A split was never so good

             The Yankees had to be bright-eyed at a four game set against the 4th place Toronto Blue Jays as a road to get more wins than the Orioles en route to another AL East crown, but poor starting pitching and terrible hitting with runners on in Canada caused the Yanks to have to fight tooth and nail to get back to America without dropping into 2nd place.



             It seemed Ivan Nova had found himself after his first impressive start off the DL against Tampa Bay, but things where back in the air after he followed that up with a lousy start against the A's. It would be no better against Toronto as Nova was ineffective again and couldn't even finish the 5th inning. Brett Lawrie opened the scoring in the 3rd with a 2-run homer and Nova gave up two more runs in the 5th from an Edwin Encarnacion double. As for Yankee offense, there was none!! Brandon Morrow shut out the Bombers for 7 innings and the Yanks couldn't even scratch a mercy run against the Toronto bullpen. The only good news of the night was David Aardsma's first relief appearance of the season, but he too allowed a run. The Yanks fell 6-0 and their stay in Toronto was off to a stingy start.



             Hiroki Kuroda has been up and down since that brief period when he was the Yankees' best starter and a quality start was much needed after the Yanks dropped the first game. After getting shutout the night before, the offense wasted no time in getting to Chad Jenkins when Nick Swisher hit a double that knocked in two runs in the top of the 1st. Derek Jeter's ground out double-play an inning later brought another run home to make it 3-0 Yankees. Kuroda was tough early on, escaping a bases loaded jam unscathed in the bottom of the 2nd and didn't surrender a run until a Colby Rasmus solo job in the 5th. Kuroda allowed another run in the 6th before being removed, but by that time the Yankees had grown their lead to 7-2 thanks to a 3-run homer from the Canadian native Russell Martin, his 20th of the season as he has been marvelous these past two months, and then a RBI single from Ichiro. The closest the Blue Jays came to making it a game again was later on from a 2-run homer by Adam Lind that made it 8-4, but the Yanks completely blew it open with a Robinson Cano RBI single in the 8th and then a 2-run homer from Eric Chavez in the 9th that pushed the score to the 11-4 final. The Yanks received a good scare when Cano was hit in the hand by a pitch, but thankfully the x-rays were negative and major disaster was avoided, for now.



             In his first eleven innings in two games since coming back from the DL, Andy Pettitte hadn't allowed a single earned run and had two wins to show for it. In likely his last regular season start of 2012, Andy Pettitte took to the mound again in hopes of keeping those streaks going. Just as in those two previous starts, the Yankee bats gave Pettitte a 1st inning lead with a 2-spot from sacrifice flies from Robinson Cano and Curtis Granderson off of Ricky Romero. Pettitte finally gave up a run, a solo homer by Rajai Davis in the bottom of that inning that cut the Yankee lead to 2-1. The Yanks left plenty of runners on the rest of the game, but after that first inning couldn't get any more in. Meanwhile Pettitte was tagged for another run, a RBI infield single by Davis in the 5th and then a go-ahead RBI double by Adeiny Hechavarria in the 6th that would eventually end Pettitte's day before the inning was done. The offense couldn't get anything going, even though Romero was out after three innings, and the Yanks would lose by the score of 3-2 which was nearly as miserable as their 6-0 loss to begin the series. Although he didn't pitch too badly, the lack of run support put Andy Pettitte at 5-4 so far in this comeback year of his, and worse, an Oriole win put both teams at a tie for the AL East lead.



             When the Yankees landed in Toronto they had to be thinking either sweep or at least getting three out of these four games, but already down two to one, the last game became a must-win that turned out to feel like five wins in one once it was all said and done. Phil Hughes was scheduled for this all-important start, coming off a tough loss he had to endure in Minnesota, and didn't look as good as he did on Tuesday when he put the Yankees in a 2-0 hole in the 1st. Eric Chavez cut that in half with his 16th homerun in the 3rd, but the rest of the offense was a no-show early on in this one against Henderson Alvarez. Meanwhile the Blue Jays kept pecking away at Hughes; a 2-run homer by Brett Lawrie in the 5th and then a RBI by Moises Sierra made it 5-1 Jays. Just like Nova a few nights previously, Hughes was only able to manage 4.2 innings before getting the hook. At the time the scoreboard was sporting a huge Oriole lead over the Red Sox in their game together that had the Orioles on track to end the day in sole possession of first place in the AL East.



