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....

And now its gone

             With an uninspired home stand behind them, the slumping Yankees hit the road on a quest to snap out of their funk against their AL East foes, and the first stop was down in sunny Tampa to get fried by the hot Rays.



             The Yanks caught a break with the fact David Price wasn't scheduled to pitch in the series, but the opening game wouldn't be a cake walk with the Rays sending James Shields to the mound. Also a plus for the Yankees, Alex Rodriguez was back in the lineup as a DH since suffering a broken bone in his left hand thanks to King Felix. In previous outing this season, the Yankees have been able to get to "Big Game", but it wouldn't happen on this Labor Day. Opposing Shields was CC Sabathia, who has looked very beatable in his past few starts with lost velocity on his fastball and control issues since coming back from the DL. A few well placed singles by the Rays in the 2nd inning, and a solo homerun by BJ Upton in the 3rd put Sabathia in a 2-0 hole. In the 4th, the Yanks would make a game out of it; Cano doubled, A-Rod hit a bloop single that sent Cano to third, and Chavez sacrificed Cano in on a line drive out to left field. Rodriguez would score on a Raul Ibanez triple and Russell Martin would leg out an infield single to bring home Ibanez and make it a 3-2 Yankees lead.



            Shields collected himself and struck out Ichiro and Chris Dickerson to prevent any further damage. The Rays got one back in the 5th to tie it at 5 when BJ Upton walked and eventually scored on a ground out by Evan Longoria. Sabathia grinded through 7 innings and the Yankees hit into double-plays in both the top of the 7th and 8th. In the bottom of the 8th with David Robertson on the mound and two outs, the Rays' Ryan Roberts got a hit to be on base. After a steal in Rays small-ball style to get onto second, Ryan scored on a Chris Gimenez grounder to second Cano couldn't field (nor dove for) and the Rays had the 4-3 lead. With Shields strong through eight innings, Fernando Rodney came out of the Rays bullpen, and perhaps the best closer this season in the AL, put the Yanks to bed for the 41st save of his season. Once again the Rays small-ball beat out the Yanks uncanny ability to hit into double-plays and strikeout with runners on.



            Facing heat from the media by not giving for the game-winning single the game before, Cano, starting as a DH with a hip injury from the very same play, smashed a 2-run homer in the 1st inning to the opposite field that gave Freddy Garcia two runs to start out with. With Garcia being another Yankee starter who can't be relied upon lately, the two runs definitely wouldn't be enough. Garcia gave one back in the bottom of the inning, and then served up a manufacturing line of homeruns; a 2-run shot by Evan Longoria in the 3rd, then solo shots by Desmond Jennings and BJ Upton in the 5th to increase the Rays lead to 5-2. As for the Yankees, they were shutdown after the 1st by the middle-of-the-road Alex Cobb and looked absolutely pathetic trying to put any type of rally together. The only good news for the Yankees was that after Garcia was lifted after one out in the 6th inning, the bullpen was able to go the rest of the way without giving up anymore runs. The loss would go to Freddy Garcia, his 6th, and Fernando Rodney made quick work of the Yankees in the top of the 9th for his 42nd save of 2012. The loss gave the series to the Rays, and officially erased the Yankees lead in the AL East and put them in a tie with the Baltimore Orioles, who seem to never lose a game anymore these days.



              Joe Girardi and his Yankees club held a closed-door meeting after losing their hold on the AL East, which was up to ten games at one point this season, and tried their best to salvage the final game and level with some level of respectability. Hiroki Kuroda has lost some of his luster after a solid June and July, and was called upon against the Rays' hard-throwing lefty Matt Moore. Kuroda would give up a run in the bottom of the 1st on a RBI single from Evan Longoria and the Yanks had to be thinking they were going to get swept with their inability to score anymore.



             In the top of the 3rd, the Yanks would get into the swing of it finally and a big double from the returning Rodriguez would bring Jeter home for a 1-1 game. Then Russell Martin, who Girardi moved up the batting order against the lefty, and in desperation since nobody else on the team is hitting, repaid Girardi with a 2-run double that gave the Yankees a nice 3-1 lead. Kuroda held that until the 5th when the Rays tied it on a 2-run triple from Ben Zobrist. Unlike the previous two games, the Yankees wouldn't fold after their lead was taken away. That man again, Russell Martin, crushed a hanging pitch from Moore in the 6th that gave the Yankees back a lead at 4-3. Instead of stopping the Rays at 5 runs, Kuroda gave the lead up again in the bottom of the frame with a solo homerun given up to Luke Scott. With a tied game in Tropicana Field in the late innings usually a recipe for disaster for the Yankees, they needed a big break to get a few more runs in, and they got one!! With two runners on and Derek Jeter at the plate in the 7th, a routine grounder to Elliot Johnson, playing in to make a play at home, misfired the throw to the catcher and both Yankee runners came home to give the Yankees a 6-4 lead. A healthy mix of Boone Logan, David Robertson, and finally Rafael Soriano was able to get the win(13th) for Hiroki Kuroda, and the save, Soriano's 36th. With the Orioles blowing a lead up in Toronto, the scoreboard portion of the season had begun and the Yankees reclaimed their lead on the AL East, a whole whopping one game up.



             Even after getting their lead in the AL East back, its clear the Yankees are in deep trouble with none of their starters looking sharp, Pettitte and Nova having no specific return dates scheduled, too many hitters not hitting with very low battering averages, and there seems nothing that can stop the surging Orioles and Rays - not to mention the A's, Angels, Chicago White Sox, and Detroit Tigers all lurking around the AL. The 77-59 Yanks can maintain, make, or break, their season with a visit to Camden Yards against those very same dangerous O's.