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.

C-Seeing the Rebound

             The Cleveland Indians have been totally abysmal and for a Yankee team that just got swept in Chicago and in which nobody other than Jeter is hitting, the Tribe were the right opponent at the right time. CC Sabathia was making the start after being complete with his second DL stint in many weeks and the rest certainly paid dividents as he was able to get the team back on the right track.



             That man again, Derek Jeter, started the game with a double and would come around to score soon after on a Nick Swisher RBI double to follow. Opposing starter Corey Kluber must have been unhappy with the Jeter double and the overall hot streak the Captain has been on, since the next at-bat he buzzed Jeter in the head and knocked off the helmet. Luckily Jeter wasn't hurt, but that forced CC Sabathia to send a little message of his own since he's never one to back down from a bean-ball conversation. Sabathia put his perfect start to the game in his back pocket and threw behind Indians shortstop (Jeter's position) Asdrubal Cabrera in the bottom of the 4th. Sabathia made the mistake of missing because on the next pitch Cabrera got the last laugh by hitting a solo homer to center to tie the game 1-1. After the drama Sabathia got back to pitching and put zeros up for the rest of his night. Nick Swisher broke the tie in the 7th with a much needed 2-run homer off of Cody Allen. Rafael Soriano entered the 9th with the 3-1 lead and made it interesting by loading the bases with two outs, but was able to induce a ground ball to end the end the game and snap the Yanks' 3-game losing streak. It was Soriano's 32nd save, Sabathia's 13th win, but most important Sabathia was able to give a strong effort with 7.1 innings and 9 strikeouts, plus his fastball reached 95mph on several occasions which wasn't happening consistently during June, July, and August.



             In Sabathia's absence and during his struggles, Hiroki Kuroda took the mantle as the team's ace, but a first inning hiccup prevented the Yanks from making it two wins in a row. Kuroda was tagged for 3 runs in the bottom of the 1st inning thanks for a 3-run shot from Michael Brantley. Yankee scoring only came in the 6th with a RBI sac fly from Mark Teixeira off of Indians starter Justin Masterson. The bases were left loaded in the inning and the last out with a hard hit ball from Russell Martin that was flagged out on the warning track. The bags would be left loaded again in the 7th as Teixeira ended the inning with a weak pop-up as the Yankees offensive woes continue. Kuroda was able to get it together and went the full 8 innings, but the Bombers were never able to get to Masterson or the Indians bullpen. Chris Perez came on in the 9th to seal it for the Tribe and tie the series at a game a piece.



             The final game was crucial for the Yankees in order to prevent the road trip from being a total-absolute-complete disaster after getting swept in Chicago and the possibility of losing two out of three to the awful Indians. It would be the soft-tossing Freddy Garcia versus the hard-throwing Ubaldo Jimenez and Jimenez was the first to blink by surrendering three runs in the top of the 2nd. An Ichiro RBI single, followed by a Jeter RBI groundout, and Nick Swisher RBI single gave Garcia a 3-0 lead. Just like the start in Chicago, Freddy rolled along early, but faced adversity soon enough. The Indians loaded the bases in the 3rd, but Garcia got out of the jam unscathed. Then in the 5th the Indians did it again with loading the bags, and were able to push across two runs from a Carlos Santana hit. Girardi took Garcia out in the 5th and elected for Boone Logan to get out of the inning. Curtis Granderson gave the Yankees a little cushion by adding a solo homer in the top of the 6th, and then the rest of the way Girardi mixed and matched his bullpen along in playoff fashion, including four outs from closer Rafael Soriano, to get out of Cleveland with the 4-2 win. Before the final out, a line drive hit Soriano in the right arm, but the cold-demeanored Soriano shook it off and was able to record the final out for his 33rd save of the season.



             The 74-53 Yankees get out the clean pinstripes out of the drier and get set to pad up their lead again against AL East neighbors the Toronto Blue Jays and wildcard-seeking Baltimore Orioles....

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...

The heavyweights decide it

             The New York Yankees and the Texas Rangers have established themselves as the best two teams in the AL (perhaps even across MLB) up to this point in the season and the scheduling gods placed them in a mid-August four-game bout at the new Yankee Stadium in a very possible playoff preview. With CC Sabathia out of the fold for the opener, young David Phelps was asked by Girardi to grow up a little more against the big-boy Texas lineup.The only toy tossed Phelps' way was that the Rangers were without the power-hitting Mike Napoli, on the DL with a quad injury.


             The Rangers acquired Ryan Dempster at the trading deadline and the long-time NL pitcher opposed Phelps in one of the most infamous AL homer-friendly ballparks. The Rangers struck first with an RBI single by Nelson Cruz in the 1st inning, and then a golfed David Murphy solo homer to right in the 2nd. Dempster must have thought this AL-hitting stuff was nothing but a myth when the yielded no hits in his first two inning of work. Then came the 3rd, Russell Martin lead off the inning with a single, followed by a Raul Ibanez single as well. Ichiro moved the runners over with a sacrifice bunt which put runners of second and third with one out. The next hitter, Jeter, walked, and that set up a base loaded situation for Nick Swisher. With one swing Swisher brought them all home on a grand slam and gave the Yankees a 4-2 lead they would never look back from.