             When it seemed the Yankees once 10-game lead in the AL East was about to make its final collapse in the 6th, the Yankee bats finally found a spark and the team displayed some of that same grittiness they showed against the Oakland A's last weekend. Cano would score in the 6th from a wild pitch to make it 5-2, and the bullpen, specifically Derek Lowe and Boone Logan (who got the win at 7-2 this season) kept the Jays off the board to keep the game within three runs. In the 7th, the Yanks would storm back to tie it thanks to an Ichiro sacrifice fly, a double by Robinson Cano, and then another wild pitch that allowed Alex Rodriguez to cross home. The Yankees would take the lead an inning later with the help of some small ball and two-out hitting, things the Yanks shy away from. Curtis Granderson lead off the inning with a walk, and Girardi left in Raul Ibanez against veteran lefty Darren Oliver (instead of going to the slumping Andruw Jones) and the non-moved worked out when Ibanez delivered a single to move Grandy to second. Russell Martin sacrificed both runners over with a bunt. Up came Eduardo Nunez and he knocked Granderson in with a sacrifice fly deep to center. With the Yankees now up 6-5, Girardi went to Brett Gardner to pinch run for Ibanez, still on second base. With two outs, Derek Jeter came to the plate and went his typical opposite field with a hit that scored Gardner for a 7-5 Yankees lead. In the top of the 9th, Granderson would come to the plate against Jason Frasor with the bases loaded and smoked a double to score two more and make it 9-5 Yankees. It wasn't a save situation in the bottom of the 9th, but certainly with the Orioles winning the Yanks were in desperation mode and selected for Rafael Soriano to put it away. The Blue Jays refused to go quietly and Soriano was unsharp with his location, soon enough bases were loaded with no outs. Instead of imploding to what would've been one of the worst blown games in Yankee history, Soriano settled down and only allowed one run with a double-play ball and the Yanks would escape with a 9-6 win to stay at pace with the O's in first place.



              The win, coupled by losses elsewhere in baseball on the day, gave the 92-67 Yankees a playoff berth after this injury-plagued and inconsistent-hitting season, but the final three games at home against the lowly Boston Red Sox will determine if they get the AL East title or have to crawl on their bellies with the new Wild Card rules. It's no excuse time for the Yankees as the Orioles have the tougher task of facing the Rays in Tropicana Field......

The old guys rule

             With fifteen games left in the season, the big boost the Yankees were waiting for in the return of Andy Pettitte had finally arrived as part of a day-night doubleheader when a rainy Tuesday night pushed back the longtime Yankee lefty from making his start against the visiting Toronto Blue Jays. It turns out Pettitte wasn't the only old guy in the locker room set to make some noise, Ichiro's bat and legs found a renaissance and drove the Toronto birds batty.



             Although he could've pitched the night cap, the Yankees stuck with the pecking order and had Pettitte pitch the day game with David Phelps slated for the nightcap. The Yankee offense make Number 46 feel right at home again with a quick three-spot on the board early against Henderson Alvarez. Robinson Cano doubled in Ichiro for the first Yankee run, then a RBI groundout and sac fly pushed the 1st inning score to 3-0 Yanks. Andy Pettitte did his thing from there; putting base runners on, but generating double-plays to get him out of jams. Pettitte would go 5 innings, giving up 4 hits, 2 walks, and 3 strikeouts for the win (his first since June). The Blue Jays made a game of it in the 8th when they got to a shaky David Robertson in the 8th for two runs and Girardi needed to go to Rafael Soriano to get the final out in the inning, a line-drive to left that Ichiro caught in the face of the blinding sun. Speaking of Ichiro, he would double in the 8th (his third hit of the game) and later score to make it 4-2 Yankees on a Nick Swisher Soriano came back out in the 9th to finish the game off for his 41st save of the season which made Pettitte's return that much more pleasant.



             A few hours later David Phelps and Ricky Romero locked up with Romero looking to even up the series at a game a piece. Both pitchers proved stingy throughout the night, but it was Phelps that gave up the first run when in the 2nd he gave up a RBI single to Adeiny Hechavarria. Phelps' battery mate Chris Stewart got that run back in the bottom of the inning when his ground rule double plated Casey McGehee, but the Yanks lost a run on the play when the speedy Ichiro was forced to stay at turn when he would've scored had the ball not ended up in the stands. Phelps was solid over 6.2 innings, but didn't stay in long enough to get the win. In the bottom of the 8th, the Yankees stole a page from the Tampa Bay Rays playbook after Curtis Granderson lead off the inning with a walk. Jayson Nix successfully sacrifice bunted him over to second base. The also speedy Granderson stole third and set it up for pinch-hitting Steve Pearce to get him in, but Pearce failed with a strikeout, and that left it up to the surging Ichiro to get the runner in with two outs. The Japanese sensation didn't disappoint and slapped a ball to the opposite field that scored Granderson and gave the Yankees the narrow 2-1 lead. Even though he closed out the day game, Girardi went with Soriano again in the 9th to seal the deal for the Yankees that brought Soriano his second save of the day, and 42nd of 2012.



