The Yankees won their third game in 28 hours by beating the Orioles 4-2 this afternoon. They took three out of four in the series and finished their ten game homestead 7-3.

Freddy Garcia won his 10th game of the season – I know, right? He pitched six innings, gave two runs on five hits, walked two and struck out six.

Derek Jeter was hit by a pitch and left the game in the fourth. Amazingly, it was the same finger on his right hand that he jammed making a play in the field last night. He was x-rayed, they were negative, the injury was classified as a bruise and he is listed as day to day.

Because of the injury to Jeter, the infield alignment became interesting. Cano was the DH today to begin with so Nunez shifted to short and Francisco Cervelli came in to play second. It was comical. Thankfully, for the Yankees everything worked out okay. No crazy plays were needed.

The Yanks had a few missed scoring opportunities in the early going until Brett Gardner’s bases clearing triple in the fourth inning. It was his only hit of the day and it was all the Yankees needed.

After Garcia exited the game the bullpen shut the door.

Bullpen stats
Hector Noesi 0.2 IP 1H 0R
David Robertson 1.1 0H 0R
Mariano Rivera 1.0 0H 0R – 27th save of the season
4K – 3 by Robertson

Next up for the Yankees a trip to the Windy City to visit with the Chicago White Sox for four games.

The Yankees got nothing.

Everyone can now go back to bitching about Jesus Montero not being called up.

Hope you all enjoyed the craziness of the past week!

“Yo! Join in!” – Bald Vinny

Walking toward the River Avenue side of Yankee Stadium, a cacophony of sounds greets fans amidst the shuffling of feet and the murmur of the streets.

Overhead, a train arrives every few minutes or so, bringing with it a deafening roar of steel upon tracks. Hopefuls stand craning their heads, imploring, “Tickets? Tickets?” to anyone who will look their way. Street sweepers rub up against the legs of River Avenue, clearing the curb before gametime.

Yet silently leaning against a wall by Billy’s Sports Bar is Vinny Milano, his T-shirts speaking for themselves.

“That’s the perils of working on River Avenue,” he says with a smile. “You get very good at lip reading.”

A leader of Bleacher Creatures and a growing staple at Yankee Stadium, you can pick Milano, better known as Bald Vinny, out of a crowd of 52,325. Before each game he attends, he starts up the roll call, and the fans now sitting in Section 203 – formerly Section 39 in the old stadium – give each Yankee on the field his due.

Bald Vinny's apparel on River Avenue / photo by ashley teatum

And recently, each Yankee has acknowledged the fandom in his own way, like Nick Swisher’s rigid salute from right field, or a flex of the muscles from Brett Gardner.

The Bleacher Creature roll call is as Yankee Tradition — with a capital “T” — as it gets. And it boils down to Bald Vinny, who himself made baseball a routine of his when he was working in Midtown Manhattan years ago.

“I was low man on the totem pole, and I was always waiting for work,” he said, taking a swig from his iced coffee every so often. “I would leave, take a $2 train ride here, get a $6 general admission ticket, watch seven innings, head up to my desk and finish work. People would leave stuff on your desk.

“That’s how I got introduced here. It was cheap and accessible. I was living alone – I’m not going to go home and watch it alone, I’d rather come here and see it.

“I found a bunch of like-minded people.”

» Continue reading “The Baron of the Bald and His ‘Like-Minded People’”

After the Yankees put up a “twelve spot” on the Orioles in the first inning – a new franchise record, it was just a matter of how many more runs the Yankees would score. There wasn’t any doubt that they’d win the game. Personally, I’m slightly disappointed that they only ended up with seventeen runs.

As that first inning materialized and the Yankees wouldn’t stop scoring I wondered if AJ Burnett was sitting in the dugout thinking, “You guys couldn’t do this for me?”

The Yankees scored 25 runs in the double header and are now in line to win the series with a victory tomorrow.

Ivan Nova came back and pitched seven innings, gave up only two earned runs on six hits and struck out six. Even more impressive was that he came back after a shaky first inning and a long layover from his offense’s 40 minutes onslaught to pitch a 1-2-3 top of the second.

The hitting star of the game was Robinson Cano who finished 5-5 and was taken out in the sixth inning. It was the first five game of his career.

Andruw Jones and Nick Swisher both hit long home runs. Swisher to the right field bleachers and Jones bashed his into the Starter sign above the visitor’s dugout.

Every Yankees starter had at least one hit and the only one without an RBI was Curtis Granderson who had four hits and scored three times. 24 is the team’s season high in hits.

Orioles starter Zach Britton only lasted one-third of an inning and surrendered nine runs – six earned. This is the second straight start that he failed to make it out of the first inning. In his last start, against the Red Sox on July 8, he only lasted two-thirds of an inning and gave up seven earned runs in that start as well.

Rafael Soriano said this when he came back to the team after his stint on the DL: “Whatever happened, it’s in the past. I don’t want to think about the past anymore. I just want to move forward, try to help the team.” And when he came into tonight’s game, he did just that. He pitched a scoreless, hitless 1-2-3 ninth inning. Yes, I know it’s the Orioles and that the score was 17-3 but it’s still a good first step. A healthy Soriano could be a good thing for the bullpen.

