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....

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....

Hughes gotta be kidding me

             Before returning to New York from their west coast trip, the Yankees made a little stop in Detroit to check out next year's models and face the disappointing Tigers who were 3 games under .500.



             All the signs were there for the Yankees to be able to get the first game under their belt easily as the Tigers had to call up Casey Crosby to make his first career start in place of Doug Fister, who was recently sent to the DL. It didn't take the Yanks long to welcome the kid to the big leagues as by the end of the 2nd inning they had put 5 runs on the board, mainly due to a grand slam by former-Tiger Curtis Granderson.



             CC Sabathia made the start for the Yankees and had a workman's type outing: going 7 innings and giving up 3 earned runs on 8 hits with 5 strikeouts for his 7th victory of 2012. In the 9th inning, with a runner on and the game well in hand for the Yankees, Alex Rodriguez added a homerun to push the score to 9-4 which is what the final score ended at. The Tigers started to threaten in the bottom of the inning, so Girardi was forced to bring out Rafael Soriano to get the last two outs for his 7th save of the season.



             Off from his first road win of the season against Oakland, Hiroki Kuroda faced off against Rick Porcello and for most of the game, the two were locked in a pitcher's duel. The new David Ortiz, in terms of Yankee-killing, Miguel Cabrera, broke the tie in the 4th with a massive solo bomb to center. There was plenty of tension in the game as both Joe Girardi and hitting coach Kevin Long were tossed for arguing the strike zone. After the Yankees had scratched and clawed to tie the game at 2-2 in the 8th inning, there was Cabrera to yet again hit another solo bomb to center, this time off of Cory Wade, to make it 3-2 Tigers.



            The Yankees kept on coming back as they managed a bases loaded walk-in run (although a hit would've actually been nice, but godforbid) against their tormenting dancing-idiot foe Jose Valverde, who blew the save. Only getting the single run in the 9th ending up costing the Yankees the game as the Tigers had a 4-3 walk-off in the bottom of the frame thanks for a game-winning sac-fly from Omir Santos.



            On most occasions when a rubber game has to be decided upon the pitching of Phil Hughes and 2011 MVP and Cy Young Award winner Justin Verlander, you hand the series to the Tigers, but on this day Hughes had other things in mind. Bouncing back from an awful start a few days ago against Anaheim, Hughes shocked everyone by throwing a complete game for the first time in his career and the only run he allowed was a solo shot by Prince ("Need to showboat after hitting one") Fielder.



          Just like the Angels game, the offense gave Hughes some runs early via the home run by Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez, who launched one 455 feet to left!!



        Hughes refused to choke away the lead this time and only gave up the one run on 4 hits with 8 strikeouts. Justin Verlander was handed his third loss in a row as a consecutive Cy Young Award looks bleak at this point. With a grueling road trip that included the Angels and the Tigers, two teams that made the biggest moves in the AL this offseason, the Yankees managed to go a pleasant 6-3 and saw signs of waking up from the likes of Mark Teixeira and Alex Rodriguez, yet the 29-24 club continues to be collectively putrid with runners in scoring position....

An A's for effort

             Escaping the horror show of no offense the Yanks were experiencing recently on the east coast, the team headed out west to the safe confines of the Oakland Coliseum where they had won six straight and wanted to tack on three more. After righting the ship somewhat by taking the last two games against the Royals, Ivan Nova was given the task to keep the small streak going against A's starter Tyson Ross.



             Although Ivan Nova was solid in the 7 innings he recorded on the mound with only giving up 3 earned runs, the story of the night as well as the weekend was the emergence of some of the missing Yankee bats, namely Mark Teixeira.



             The Californian air must have agreed with him because he was responded with 2 hits, including a homerun in the massive pitcher-friendly ballpark. Both Robinson Cano and Nick Swisher also added homers and Rafael Soriano came into the 9th to close out the 6-3 victory for his 4th save of the season.



              The next day brought two larger-than-life pitchers to the mound as CC Sabathia set to face his teammate from last season, Bartolo Colon. Like Freddy Garcia, Colon too hasn't had the same success he had in pinstripes in 2011 and the Yankee hitters were more than happy to see him.



             The Mark Teixeira Show continued as he shined in the offensive display by the Yankees with his whopping four hits that included two more homeruns added to his weekend tally. Robinson Cano too went deep in consecutive games, but he only hit one homer this time around. CC Sabathia navigated his way through 7 innings of work for his 6th win of the season. This time Soriano wasn't needed as the Yanks were well ahead 9-2 which became the final score.



             Winner of 4 straight games for the first time in a long time, the Yanks wanted to get greedy and make it 5 in a row with a sweep of the Oakland A's. Standing in the Yankees way was A's left hander Tommy Milone. In the top of the 1st inning, Derek Jeter continued to climb up the hits chart by surpassing Royals Hall of Fame 3rd baseman George Brett.



             Yankee runs weren't as plentiful for this final game and Hiroki Kuroda was forced the make an early 1-0 lead from an Andrew Jones bomb to centerfield stand. Looking for his first road win of the season and the usual recipient of poor run support, Kuroda took matters into his own hands and delivered shutout 8 innings of brilliance against the weak-hitting A's lineup. The only threat came in the bottom of the 7th when the A's had runners at the corners with only one out, but Kuroda boldly struck out Kila Ka'aihue and got Josh Donaldson to fly out. Mark Teixeira failed to hit another homerun, but did add a major RBI double to give Rafael Soriano a two-run cushion to work with. With the tying run at the plate in the bottom of the 9th, Soriano struck out Seth Smith to end the game and complete the sweep of the A's with the 2-0 win.



            Resembling a baseball team at 26-21, the Yankees head to the warmer Southern California this time to face off against the always-nemesis Anaheim Angels of California and a lockdown rotation of Jared Weaver, Dan Haren, and Ervin Santana....