As the saying goes, “What goes up must come down,” but in this case, Yankee fans were hoping for “What goes up, stays up” and that hasn’t happened.

After reaching a season-high 23 games over .500 and a season-high 10 games up in the standings, the Yankees have now lost three games in a row to the Oakland A’s.

The week started off on a high note with a three-game sweep of the pesky Toronto Blue Jays at home.

On Monday, the hero of the day was Raul Ibanez who delivered in the eighth inning of a tied game by hitting a grand slam to break the game open and give the Yankees what turned out to be a 6-3 victory.

Tuesday’s hero was CC Sabathia who was making his return to the rotation. After being away for close to a month, Sabathia didn’t miss a beat as he held the Blue Jays scoreless over six innings. Andruw Jones hit a three-run home run in the second inning which put the Yankees up for good, en route to a 6-1 win.

Wednesday’s game was delayed to start by lightning and ended early because of rain, in between Hiroki Kuroda pitched a brilliant seven innings of shutout ball. The Yankees scored four runs in the first inning and won 6-0 in seven innings. They ended their homestand 5-1 – they won two out of three to the Angels last weekend – and completed the sweep.

Following Wednesday’s win, the Yankees got on a plane, landed a few timezones away and their winning ways stayed at home. They seemed lethargic, were making silly mistakes on the base paths and couldn’t get anything going in Oakland. But it’s not only the Yankees playing badly, the Oakland A’s have been on a roll lately and their pitching has been stellar. They’re the first team since May to keep the Yankees from scoring three runs and now that’s happened in two straight games.

The scores of the first three games of the series have been 4-3. 3-2, and 2-1. Now if this were a question on an IQ test the next sequence in the pattern would be 1-0. Let’s hope for the Yankees’ sake that doesn’t happen.

In last night’s game, poor Phil Hughes was victimized by two solo home runs by Yoenis Cespedes and Brandon Inge. Robinson Cano saw his 23-hame hitting streak come to an end with a 0-4 night and the Yankees lost their third in a row.

So far this series, the Yankees have been victimized by rookie pitchers. Today that changes because it will be a battle of the big men with C.C. Sabathia and Bartolo Colon facing off against each other. Sabathia is hoping to build on his last strong outing and Colon is hoping to shut down his former team and help his current team complete the four-game sweep.

No offense to Bartolo but I hope CC wins this battle.

Adios Bart! (Pic Courtesy of SB Nation)

Bartolo Colon has signed with the Oakland A’s. Colon who made the team out of Spring Training started off strong – including pitching a complete game shutout against the A’s in May – but faded in the second half. Colon finished with an 8-10 record and a 4.00 ERA.

Help Wanted: Designated hitter. Among those mentioned as possible DH candidates, former Yankee Johnny Damon and Carlos Peña. Peña spoke with MLB Network Radio and said the Yankees had contacted him. Damon who last played with the Tampa Bay Rays had harsh words for his former team after they signed free agent Luke Scott.

“Didn’t realize the DH and 1B brought the offense down. Thought we would’ve had an offer.”

» Continue reading “Yankees News and Notes: 1/16/12″

Photo by Ronnie Rucker/Flickr

Joe Girardi gave his depressing post playoff elimination press conference today and the biggest topic of converation – aside from all of the “WHY WEREN’T THE YANKEES CLUTCH!?!1111″ questions – was the starting rotation.

Hey, haven’t we seen this movie before? Oh right, last offseason.

Last year, Yankee fans worried about losing Andy Pettitte to retirement and losing free agent Cliff Lee to another team. Both things happened.

This year, Yankee fans have to worry about CC Sabathia possibly opting out. I don’t think it will happen.

So who is out there in free agency land for the Yankees to go after?

The one, the only, C.J. Wilson of the Texas Rangers. Will the ‘too cool for school’ Wilson even entertain coming to the Yankees? We shall see. As some of my funnier Twitter friends have already said, New York may be too mainstream for young Mr. Wilson.

The Yankees have the kids down in the minors – the B Boys, no the Killer B’s, excuse me – who could come up and contribute. They also have Hector Noesi who did a serviceable job this season for the Yanks.

The team will more than likely say good bye to Freddy Garcia and Bartolo Colon. So that leaves Ivan Nova, Phil Hughes and AJ Burnett as the rotation if Sabathia doesn’t return. (Again, I don’t think that will happen. Plus he’d have to worry about me kicking his big ass.)

