The Road to First

             The Yankees took a trip to the homely Midwest of America with most thinking they were going to get swallowed whole, but by the time they returned to New York the Yankees would surprise even more people by claiming first place status in the American League East.



             With Kevin Youkilis doing his part as a veteran player for the Yankees by going on the DL with a bulging disc in his back, and being exposed by Jayson Nix playing 3B on a regular basis, Brian Cashman picked Chris Nelson off of the Colorado scrapheap to fill in a body at third (not that he actually produces or anything). Just when Eduardo Nunez finally started to swing the bat, he suffered a ribcage injury and landed himself on the DL. The Nunez news was good for Jayson Nix; he gets to play shortstop everyday until Nunez returns. For whatever reason -  the baseball gods want Jayson Nix in the lineup for the Yankees.



             Francisco Cervelli was swinging a hot bat for the Yankees, which helped calm fans' anxieties over losing Russell Martin. While catching, Cervelli used improper technique and left his bare right hand out and exposed while behind the plate. The reason catchers are told to kept their exposed hand low and away, or behind their back, is in the case of foul tips. Such as the one which led to a broken finger for Cervelli and placed him on the DL. The troubles Ivan Nova was having at the start of the season became very clear when the Yankees had to shut him with a DL stint of his own with inflammation of the right triceps. To help round it all out, the pudgy physic of Joba Chamberlain came back to haunt him as he needed to go to the DL for an oblique injury. Joba also suffered a mental brain lapse in Kansas City when he got confrontational with Mariano Rivera after Rivera told him to pipe down from being loud during the great closer's media session. According to media reports, Joba got into Rivera's face and took objection to the way Rivera handled it.



            The Yankees PR machine tweeted a photo to let everyone know there's no beef between Mo and Joba, but Joba can consider himself off of Rivera's Christmas list.



            With more names to add to the ever-growing Yankees 2013 DL list, and a long road trip ahead of them, how were the Yankees able to capture 1st Place in the AL East?



             The pitching staff rose to the occasion and has turned it on in desperate times. Hiroki Kuroda has taken the lead, mixed in with better performances by Phil Hughes, CC Sabathia, and David Phelps, inserted into the starting rotation when Nova went down, has been brilliant. Surprisingly, Andy Pettitte has been the black sheep on the staff with a few consecutive lame outings, but he was much better in his last start against the Royals and earned the win. In the pen, the old David Robertson has returned and is locking down the 8th inning like he's been expected to. The pièce de résistance, Mariano Rivera, is a sweet 16 for 16 so far in save opportunities in this last Major League season campaign for him.



              With the Red Sox falling back to reality from the torrid start they had in April and the Yankees stringing together close-knit wins based on great pitching and barely enough offense, the Yankees were able to sneak in the backdoor and claim the prize of first place.

Position:
25-14 (1st Place AL East - 2 games in front of Baltimore Orioles)

Homeruns:
- Curtis Granderson is back in the Yankee lineup after rehabbing his broken forearm.
- Robinson Cano has answered his critics about being a No. 1 thumber in the lineup without the usual protection of A-Rod, Teixeira, and friends. Cano is hitting .306 with 10 HR and 25RBI.
- Ichiro Suzuki has been getting it going with his bat and has helped key several Yankee rallies.
- David Phelps has provided quality starts in Nova's absence and gives the Yankees a chance to win each time he's on the mound.
- Mariano Rivera looks like he can pitch another five seasons with a perfect 16 for 16 save marks in 2013.
- David Robertson has gone back to being a shutdown reliever after some early struggles in April.

Foul Tips:
- Austin Romine doesn't look comfortable against Major League pitching, although he's in there for his catching ability.
- Andy Pettitte lost three consecutive starts before finally winning one in a 4-2 win over Kansas City. There was concern that he couldn't find his cutter, which doesn't sound good.
- There might be bad blood in the clubhouse between Rivera and Joba.
- Travis Hafner needed a shoulder MRI that revealed tendinitis. The slugger claims he'll be back in a few days, but Hafner has a bad track record of injuries.

Strikeouts:
- Without the luxury of an occasional homerun to put up some fast runs, the Yankees have been getting shutout more than they're used to in recent years.
- Ben Francisco is turning into Yankees' fan's most hated player with a putrid .128 BA and 1 RBI generated from a solo homer.
- Chris Nelson hasn't given the Yankees anything at 3B despite the second chance he has been given this season after being cut by the Rockies.