              In no way was Yankees manager Joe Girardi gonna sit the hot-hitting Ichiro Suzuki, even though Toronto was sending up a left-hander to start the third and final game of the series, Aaron Laffey. Through all the peeks and valleys of Phil Hughes circa 2012, he gunning for his mind-boggling 16th win of the season and things weren't looking good by the by the third inning when he had the bases loaded full of Blue Jays and already down 1-0. Hughes ended up hitting Moises Sierra to bring in a run that made it 2-0 in favor of the Jays. Then Ichiro got things cooking; first with a homerun in the bottom of the inning, and then in the fourth with bases loaded with Yankees this time, Ichiro pulled a double to right that swung the lead back over to the Yanks at 3-2. The fun in the inning didn't end there for the hometeam, Jeter would slap a single to bring in another run, and then to top off the inning, Nick Swisher crushed a grandslam deep into the Yankee Stadium night for a whopping 8-2 Yankee lead.



             With the big lead, Phil Hughes still struggled to get hitters out and gave two of those runs back in the fifth from a 2-run shot from Moises Sierra, who he plunked with the bases loaded earlier in the game. Hughes was only able to go the 5 innings, but it was enough to qualify for his 16th win of the season, which leads all other Yankee starters - somehow. The Yanks tacked on more runs to make it more of a blowout again in the bottom of the same inning, but in the top of the eighth, things got interesting again. The expanded September roster brought the return of the forgotten Cory Wade and he made the Yankees remember why they sent him down many months ago. Wade gave up three runs in the innings and required Chamberlain to secure the final out, which then turned the blowout game into a save situation. With the heavy workload of Rafael Soriano from the day before, Girardi instead went with the original replacement for Rivera, David Robertson, and he notched the save for the team.



             From the last time Toronto visited the Yankees and made them look like a last place team, this time the 86-63 Yankees looked like the team on the right path to inch out the Baltimore Orioles for the AL East. An important sign was Pettitte coming back strong and feeling normal after his long awaited start, but another was the emergence of Ichiro as a homerun-hitting and base-stealing menace spark the Yanks were looking for when they brought him over from Seattle. More returns are on tap for the Bombers as it was announced that Brett Gardner would be re-activated soon and used as a possible pinch-runner if the Yanks are able to reach the playoffs. Back at their high-water mark for the season with twenty-three games over .500, next up for the Yankees is a another team threatening to take a Wild Card slot, the Oakland Athletics...

The walking wounded

            The injuries and a string of poor play are starting to really catch up to the Yankees as the Toronto Blue Jays came into Yankee Stadium to serve as a punching bag, but instead made the Yankees look flat and depleted. The Blue Jays are jockeying for position in the last position in the AL East cellar with the Boston Red Sox and are a team the Yankees should been using to pad up their lead in the division. By the end the Yankees would be left only 3.5 games up with the Baltimore Orioles coming in to possibly cut the lead down to a tiny half-game.



              David Phelps made the start with Nova on the DL and was helped out with a Robinson Cano homer to kick off the scoring in the bottom of the 1st. Adam Lind for Toronto tied it in the 2nd with a solo homer of his own, but Cano would have none of that and hit his second solo shot in the 4th to put the Yankees back up 2-1. The Bombers weren't done in the inning, a Russell Martin double that hit off of the leg of Blue Jays starter Henderson Alvarez that scored two more for a 4-1 Yankees lead. Phelps wasn't able to keep Toronto off the board and gave back two of the runs in their next chance in the 5th from a Yorvit Torreabla 2-run homer. The see-saw affair kept going on when Nick Swisher then hit a 2-run homer of his own in the bottom of the inning. Phelps allowed another run in the 7th, but Cody Eppley came in to get the Yanks out of the inning without any further damage. The young Yankee right-hander was decent enough in his 6.1 innings and mostly suffered from two long balls. It all came down to the bottom of the 9th with Rafael Soriano on the mound with two outs and a runner on first. Soriano was 0-2 on Rajai Davis and one strike away from closing it out. The next pitch caught too much of the plate and Davis was able to hit a single. Then a flat slider to the next hitter, Colby Rasmus, was crushed deep to right for a 3-run Blue Jay homerun that gave the visiting team a heartbreaking 7-6 lead. The remaining Yankee Stadium crowd unfairly showered Soriano with boos, despite the fact he is 33 out of 36 in save opportunities and its not as if Mariano Rivera never blew a save.