             The Yankees added another run in the inning from a Curtis Granderson sacrifice fly that plated Cano, but the bases were loaded again and there was the possibility of a second grand slam in the 3rd. That was enough for David Phelps to get the win as he put in 5 solid innings with only giving up the 2 runs, and actually picking off two Ranger runners on the base pads. The newly acquired Derrick Lowe made his Yankee debut and took the pitching reigns from there. Chavez celebrated Lowe's entrance with a solo homer in the 6th that made it 6-2 Yankees, and two more runs were tacked on in the 7th from Jeter and Swisher RBI hits (Swisher's 5th of the night). Lowe went 4 innings of no run ball and technically qualified for a save which must have made the Indians just proud. The first round between the sluggers went to the Yankees 8-2.



              There was another former Dodger to toss at the Rangers, that's Hiroki Kuroda, who has served as the Yanks' best pound-for-pound starting pitcher in 2012. Facing him was the 13-7 lefty Matt Harrison and both pitchers refused to give an inch over the first 6 innings. In fact, Kuroda flirted with a no-hitter and it wasn't until the top of the 7th until he finally surrendered one to Elvis Andrus. With Jeter given a half-day with being the DH, Andrus was able to leg out an infield single on a tough play Jayson Nix wasn't able to complete. It begs to wonder had Jeter been at short that night - would've the play been made?



              Perhaps the Bombers couldn't score off of Harrison, but they certainly were able to run his pitch count up and had him out of the game after a one-out Derek Jeter single. Rangers manager Ted Washington selected hard-throwing Alexi Ogando to face the previous night's hero, Nick Swisher, and Mark Teixeira; both ended up in homeruns. Swisher's a 2-run shot with Jeter on that went deep to the Yankee bullpen, and Teixeira lined one that barely got over the right field wall. Now with a lead, Kuroda was able to get the final six outs on his own for a dominating two-hit complete game shutout that sealed the 3-0 victory for the Yanks.



             Rain delayed the start of the third round of the fight, and this time Freddy Garcia's turn came up to keep the Rangers off the board. The Garcia resurgence, ever since he was inserted back into the rotation after Pettitte went down, and Kuroda, are two big reason the Yankees haven't lost their positioning on top of the AL East with their rash of injuries to big-named players. After being suppressed over the first two games, it would seem the Ranger bats would bust out against the junk-throwing Garcia, but the Ranger bats were just as impotent against the steady diet of splitters, sliders, sinkers, and curves. The only Ranger to show up was Josh Hamilton, who actually hit two solo homers, and it was his first two ever in regular season play at the new Yankee Stadium.


             Luckily for Garcia, the Yankees were already up 3-0 and 3-1 when he gave up those shots to Hamilton. The Yankees took care of all their scoring in the 3rd inning from a bloop RBI double from Nick Swisher, yet again, hurting the Rangers with the first run of the game. A sacrifice fly by Granderson and a nice opposite field RBI single from Eric Chavez gave the Yanks all the 3 runs that they would need off of starter Scott Feldman. Garcia took the ball into the 7th and gave 6.2 innings, with Boone Logan entering the game to get the last out of the inning. It came down to the bottom of the 9th with Rafael Soriano on the mound and Josh Hamilton up again looking for his third homerun of the night. Soriano refused that to happen and struck out the Ranger slugger, then finished off the save for his jersey number 29th of the season. With the win, the Yankees guaranteed themselves the consideration of being the number one team in the AL since they would, at a minimum, have taken three out of four against the mighty defending AL champs.



                An afternoon matinee in the sunny Bronx was the stage for the final game as the Rangers looked to leave town with some shred of dignity while the wide-eyed Yankees targeted for the sweep. The struggling Ivan Nova took the start for the Yankees and was looking to improve on his good start last Sunday up in Toronto. Adrian Beltre but the Rangers up 2-0 in the 1st inning with a bloop RBI single that dunked in in front of Granderson in short center. In the top of the 3rd, the Rangers threatened to score more with the bases loaded and no out!! But Nova kept his composure by striking out Josh Hamilton, and then getting the next two outs and keep the game at 2-0 Rangers only. By the 6th Nova was challenged again by a lead off double from Hamilton. He would score, along with Beltre later on in the inning, and the Yanks were now down 4-0. This was the inning the Yanks turned it on as well and put a big five-spot on the board, highlighted by a 2-run homer from Andruw Jones that tied the game at 4. After Derek Holland was chased from the inning, Tanner Scheppers was inserted into the game and Russell Martin greeting him with a RBI single that actually put the Yanks ahead 5-4 after being behind for most the afternoon.