PLEASE DON’T LEAVE US CC! PLEEEEEEEEEASE STAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!

Excuse me. I just can’t imagine Sabathia leaving. It may cause me to curl up into a ball and not get up for three weeks.

Come on, you can admit it, you thought there was no way the Yankees would come back and win today’s game.

Bartolo Colon looked awful in his four innings of work and Robinson Cano made a base running blunder while the Yankees were trying to get something going in the fourth that ended the inning and seemed to seal the whole, “Maybe this just isn’t their day,” storyline.

The Yankees had cut it to 4-1 and with Mark Teixeira on third and Cano on second, Nick Swisher hit a long fly ball that looked to be heading for the right center field gap. Unfortunately for the Yankees, Colby Rasmus had other ideas. He caught the ball and Cano who was clearly not paying attention, passed Teixeira on the base paths and they were both called out.

And it certainly didn’t look too good for the boys when the Blue Jays scored two more to make it 6-1. But then the man with the bum thumb helped pull the Yanks to within one in the sixth inning with a home run. Alex Rodriguez had seen fastball after fastball from Henderson Alvarez and in his third at bat of the day, Rodriguez deposited the first pitch he saw into the left field bullpen. And yes it was a fastball.

Thanks to Alex Rodriguez’s taped up thumb, the Yankees were only behind 6-5 and it was the sixth inning. There was plenty of time for the Yankees to pull ahead.

And they did in the next inning, thanks to the guy who doesn’t hit home runs who hit his 40th of the year. Curtis Granderson fouled off about 1,856 pitches with two strikes in the count before finally hitting a two run home to put the Yankees ahead for good 7-6.

Big props to the offense for not giving up and to the bullpen who pitched five scoreless – including a three up, three down strikeoutapalooza from Rafael Soriano in the eighth.

Then enter Sandman in the ninth who did his thing. You know, a strikeout, broken bat and a fly out to end the game to give the Yankees a big comeback win and to pick up his 601st save which puts him with Trevor Hoffman on the all time saves list.

The Yankees have one more game left on the road trip of doom. Or at least that’s what it’s felt like.

Mariano Rivera is Better Than You (And you and you and you)
5 time World Champion
601 Saves
42 postseason saves – he has more postseason saves by himself than some franchises do
1999 WS MVP & 2003 ALCS MVP
12 time All Star

Thanks to the YES Postgame show for those Mo stats – though I did actually know them on my own.

Poor Bartolo Colon. He pitched his best game in at least a month and has nothing to show for it. And that’s because Jered Weaver pitched a great game as well.

Both pitchers only gave up one run each and both pitched deep into the game – Colon lasted seven innings and Weaver eight. Unfortunately for Colon, his bullpen – minus David Robertson who pitched a 1-2-3 eighth – couldn’t prevent the Angels from scoring and winning the game in the bottom of the ninth.

So the Yankees have played in four one run games this week and have only won one. Yikes.

One bright spot: Another home run for Jesus Montero. He was responsible for the Yankees’ only run.

(this has been a phone post – please forgive any typos…)

What an exciting Labor Day weekend fans had in New York, and I think we can safely say one man — one 21-year-old rookie — was mostly responsible for that.

But first, some of the other stories cropping up around the Yankees blogosphere on a cold, rainy fall September afternoon.

The Rotation

Joe Girardi had hinted previously that the Yankees would be looking to trim a pitcher from the starting rotation and send him to the bullpen.

However, for the time being, it looks like the hurlers — specifically Phil Hughes and A.J. Burnett — have an extra shot at showing what they can accomplish on the mound.

As it stands now, Hughes will start today, Burnett on Wednesday, Ivan Nova on Thursday, Bartolo Colon on Friday, CC Sabathia on Saturday and Freddy Garcia on Sunday.

Said Girardi to reporters:

“We kind of liked what we saw from our guys in Boston. I know Hughesie gave up some runs, but I thought he threw the ball better than the numbers indicated. We liked what A.J. did, and I want to see him build on it.”

Garcia’s finger injury and a few doubleheaders made the sixth starter necessary, and the upcoming schedule makes it necessary to have that sixth man again. They have an off day Sept. 15, and from Sept. 20-22, they face the Rays — one of those days will feature another doubleheader.

