Splitsville in Baltimore

             For whatever reason Major League Baseball continues to schedule two-game series, so the Yanks had no choice to pack lightly and head down to Baltimore to have a couple of swings with the Orioles.



             The Monday night game pitted Ivan Nova against Jason Hammel, both sporting 4-1 records for the season. Nova was rather sloppy on the mound, and wasn't helped out by suffering a contusion on his foot from a line drive hit by Nick Markakis. Later on, Nova twisted his ankle coming off the mound to field a chopper hit back to him, which now puts his next start in jeopardy.



            The offense bailed Nova out of a 2-0 hole, and even took the lead when Curtis Granderson blasted a homerun deep off of Hammel. The Bombers fell behind again 5-3, but were able to rally to load the bases in the 6th and tie the score 5-5, then in the 7th the struggling Mark Teixeira hit his biggest homerun of the season. The two-run shot put the Yanks ahead 7-5 and they added on another run in the 9th for good measure. Eric Chavez did his best impression of Luis Castillo by not fielding a routine pop up to third base to end the game and forced Rafael Soriano to throw a few more pitches to save the 8-5 win.



            After the game Yankees manager Joe Girardi gave the excellent news that the new closer David Robertson had been experiencing discomfort in his shoulder and the next day was placed on the 15-day DL. This makes Rafael Soriano the third official closer within the week and places more responsibility on the shoulders of Clay Rapada and Cody Eppley.




            The Yankees ace CC Sabathia took his 5-0 record to the mound and the fact he has gone 8 innings in basically all his starts this season might've taken its toll. The big guy wasn't sharp at all and fell behind to the Orioles by a 4-0 score. Facing the Yanks was a lefty with the last name Chen, and since Bruce Chen is still with the Royals, it has to have been Wei-Yin Chen. The Yankee offensive was completely powerless until the 7th inning when Curtis Granderson hit an opposite field homer which barely got over the wall (and likely interfered with by a Yankees fan in the stands) and cut the Orioles lead 4-2.



            With a somewhat diminished bullpen, Girardi went with Freddy Garcia, who hadn't pitched in weeks, and a key moment occurred when Adam Jones went to steal second and even though the replay showed him out, the ump called him safe. Jones came in to score on a passed ball that Chris Steward wasn't able to catch (his second of the game) which made a Yankee comeback even more difficult at 5-3. With that, the Yanks started the 8th inning with a golden chance to accomplish the feat. Orioles reliever Pedro Strop walked the first two batters he faced which put two runners on with no outs and the number two, three, and four hitters due up to bat. With a night of bad ump calls, inept offense, poor defense, the 8th inning wouldn't be any better for the Yanks. Swisher grounded out and Cano followed with a doubleplay that got Strop out of the jam. Jim Johnson came on in the 9th for the Orioles to get the save and build a 2.5 game lead over the Yanks in the AL East standings.



              At 20-16 the Yankees cross the border to go to Toronto for another all-important two game set before the first round of interleague play begins...


     

Thank God for Ivan Nova

             In what was turning out to be a disastrous beginning to the season, Ivan Nova stepped up and provided the Yankees with something they haven't had yet in 2012, a good start.



            Nova went 7 innings and struck out 7 to help the Yankees secure a 6-2 victory over the Baltimore Orioles. With the win, the Yankees were able to remove the giant zero that was in their win column seemingly forever. Although Nova scattered 10 hits, he gave up no walks and was helped out by a number of double-plays. Derek Jeter brought his hot bat to Camden Yards with a 4 for 4 effort, but unfortunately Jeter is the only one in the lineup who is hitting with any consistency. Andrew Jones also chipped in with his first homer of the season, and looking at him, I still can't image he was once a gold glove center fielder.



           The second game was one of those marathon games the Yankees always seem to have when they visit Camden Yards. It took 12 innings to get there, but the Yankees squeaked out a 5-4 win over the Orioles thanks to another clutch hit from newest old guy on the roster, Raul Ibanez.



           Derek Jeter led off the game by doing A-Rod's job and smack a homer deep over the centerfield wall to give the Yankees an early 1-0 lead. Freddy Garcia wasn't able to follow up on Nova's good start and uncorked 5 wild pitches, something that hadn't been done since 1989 when Nova was only 2 years old. All night the Yankees left runners on base and were a putrid 1 for 12 with RISP. It looks like A-Rod can't even hit a ball out of the infield at this point and the days of Teixeira batting over .250 is in a museum somewhere. A key blunder in the game was by Yankees third base coach Robbie Thompson sending Swisher home on the Cano double with no outs and Swisher was nailed dead to rights at the plate. Then again, with A-Rod and Tex coming up next, can you blame Thompson? Ibanez came up in the 12th inning and smacked a RBI double into the Baltimore windy night. After going up by 1 run, Mariano came into the game to notch his first official save of the season.



           The final game of the set was yet another extra innings affair at Camden Yards, but this time it only took the Yankees 10 innings to accomplish the 6-4 victory. The Grandy Man finally showed a pulse this season with 2 hits, including his first homerun of 2012 that gave the Yanks an early 2-0 lead.



           CC Sabatthia was less than stellar again and struggled through 6 innings and gave up 4 runs. To CC's defense, or lack there of, he interfered with a sure double-play ball which led to Baltimore's first 2 runs. Maybe they should just let him eat again.



          Girardi rolled the dice in the bottom of the 9th to walk the bases loaded and put the winning run on third, but this time Rafael Soriano make him look smart by striking out Adam Jones to send the game into extra innings. Of course, Soriano was his usual happy-cheery self coming into the dugout.



         Nick Swisher came to the plate with a runner on in the 10th, and if there was ever a player who was due for a big hit, it was him. He launched a no-doubt-about-it homerun into the right field seats on a 3-2 pitch from Orioles reliever Kevin Gregg. Later on, the ball was tossed back onto the field and almost hit Swisher. A real reliever, Mariano Rivera, came into his third consecutive game to lock down his second save of the season to cap off the magnificent performance from the Yankees' bullpen all series long.



         Next up at 3-3, the Yankees head home to have A-Rod and Albert Pujols purchase a small country....