            With Boston slipping, the Blue Jays a bust so far in 2013, and the Orioles and Rays struggling to get any consistence play, the opportunity was there for the Yankees and they snatched it!



            ...Bobby V doesn't manage the Red Sox anymore and he must be happy the Yankees are leading the Sox. 



            This early success doesn't make sense when the infield is made up of Nelson, Nix, Cano, and Overbay, but the grit and determination of these 2013 Yankees looks like they can beat the 2012 or 2011 Yankees easily....

Royal return to normalcy

             As the Yankees were seemingly heading straight to hell in the standings, a few games against the Kansas City Royals would typically be a cure for all the ails, but the Yanks were only able to split against the Royals a few weekends ago and scoring runs has been impossible lately.

            The team resumed it awful play immediately in a rainy, foggy, and miserable game to open the 3-game set. Hiroki Kuroda put the Yanks in a 2-0 hole immediately in the 1st inning by giving up a 2-out walk, followed promptly by a 2-run homer by Mike Moustakas which hit the foul pole. After that Kuroda grinded through 5.1 innings of work, only giving up 3 runs, but yet again the offense was non-existent. Felipe Paulino, just as he had done weeks ago, completely shut down the Yankees and had them eating out of his hand. In fact, the Yankees had one of their usual bases loaded and no out situations, and yet again failed to get a run in off it. 

            Manager Joe Girardi helped seal it for the Royals by bringing Freddy Garcia out of the bullpen in the 6th inning and his batting-practice quality array of pitches gave up a 2-run bomb to Jeff Francoeur for a 5-0 lead. The Royals would go on to win 6-0 and put the Yankees season record at .500 and on the way to the AL East basement. Ineffective as a starter, Freddy Garcia is also proving to be useless out of the bullpen as well and his $4 million dollar contract the steal of the century.



              Rumors swirled before the next game that the Yankees held a team meeting to discuss important issues such as why they suck so much lately. In addition, reports in the media were that the Steinbrenner family had interest in testing the waters of selling the franchise, due to the recent big money the sale of the Dodgers organization raked in. Yankees top brass and management denied both stories and it up to Phil Hughes to stop the never-ending avalanche of losing.




             The Yankees right-hander was up to the task as he continues to turn his tide this season and his love-handles was able to limit the Royals to 2 runs in his 6 innings of work, which included 7 strikeouts. Cano finally got the Yankees on the board in the 4th inning with a solo shot off of Luke Hochevar. An inning later the Yankees had one of their usual bases loaded and nobody out situations, but shockingly, instead of flushing the opportunity down the toilet, the Yankees got the weird idea of using it to score runs (perhaps the idea a result of the brainstorming from the rumored team meeting). Derek Jeter singled in a run and Curtis Granderson followed that up with a RBI groundout. The Yankees took a rare lead at 3-2 and Girardi pieced the bullpen together the rest of the way. Tension was high in the bottom of the 9th as Rafael Soriano was on the hill with two outs and the Royals with the tying run on 3rd base, but Alicides Escobar grounded out and the Yanks had won their first game in seemingly forever.



              With the remembrance of victory fresh in their minds, the Yankees set out to do it again in the final game against the Royals. Royals youngster Will Smith took the mound, and with his family in attendance, the Yankees offense properly embarrassed him.



            Curtis Granderson jumped on Smith in the 1st inning for a solo homerun, and then a few batters later Alex Rodriguez repeated the power feat with a 2-run shot to give the Yankees a 3-0 lead. A-Rod woke up from his season long slumber and added another homerun in the 3rd inning, a 421 foot bomb to left-center which put the Yanks ahead 5-0. That was more than enough for Andy Pettitte as he went 7 strong innings and only gave up two measly solo homers in his third start of the season.



            It was a 8-3 victory for the Yankees and the tweaking of Rodriguez's swing by hitting coach Kevin Long seemed to have paid off. More good news for the Yankees, both Brett Gardner and David Robertson were cleared to report to Tampa to begin their road to recovery from their DL stints.

               The rest of the club takes their 23-21 record out west to prepare to battle the Oakland A's. Hopefully they remember the benefit of hitting when they have bases loaded....