See also, “The Differences Between Sabathia and Verlander.“

The Captain

MLB.com has another interesting notebook up today that includes some talk about Derek Jeter post-hit No. 3,000.

Thomas Boorstein reminds us that, before 3,000, Jeter had his share of struggles.

Last season he hit a career low .270 for the season. Returning July 4 following his injury, he was batting a lowly .256.

On July 9, he went 5 for 5 — including his exclamation point No. 3,000, a home run — and since then, he’s hovering just below .300, and currently is batting .297/.354/.389.

“I’ve said all along, I don’t think I realized the pressure he was under to get those 3,000 hits,” Joe Girardi said before Monday’s game against the Orioles. “Everything in his career, he’s always handled with such grace and been able to relax in the big moment. But since he’s gotten past [3,000], he’s been a different player.”

The Rookie

Just some of the phrases I read with regards to Jesus Montero and his performance over the weekend:

“Folk hero.”  ”Enthralling to watch.” ”An amazing display of seemingly effortless power.” ”Impressive shit.” ”Jesus walks among us.” ”Neither of them today were cheapies, either.”

Two home runs, one game.

Two curtain calls.

Just bask in the Montero.

“I’ve seen everybody doing that, and I was dreaming of that before,” Montero said of the curtain calls. “I’ve seen Jeter and Posada and everybody doing that, and I’ve always told myself, ‘One day, I’m going to be one of those guys.’ It was an amazing moment. I’m so happy right now.”

So the Yankees were able to pick up a split today – thank goodness – and have a chance to split the now four game series with a win tomorrow.

Let’s talk about tonight’s game first since it was a win and wins are much more fun to discuss.

You get a home run and you get a home run! Everyone gets a home run!
Curtis Granderson hit two home runs to take back the Major League lead from Jose Bautista – a three run shot in the third inning and a solo shot in the seventh. Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher and Andruw Jones went back to back to back in the sixth inning to help lead the Yankees to their 8-3 victory over Baltimore.

Super Nova!
Ivan Nova won his 14th game of the year. He gave up three runs and seven hits in seven innings, striking out seven and only walking two. Nova is 10-0 in 11 outings since June 3.

Houdini
After Nova started off the bottom of the eighth by giving up a single to JJ Hardy and walking Nick Markakis, David Robertson was called in to limit the damage. Adam Jones rudely greeted Robertson with a single to load the bases and Robertson did what he seems to do best. He struck out the side, Vlad Guerrero, Mark Reynolds and Ryan Adams – all swinging – to end the threat.

No Jeter, No A-Rod, No Problem
Both Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez sat out Game 2. Rodriguez’s thumb was bothering him again and Jeter hit a foul ball off his knee in this afternoon’s game. Eric Chavez and Eduardo Nunez started in their place(s) and went 1-8. Okay, that’s not good but it helped that other guys on the team were launching home runs like it was batting practice.

And about this afternoon’s game…

It was a stinker. The offense couldn’t solve Zack Britton and poor Bartolo Colon was saddled with the loss after only giving up two runs in seven innings.

The makeup game for yesterday’s cancellation is scheduled for September 8th at 1:00 p.m. It’s the day before the Yankees head out to Anaheim for a three game series against the Angels. Thanks for nothing Baltimore.

MLB is so worried about stupid stuff like Alex Rodriguez possibly playing poker that the state of umpiring which is going down the toilet and which is RIGHT UNDER THEIR NOSES goes unnoticed. How is this even possible?

The Kansas City Royals better send the umpiring crew some flowers after tonight’s gift of a win.

Let’s not even talk about the botched home run call that gave the Royals an extra run even after a review. The KC broadcasters and beat writers said it wasn’t a home run but the umps had no idea. Really? Come on MLB, do something already.

The playoffs are approaching quickly and stuff like this can’t be happening in October.

The game itself was one of those frustrating “they should have won by 10 but lost by one” contests. There were lots of RISP issues for the Yanks. They ended 1-10 on the night. Ugly. And they lost to Bruce Chen which is even uglier considering he was 1-6 in his career against the Yankees coming into tonight’s game.

Bartolo Colon didn’t have much and exited the game after five innings. He gave up all five Royals runs and is now 8-7 on the year.