             With a mega sweep on the tips of their fingers, the Yankees gave it right back in top of the 7th. The usually reliable bullpen was cuffed up for three runs. Still looking to work his way into the mix, Joba Chamberlain failed to make a case for himself as the go-to 7th inning guy as a walk and a 2 RBI single to Craig Gentry helped put the Rangers ahead 7-5. The Yankees inched back with a run in the bottom of the 7th to make it 7-6, but Texas kept put runs on the board; two in the 8th and another in the 9th. Long-time Twins closer and now member of the Rangers' pen, Joe Nathan came on in the bottom of the 9th to finish off Texas' only win in New York.


            A sweep against Texas would've been cool, but taking three games out of four puts the Yankees at the 70-win plateau with a 70-48 record, and after being mired in a funk for a few weeks, one could fully say the Yankees are the team to beat in the AL and MLB with a little more than a month of baseball left....

A breath in between

             After the Yanks salvaged the four game series in Detroit by winning the final two games in dramatic fashion, a stop off in Toronto was supposed to allow the team to take a breath before heading home to host Texas and Boston, but the air got a little tight when they found out they needed to shut CC Sabathia down again, this time for an elbow fender-bender.



              Manager Joe Girardi gave the slumping Curtis Granderson the night off against lefty Ricky Romero in the opening game and inserted the athletic Ichiro into the lineup to play center field. The move must have brought good fortune to the Japanese star as he delivered 5 RBIs for only the third time in his MLB career. Freddy Garcia was on the mound for the Yankees and kept the game close for most of the way before the Yankee bats busted the game wide open later on. With a 3-2 lead in the bottom of the 4th, Garcia had runners on 2nd and 3rd with only one out and the Blue Jays (without Jose Bautista still) threatening to take the lead. The junk-throwing Garcia wiggled his way out of the jam by striking out veteran Omar Vizquel and then getting catcher Jeff Mathis to ground out. Mark Teixeira gave the pitching staff a little more breathing room with a solo shot in the 8th, and then Ichiro added a single that brought home two more and made it 6-2 Yankees. Toronto did answer in the bottom of the inning with another run to cut it in half 6-3, but the Yanks peeled off another 4 runs in the top of the 9th, including two more RBIs from Ichiro and the game ended up at 10-4 when it was all said an done. The Yanks reclaimed their prized 20 games over .500 mark.



            The man who was supposed to have been the Yankees No.2 starter coming into this season, Ivan Nova, hadn't thrown a good game in eons, and needed a solid sub-.500 club in order to get himself back on track. Opposing pitcher Aaron Laffey for Toronto certainly wasn't making it easy as both starters exchanged zeroes on the board for the first three innings. Girardi had his righty lineup playing against the lefty Laffey and in the top of the 4th, Jayson Nix singled in Mark Teixeira to break open the scoring. With two runners on, the next hitter Casey McGehee, crushed a ball Mark McGwire steroids-style to the upperdeck of left-center that gave the Yanks a 4-0 lead.



             Nova burped a run back in the bottom of the 4th after giving up his first hit of the game, but didn't implode this time and was solid through 7.1 innings with only giving up 2 runs and striking out 10 to finally get a win again, his 11th of the season. Derek Jeter scored McGehee in the 6th with an RBI double. With the 5-2 lead, Rafael Soriano worked the 9th for his 28th save of the season.



             Going for the sweep, the joy of such of a possibility had to take a backseat when it was learned CC Sabathia had to be placed on the 15-DL for the second time this season. The Yankees ace felt discomfort in his elbow before his last start in Detroit, and although was able to pitch effectively to win the game, with a nearly 6-game lead in the AL East the front office was taking no chances in shutting the big guy down for a few weeks. As a patchwork with Sabathia's arm on the shelf, GM Brian Cashman went out to pick up the recently released Derek Lowe.



              As for the final game, Phil Hughes didn't even give the Yankees a chance early on. The enigmatic Yankee homegrown pitcher was steamrolled for 6 runs in the bottom of the 4th inning after already being behind 1-0. Ryoto Igarashi was needed to start the 5th inning as Hughes was done after surrendering 7 earned runs, and he was no better as he gave up three more runs from a Rajai Davis double. Down 10-1 by the 6th inning, the Yankees finally went to work scoring 3 runs from a solo homer from Jeter and then a 2-run shot with the bat of Robinson Cano. The Yankees best chance to tie the score came an inning later when they plated three more runs to make it 10-7, and had Andruw Jones up at the plat with the bases loaded. One swing could've tied or even given the Yanks a lead, but instead Jones grounded into a fielder's choice and the rally was dead. Hughes had dug too big a hole for the powerful offense to be able to crawl out of for the 10-7 loss.



                Even with the failed sweep, the Yankees seem to be back on track and the timing couldn't be better with the 2011 AL Champion Texas Rangers backing their bags for a trip to the big city....