             The crowd would have another thrill before the night was through. In the bottom of the 9th Toronto brought on their closer, Casey Janssen, to do what Soriano couldn't do. His first batter was Derek Jeter, and he still had the homerun bug when he took Janssen deep to tie the game 7-7. Unfortunately for the Yankees, they couldn't get another run for a walk-off, so it went to extra innings. In the top of the 10th, the Blue Jays lead off the inning with a single off of new pitcher Derek Lowe. Mike McCoy came in to pinch run and played a little cat-n-mouse with Lowe trying to get a good lead off of first base. Mark Teixeira left the game earlier in the night due to a strained calf that will have him sidelined till the rest of the homestand at a minimum. With Chavez playing the bag and the combination of a poor toss over by Lowe, the ball ended up in right field and McCoy hustled over to third. The Blue Jays would eventually get the run in and take the 8-7 lead. Long-time reliever Darren Oliver came out for another inning and finished the long night off. It was perhaps the worst loss of the season.



             With Teixeira sidelined for who knows how long, the Yankees made a move to bring up Steve Pearce, who they acquired recently from the bottom-feeding Houston Astros for a sack of potatoes. On the mound for the Yankees was Phil Hughes, who took the hard luck 2-1 loss last week to the Chicago White Sox. This time Hughes would be on the other side of that 2-1 score as the Bombers squeaked by Ricky Romero and the Blue Jays. An RBI single by Nick Swisher in the 3rd and a sacrifice fly by Curtis Granderson to score newcomer Pearce in the 4th gave the Yankees all their runs. Hughes' only blemish was an opposite field homerun he gave up to Adeiny Hechavarria in the top of the 5th. In the 6th Hughes faced serious danger with two runners on and nobody out, but a fly out coupled with a line out double play in which Cano made a strong throw to third base after catching the ball, got the Yankees out of the jam. New father David Robertson breezed through the 8th and Soriano came on in the 9th to mend himself after the previous night's disaster and pick up his 34th save. Phil Hughes went 7 innings for his team-tying 13th win and struck out 5 while doing it.



             The Yankees had to feel the series was in their hands with C.C. Sabathia on the mound making his second start off the DL against Jays' lefty J.A. Happ. Things were going in the right direction early when the Yankees were able to grab a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the 1st from an Andruw Jones RBI single and Curtis Granderson fielder's choice ground out. Sabathia encountered a bizarre inning in the 3rd when he cleanly allowed a single to Jeff Mathis Then on the next play Jayson Nix, playing third, booted a ground ball from Adeiny Hechavarria and both runners were safe. Eventually the bases would be loaded with nobody out and the Blue Jays were set up for a big inning, but Sabathia was able to induce a double play which Nix fielded cleanly; stepped on third for one and tossed to home to nail Mathis trying to score. Sabathia looked to be one out away from escaping, but then two singled and a double which would plate three runs for Toronto and give them a 3-2 lead. In the bottom of the inning, the Blue Jays would give the Yanks a hand in the scoring of the next two runs. With runners on second and third, Curtis Granderson lined a ball to left field which should've been a simple fly out, but Rajai Davis misjudged it and let it sail over his head. Both Yankee runners came in the score and give the Yankees back a lead at 4-3.



            The Yankees could've put the Jays away in the 4th when they had a golden opportunity that was bases loaded and only one out. Happ buckled down and boldly struck out Swisher and Cano to escape surrendering any runs. Not adding any extra runs in that spot would turn out to be fatal. In the 6th, Adam Lind singled to right and the ball seemed to have been caught by the slowing Andruw Jones, but the umpire said the ball was trapped. That turned out to be crucial because the next hitter Yunel Escobar crushed a 2-run homer deep to left to put Toronto on top 5-4. The Yankees worked Happ's pitch-count up and had him gone after the 5th. New Toronto pitcher, Steve Delabar, came on in the bottom of the 6th and Jayson Nix started what looked like a promising inning with a leadoff double. With the need to play small-ball to get the runner in without a hit, the Yankees failed miserably; Ichiro failed at a bunt attempt and would eventually strike out, Chavez grounded out to move the runner to third, but Jeter completed the failure by striking out to end the threat. The Yanks had more small-ball failure in the bottom of the 8th, down by two runs this time at 6-4, the Yankees got one back from an RBI double by Russell Martin, a lucky double that hit the third base bag and allowed Raul Ibanez to score from second. Then the next three hitters failed as they did in the 6th; Ichiro flied out to shallow center, Chavez struck out, and Jeter flied out to right.