The Yankees had something cooking in the ninth inning when Joakim Soria walked Nick Swisher to load the bases for a second time in the inning – Derek Jeter who was 4-5 on the night had scored on a sacrifice fly by Robinson Cano the first time they were loaded to get the Yanks within one. Birthday boy Jorge Posada came to the plate and this is what happened:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Ballgame over, the umps, excuse me, the Royals win.

And for those of you who are thinking, “Oh you’re only mad because it was a bad call against the Yankees.” I’ll direct you to this post that I wrote last year.

What I’m mad about is that umpires get away with being really bad at their jobs and it’s gone on long enough. When will these guys be held accountable? Enough is enough already. Something has to be done.

DO YOU HEAR ME BUD SELIG?

And back to the botched home run call, of all people to get really angry about it was Mariano Rivera who never gets angry. Frankly, he scared me.

So the Yankees win the series 2-1 but this game left a bad taste in everyone’s mouths. Ending a series on a note like this is not fun.

One positive from tonight’s game, Curtis Granderson hit home run number 34 on the year. Oh, and that Jeter guy has gotten his average up to .290 on the season. Amazing.

More good news, I didn’t have to shave my head.

The Yankees head into Minnesota tomorrow to begin a four game series against the Twins and await the return of Alex Rodriguez who was 1-2 with two walks tonight in Scranton. He said after the game that he is not playing tomorrow. I don’t know about you but I’m just happy he’ll be back with the team even if it’s only to be a bench accessory.

As of 11:45 p..m. 8/16/11

See, that’s strange because everything I read in Spring Training told me that the Yankees would be far behind the Red Sox by now. But instead, here we are on August 16 and the Yankees are in first place in the AL East.

After all of the questions (Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia), all of the injuries (Phil Hughes, Rafael Soriano, Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez), and while only being able to muster up two measly victories against the Red Sox in their first twelve meetings, the New York Yankees are in first place.

Let that marinate for a moment.

On May 12, Ivan Nova had trouble with the Kansas City Royals. In that start, he only lasted three innings, gave up four runs – eight earned – and the Yankees lost 11-5 in the Bronx. Tonight, Nova had trouble again. He gave up seven runs on nine hits and struck out only two in 5 1/3 innings but still picked up his twelfth win of the season as the Yankees defeated the Kansas City Royals 9-7.

His bullpen – Boone Logan, Rafael Soriano, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera – came in and shut the Royals down for 3 and 2/3 innings, not allowing any hits or any runs and striking out five. Rivera picked up his 32nd save of the season and struck out two batters in the ninth.

His offense was led by Robinson Cano who finished 2-5 with four RBI. Cano hit a big three run homer that broke a 5-5 tie and put the Yankees up for good in the fourth inning. Derek Jeter was 2-6 with a double and added two RBI of his own. Jeter is batting .326 since the All Star break.

Russell Martin also had two RBI and Mark Teixeira added one. Cano’s home run was his 21st on the year.

Tonight’s win is the Yankees 34th on the road this year.

The Yankees will be going for the series sweep tomorrow night with Bartolo Colon (8-6, 3.31) facing off against Bruce Chen (7-5, 4.15 ERA).

The Yankees are looking to exact revenge against the Royals tonight when they begin their seven game road trip in Kansas City.

The last time the Yankees and Kansas City Royals faced off in April, the Royals took two of three for their first series win in the Bronx since 1999. Rookie Eric Hosmer went 4 for 12 with two homers and former Yankee Melky Cabrera also homered twice in his first games against his former team.

The Yankee have won 11 of 15 games and are awaiting the arrival of Alex Rodriguez back to the club – more on him later.

As for the guys playing for the team right now, A.J. Burnett (8-9, 4.60 ERA) is looking to snap an winless August streak as a Yankee. He is 0-8 with a 7.18 ERA in 13 August since joining the team. He is 3-3 in his career against the Royals with a 2.52 ERA in nine starts. His last start against the Royals was on May 11 and he pitched seven innings, gave up only one run on one hit. He also walked five and struck out six. Burnett did not get the decision as the Yankees lost the game in extra innings. Burnett actually has good numbers against the Royals batters and only Alex Gordon has been able to hit a home run off him while hitting a paltry .133 against him.

» Continue reading “Kansas City Hey, Hey, Hey, Hey: Yankees (72-46) at Royals (50-71)”