I think the Yankees playing a baseball game in under two and a half hours might be one of the signs of the apocalypse and if it isn’t, it should be. In fact, the Yankees – Orioles game was the first 7:05 p.m. start to finish tonight. When does that ever happen? And does anyone else remember the Yankees – Orioles match-ups of the mid to late 1990′s? You youngsters think Yankee – Red Sox games are bad? Please, those games in the 1990′s were epic.

Anyway, earlier today I wrote about Hiroki Kuroda who was searching for his second win of the season and well wouldn’t you know it? He got it tonight! Kuroda looked great as he held first place Baltimore – that’s still really amusing to type – to four hits and one run over seven innings of work. He walked only one batter and struck out three.

All he needed to win the game was Eric Chavez’s two run home run in the bottom of the second. Thankfully for the Yankee offense, Kuroda was on top of his game and David Robertson and Mariano Rivera did their usual scoreless inning stuff. Lather, rinse, repeat.

Jason Hammel was the tough luck loser for the Orioles. He gave up five hits and two runs in six innings while striking out five and walking two.

Aside from Kuroda’s heroics, Eduardo Nunez’s first night in left field was a big story. Manager Joe Girardi joked that the one time they put him in the outfield during Spring Training, no balls were hit to him so naturally he had two put outs in the first three plays of the game. Poor Nuney was tested out there tonight but to the shock of many Yankee fans, he passed his first outfield ‘exam’ with flying colors.

And speaking of left field, Brett Gardner looks to be on the way back. The Yankees are looking at Thursday as a possible return. Another outfielder on the mend is Nick Swisher who strained his left hamstring yesterday. It looks like he’s not going on the DL.

Hold on to your butts people, tomorrow’s match up is Phil Hughes vs. Brian Matusz. I’m envisioning something like 13-11 as a final score. I hope I’m wrong and that Hughes surprises the heck out of everyone – me included.

A Yankees Haiku:

First month is done and
Yankees are pretty good
They can be better…

Okay, so the haiku is pretty awful but that’s because it has been a while since I’ve written one. Honestly, I think the last time I wrote a haiku was when I learned about them in elementary school way back in the 1980s.

Anyway, it’s April 30 and the first month of the season is almost over. So far, the Yankees have been ordinary. They’ve had some highs – an epic nine run comeback against the Red Sox and they’ve had some lows – losing Michael Pineda for the year and Freddy Garcia’s pitching woes just name a couple.

» Continue reading “New York’s First Month: A Yankees Haiku, Some Facts and Some Stats”

Here are some ways you can tell it’s still early in the season, the Baltimore Orioles are in first place in the American League East standings…

Okay, fine, that’s the only way to tell. But the point still remains; people who are amazed that the Orioles are so good and talking about how they are shocking everyone in 2012 should try to calm down. It’s still way too early to make such proclamations.

So how are the Orioles doing?

Pretty well so far. For the first time since 2005, the Baltimore Orioles are six games above .500 (14-8) and as I mentioned above, they are sitting stop the AL East leaderboard. After being swept by the Yankees in the second series of the season, Buck Showalter’s boys have gone 11-5. Of course, if you’re like me and remember 2005, you’ll also remember that the Orioles finished second to last in the American League East with a record of 74-88. So again, it’s too soon to get excited.

Sorry, I don’t mean to rain on the Orioles’ parade. Let’s talk some positives for the O’s: their young hitters are hitting, their bullpen is picking up the slack for the starters when needed and since dropping the first two games against the LA Angels last week, they’ve won the last six out of seven.

» Continue reading “(The) Buck Arrives Here: Orioles (14-8) at Yankees (12-9)”

Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez 3B
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Nick Swisher RF
Raul Ibanez LF
Eric Chavez DH
Chris Stewart C

LHP CC Sabathia

Should be another exciting day with Raul Ibanez in left field. Can’t wait to see it in person. Oh and Chris Stewart is catching CC Sabathia again. Not that it means anything.

Here’s Orville, the cat I’ve been watching this past week. He’s cute, he’s talkative and he finally started sleeping with me. Of course, I’m leaving tomorrow so we’re bonding kind of late but it’s okay. I have five cats to go home to.

Freddy Garcia was terrible, again and couldn’t get out of the second inning, again. At least the bullpen had their own quality start, 7 1/3 innings, allowing only one earned run and giving up only two hits.

Nick Swisher homered from both sides of the plate today. There’s one highlight for the Yankees offense! Well, they made it interesting in the bottom of the ninth scoring a few runs against Jose Valverde.

Hopefully the Garcia experiment is over. Please say it’s over. We can’t take it for much longer.

Tomorrow, CC Sabathia takes on Max Scherzer in the rubber game of the series. I will be there so CC better pitch like an ace.

For the second Saturday in a row, Freddy Garcia couldn’t get out of the second inning and the Yankees now find themselves in a 6-1 hole in the third inning.

From ESPN Stats and Info: “NYY Freddy Garcia pulled for 2nd straight Saturday after getting 5 outs. Chien-Ming Wang (2009) last NYY with consecutive starts less than 2 IP”

Ugh.

Can we have one game when the Yankees aren’t in a hole after the top of the first inning?

Maybe tomorrow’s starter CC Sabathia can stop that from happening.

Here is the reason why he was so riled up:

Joe West gets paid to be this bad and that is pretty frightening.

 

This is going to be quick because I have a headache that would render a giant useless. I am in agony right now but I am still laughing at the ending of tonight’s game.

A walk off passed ball? Really? Alex Rodriguez was at the plate with a 3-0 count and Tigers pitcher Brayan Villreal threw a pitch that Alex Avila couldn’t get to. Rodriguez waved Derek Jeter home – Jeter was on third with one out and Jeter was safe on a bad throw from Avila.

Neither Justin Verlander nor Ivan Nova factored into the decision. Nova had his worst outing of the season and Verlander gave up two home runs tonight. Rodriguez’s opposite field shot pulled the Yankees within one run 3-2 in the fourth and Russell Martin put the Yankees ahead 4-3 in the fifth.

Verlander is still winless at the new Yankee Stadium.

Joe Girardi was ejected from the game by Country Joe West and after the game Girardi repeated, ‘I wasn’t real pleased with the zone.’ a couple of times. He explained how one game can make a difference in making the playoffs and sitting home and how every game is important. I think what he wanted to say was “Joe West is a fat piece of s*** who sucks at his job and should retire.” Oh no, that was me.

This is a good win for the Yanks. You always want to win a game started by Verlander because you need to take advantage of him not being on top of his game. And when you have Freddy Garcia going tomorrow, you know it’s going to be an adventure.

Boone Logan, Cory Wade, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera kept the Tigers scoreless from the sixth inning on and Rivera picked up his first win of the season.

Mariano Rivera came in to pitch the ninth and picked up his first win of the season.

(Okay so this wasn’t so short…)

Thanks to Jon Lane of YES for the lineups:

YANKEES
Derek Jeter SS
Curtis Granderson CF
Alex Rodriguez DH
Robinson Cano 2B
Mark Teixeira 1B
Nick Swisher RF
Raul Ibanez LF
Eric Chavez 3B
Russell Martin C

Pitching: Ivan Nova (3-0, 3.79)

TIGERS
Austin Jackson CF
Brennan Boesch RF
Miguel Cabrera 3B
Prince Fielder 1B
Don Kelly LF
Brad Eldred DH
Alex Avila C
Jhonny Peralta SS
Ryan Raburn 2B

Pitching: Justin Verlander (2-1, 1.72)