A disaster of Royal proportions

            Short of the entire Yankees team plane crashing and the whole squad getting wiped out, the team suffered a major blow before a pitch was even thrown as closer Mariano Rivera tore his ACL during batting practice trying to catch a fly ball. Rivera, although a pitcher, likes to shag fly balls in the outfield as part as his normal pregame ritual. As he went to track down a ball hit by newly acquired outfielder (who the fans are just going to adore) Jayson Nix, his right foot seemed to have gotten caught on the lip of the grass near the warning track and he tore his right knee.



            Rivera provided some encouraging news the next day by proclaiming he will return and not let that be the way his Hall of Fame career ends, but for now the Yanks will have to face the rest of 2012 most likely without their clutch closer, and the chances of them winning the World Series this year dropped.



           The Royals hadn't won a home game up to this point in the season and the Yankees pathetic bats from the Orioles series was the perfect cure. Royals starter Danny Duffy blistered through the Yankees lineup with 99 mph and 97 mph fastballs while Yankees starter David Phelps, making his first career start in place of the disastrous Freddy Garcia, struggled through 4 innings by giving up 4 runs. The Yanks chipped away at the score to make it 4-3 Royals in the top of the 9th with their closer Jonathan Broxton on the hill. Broxton, back in 2010 as a member of the Dodgers, blew a big lead to the Yanks during an interleague game and it must have still been in the back of his mind.



              Derek Jeter led off the inning with a double on a 0-2 pitch which was followed by a walk by Granderson. With two runners on and no outs, the Yanks looked primed to at least tie the score at 4-4, but unfortunately Mark Teixeira had other plans. The Yankees first baseman grounded into a doubleplay which left Jeter at third and A-Rod at the plate to possibly drive him in. To Rodriguez's credit, the ump blew the call on the second pitch which was way inside, that put the batter in a 0-2 hole against a pitcher who can also throw 99 mph. A-Rod worked the count to 3-2 before hitting a tapper which Royals third baseman Mike Moustakas made a barehanded throw to first to nick A-Rod before he hit the bag. A half a second later the play would've been safe and Jeter would've tied the score, instead the Royals had their first home win of the season.



             Losers of three straight, the Yanks sent their 3-0 ace CC Sabathia to the hill to stop the bleeding. The atmosphere around the team lightened up a little compared to the night before as Rivera told the media he would return, even though it seems that would have to wait till next season. Teixeira got the Yanks on the board early with a 2-run homer (couldn't do that in the 9th inning in the first game?) off of Bruce Chen, but CC gave it right back to the Royals as they tied the score 2-2 in the bottom of the 1st. Both starters locked in at that point and the game remained 2-2 until the top of the 7th when the Yanks scored 4 runs, capped off by a 2-run homer by Jeter, who continues his scorching start of the season. Joe Girardi didn't officially name a closer at this point, but on the of candidates, David Robertson, game on in the 9th to strike out the side to seal the victory.



           With the offense showing life and the Royals already with their expected one measly victory, the Yanks might've thought it was going to be smooth sailing from their, but it wasn't. This time Royals starter Felipe Paulino stymied the Yanks in his 6 innings of work, only facing on tough situation; a bases loaded scenario which he got Jeter to ground out. Hiroki Kuroda was yet again provided with no offensive support and took the hard luck loss in the Royals 5-1 victory, their second home victory of the 2012 season.



           Facing the complete embarrassment of dropping 3 out of 4 to the Kansas City Royals to compound with the devastating blow of losing Rivera for the year, the Yanks sent struggling starter Phil Hughes to the mound. The team received some good news for once in as many weeks as Nick Swisher returned to the lineup after his hamstring injury. Swisher's return must have sparked the team as they actually resembled the Yankees. The slumping Robinson Cano broke a 1-1 tie in the 3rd by blasting a grand slam as part of a 6-run inning. The 2 runs came from a Nick Swisher homer of his own. Later in the game, A-Rod added another bomb to make it 10-3 Yankees, and the final was 10-4. Hughes had his first clean start of the season going 6.2 IP with 7 strikeouts and giving up just 3 runs. The Yanks return home at 15-13 without Mariano Rivera to play host to the Tampa Bay Rays.



             Everyone knew the day would come of life without Mo, now we'll get a sample for the rest of this season.....