And after the game Soriano said he was “pain free.” More good things.

Tomorrow’s series finale features Jake Arrieta (10-7, 5.12 ERA) against Freddy Garcia (9-7, 3.23 ERA). It’s a 1:05p start so rest up and get ready to go early!

Until tonight they never scored that much in the opening frame of a game.

Thanks to Yahoo Sports for the box score info:

- D. Jeter struck out looking
- C. Granderson singled to shallow center
- M. Teixeira walked, C. Granderson to second
- R. Cano singled to shallow left, C. Granderson scored, M. Teixeira to second, M. Teixeira to third on left fielder N. Reimold’s fielding error
- N. Swisher safe at first on shortstop J.J. Hardy’s fielding error, M. Teixeira scored, R. Cano to second
- A. Jones doubled to deep left center, R. Cano scored, N. Swisher to third
- R. Martin singled to shallow right, N. Swisher scored, A. Jones to third
- E. Nunez singled to shallow center, A. Jones scored, R. Martin to second
- B. Gardner singled to pitcher, R. Martin to third, E. Nunez to second
- D. Jeter singled to shallow right, R. Martin and E. Nunez scored, B. Gardner to third, D. Jeter to second advancing on throw
- J. Berken relieved Z. Britton
- C. Granderson struck out swinging
- M. Teixeira doubled to shallow right, B. Gardner and D. Jeter scored
- R. Cano singled to shallow center, M. Teixeira scored
- N. Swisher homered to deep right, R. Cano scored
- A. Jones walked
- R. Martin grounded into fielder’s choice, A. Jones out at second

12 runs, 10 hits, 2 errors
Baltimore 0, NY Yankees 12

Ahh much better.

The Yankees defeated the Orioles, 8-3 in the first game of the double header.

Bartolo Colon may not have had his best stuff but he kept the Yankees in the game, made his pitches when he had to and his offense provided him with eight runs. He’s now 8-6 on the season.

The lineup was without Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson and Russell Martin and they weren’t needed. In fact, it was the bottom half of the Yankees lineup – batters 5-9 – that provided most of the offense.

Nick Swisher hit a tie breaking home in the fourth that put the Yanks in the led for good, he finished 3-4. Eric Chavez also had an RBI single and was 2-4 on the day. Francisco Cervelli, Chris Dickerson and Jorge Posada also added an RBI each.

The lone hit from the top of the lineup came from Bret Gardner and it was a big one. It scored two runs to give the Yanks their first lead of the game.

Next up, Game Two at 7:05p and the return of Ivan Nova.

Thanks to Marc Carig for the image. Actually, I’m not sure if I should be thankful for the nauseated feeling I now have after seeing this lineup.

Picture Courtesy of Marc Carig

This afternoon’s game should be interesting. I understand why Girardi is doing this. The Yankees are playing eight straight games but I don’t have to like it.

The rain has since tapered, but the tarp is still on the field. The stadium booth crew has reaches into the vaults to provide us with some stellar videos.

Always want to know about garlic fries, really.

Update, 8:03 p.m.: The grounds crew has begun to take the tarp off the field. Be sure to follow us on Twitter for all the updates from tonight’s game!

Just a quick look at the in-last-place-by-22-games Baltimore Orioles, as they take on the two-and-a-half-games-behind-first-place-Boston New York Yankees.

Those of you in attendance Friday, give a shoutout to @tee_tuhm or @STNYanks on Twitter. One of our writers will be in attendance, the first time she’ll be there this season, at last!

That was then

The Orioles are in the middle of a set of 10 road games, and tonight they’ll start a  four-game series in the Bronx. Against Toronto, the Orioles lost two in a row, winning just the first game in the series, 12-4.

Jake Arrieta picked up his 10th win of the season that game, and Baltimore got four home runs — two from shortstop J.J. Hardy and one each for Nolan Reimold and Derrek Lee.

Speaking of

Reimold is batting .240/.336/.460 and Lee is .245/.301/.394.

Adam Jones, the man with the most unfortunate headshot in baseball, leads the team with a .292 batting average. Mark Reynolds has 21 home runs and has drawn 57 walks this season.

Jones and Nick Markakis, also known as the bobblehead on Teatum’s desk at work, have eight stolen bases.

On the mound

The most we know, thanks to the Yankees and Orioles’ sortable schedules, is that A.J. Burnett (8-8, 4.21) will face Jeremy Guthrie (4-14, 4.33) tonight at 7:05.

Zach Britton (6-7, 4.05) will take the mound for Baltimore on Saturday in the first game of a double header, and Arrieta (10-7, 5.12) will pitch opposite Freddy Garcia (9-7, 3.23) on Sunday.

Last we heard in terms of rumors from Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, was that Adam Warren, who was pitching all these spot starts of one innings and staying on a pitch count, might be shipped up to New York to start in one of the games of the doubleheader.

We’ll let you know, of course, as always, as soon as we find that out, fans.

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Additional reading from MLB.com

Orioles try to turn tide against rival Yankees

Izturis to work out with Orioles on Friday

Tillman may start Saturday against Yanks