            With David Robertson unavailable from pitching three games in a row, Joe Girardi went to a string of pitchers in the top of the 9th and found himself with the bases loaded with Blue Jays and the unreliable Joba Chamberlain out of the pen still trying to get his act (and weight) together since returning from Tommy John surgery. With one out, Joba wasn't able to get a double-play, instead Yunel Escobar flied to right and the slow/non-chalant Andruw Jones yet again couldn't field the ball cleanly and it resulted in two runs, putting the Yankees behind 8-5. Mercifully, the Yanks would only lose by those three runs and were sloppy in the field with three charged-errors, although they should've received two more in the pitiful afternoon.



             The strain of A-Rod's missing bat in the line-up, Teixeira's new calf injury and his lingering wrist issue that will have him gone for a few games, Granderson's dive-bomb slump, and overall too many hitters with low batting averages, the need to effectively execute small-ball for runs is going to make the difference between being 2012 AL East champs and battling five other teams for the final Wild Card spot.....

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....

The bulldozer effect

             When the Yankees were in their terrible-mode in May, the Blue Jays knocked them around up in Toronto during a brief two-game stint, this time the Yankees were kind enough to return the favor. Reality has set in for the Jays since May and they came in at the bottom of the AL East pile while the Yankees are sitting pretty as perhaps the best team in baseball.



             Phil Hughes was scheduled to match-up against Toronto's Henderson Alvarez and it had the makings of a homerun derby with players like Bautista, Cano, Granderson, and Teixeira lurking around, but the game was pitched rather tight for most of the way. Russell Martin got the Yanks on the board early with a 2nd inning homerun over the right-field wall. Perhaps his game winning hit from last Friday is getting his dead bat going. The Yanks would add another in the 3rd from a Robinson Cano double that plated A-Rod to make it 2-0 Yanks. The Blue Jays chipped their way back and used a solo homer and an RBI double to tie the score 2-2, but overall Hughes was solid, going 7 inning and only giving up the 2 runs while striking out 4 hitters. The Yankees squandered bases loaded opportunities early in the game, but were given another chance in the bottom of the 8th to do something with it. Raul Ibanez came to the plate with the bags full and Jason Frasor on the mound. After working the count to 3-1, Frasor was forced to throw Ibanez a fastball and Raul deposited it over the right-field wall for a grand slam which blew the game open at 6-2. Although an error allowed the Jays to rally a little in the 9th to make it a 6-3 game, Girardi didn't hesitate to then bring in Rafael Soriano to finish it off for his 23rd save.



            The Yankees had been rolling without their number one starter over the past few weeks, and now it was the big guy's chance to get back into the action and add to the fun. On the 15-DL for the first time since 2006 with a strain ab muscle (which is kind of difficult when having a big belly), CC was slated to keep the Blue Jays in the basement. He would have some help before the game even started when it was announced that Toronto homerun machine Jose Bautista would be placed on the 15-Day for a wrist injury from the night before. Sabathia would take the news and run with it, posting 6 shutout innings with 6 strikeouts that earned him his 10th win of the season. Andruw Jones put this one away in the 3rd inning with a 3-run homerun to left-field off of Brett Cecil. The Yankees added three more runs in the 7th to make it 6-0, and Chad Qualls (silly head) allowed one Blue Jay run in the 8th that broke the shutout, but it ended in an easy 6-1 Yankee win. There was some negative news that Brett Gardner suffered yet another set back from returning this season, his one millionth set back during 2012, but seeing Yankee left fielders Andruw Jones and Raul Ibanez keep knocking out homeruns, the team is getting along just fine without him.



              With the Blue Jays about as dejected as possible from getting bulldozed the two previous nights, they tossed up the white flag early in the final game, falling behind 4-0 in the very first inning behind the poor starting pitching of lefty Ricky Romero. Mark Teixeira hit his 19th homer of the season batting right-handed that had the Yanks on top of Toronto 3-0, and then Andruw Jones singled in Cano to top off the 4-run inning. That was all Hiroki Kuroda needed as they steamrolled over the Jays hitters by going 7 innings and only allowing 4 hits while striking out 5. The Yanks had poked more runs in during the 4th and 6th innings, and after the top of the 7th when leading 6-0, the skies above Yankee Stadium opened up and rained down hard. The forecast said rain for the next few hours, so with the fact the Yanks were up 6-0 in the 7th and the Blue Jays looked dead, the umpires called the game in the Yanks favor to complete the sweep.



                It's west coast time again, after the game the Yankees backed their bags and headed to the airport for a little trip to Oakland where the Yanks have already swept the A's there this season, looking for another.....