankees 3-game skid.



             The Mets had some news about their mouthy closer Frank Francisco before the rubber game, apparently the injury he had was serious enough to put him on the 15-day DL. The game itself was to be a pitcher's duel between Yankees ace C.C. Sabathia and R.A. Dickey, who is off to a Cy Young caliber type of season with a 11-1 record and had just come off of throwing back-to-back complete game 1-hitters. Unfortunately for Dickey, that streak would end as the knuckleballer was erratic with his control and served up a massive 3-run homer to Nick Swisher towards right-center which gave the Yanks a 4-0 lead by the 3rd inning. A credit to the Mets, they battled back against Sabathia, who wasn't sharp and didn't have good velocity on his fastball. With the help of some sloppy Yanks defense and the Mets propensity to hit singles, the Mets knocked Sabathia out before the 6th ended and tied the game against reliever Cory Wade. R.A. Dickey was taken off the loss hanger and it was now a new game.



              A managerial decision by Mets skipper Terry Collins helped give the Yankees the lead when Robinson Cano lead off the 8th inning. Miguel Batista was on his second inning of relief and had given up a homerun to Cano just two nights before, but Collins left him in to pitch instead of going to his left-handed reliever Tim Byrdak, and Cano launched a bomb deep over the centerfield wall, nearly missing the Mets Apple, which gave the Yankees a lead again at 6-5. Rain started to come down in the 9th inning with Rafael Soriano on the mound to try to close it out for the Yankees. Soriano gave up a single and Ike Davis came to pinch-hit with two outs in which one big swing could win it for the Mets, but Davis flied out to Swisher to preserve the win and Soriano's 15th save of the season. The win had given the Yankees a 5-1 series against the Mets in 2012 in a true display of chickendom.



              With interleague play in the rearview mirror for the Yankees at 43-28, the Yankees make the long journey back from Queens to the Bronx to host old friend Johnny Damon and the Cleveland Indians....