It’s Tuesday morning and the good news is that the Yankees have been relatively healthy for the past few– you know what? I should know better. Every time I do that something catastrophic happens.

Strike that previous statement.

Michael Pineda threw a 35-pitch bullpen session this morning and came out of it alive. Another pitcher coming back from injury is Phil Hughes and he threw a bullpen session yesterday and also came out alive.

CC Sabathia is scheduled to throw a bullpen session today and will throw in his first live game on Friday.

Boone Logan threw a bullpen session this weekend with no issues. He had a balky elbow.

Man, the Yankees really do have a lot of injuries. It’s a little crazy.

Ivan Nova is making the start on the road for the Yankees this afternoon. The weather is a little iffy down in central Florida today but reports are saying that the Yankees and Rays should be able to get the game in.

Here’s today’s lineup:

Eduardo Nunez SS
Jayson Nix 3B
Travis Hafner DH
Juan Rivera 1B
Francisco Cervelli C
Melky Mesa CF
Thomas Neal LF
Zoilo Almonte RF
Corban Joseph 2B

That’s a “the Yankees are playing on the road in the Spring” type of a lineup.

Have a good day, everyone.

I apologize in advance for the not-so-clever Ivan Nova cliche but it must be said. Nova was super today. In his first outing since August 21, Nova pitched into the seventh inning surrendering only two earned runs – one was a Luke Scott single given up by Joba Chamberlain – and four hits while striking out eight Rays and only walking two.

Nova was on a pitch limit and when he surrendered a single to Jeff Keppinger to open the seventh inning he was taken out after having thrown 85 – 53 for strikes.

Offensively for the Yankees, Curtis Granderson and Eduardo Nunez went back-to-back in the second inning off Rays starter James Shields. Granderson’s two-run shot was his 39th of the season and Nunez’s solo shot was his first of the year.

In the bottom of the fifth, Derek Jeter hit an RBI single to put the Yankees up 4-0. The Rays got one back in the top of the sixth when Evan Longoria took Nova deep cutting the lead to 4-1.

After Nova was removed in the seventh – following the Keppinger single – Boone Logan replaced Nova and Ben Francisco bunted into a force out, Keppinger was out at second but Francisco made it to first. The next batter, Ryan Roberts, hit a double, advancing Francisco to third. Girardi replaced Logan with Joba Chamberlain, while Joe Maddon countered with Sam Fuld pinch hitting for Chris Gimenez.

That move worked out for the Yankees when Fuld grounded out to Chamberlain. The Yankees weren’t out of the woods yet and Luke Scott made them pay when he singled on a 1-2 pitch from Chamberlain, scoring both Francisco and Roberts, cutting the lead to 4-3.

Chamberlain got the next batter, Desmond Jennings to strike out on three pitches.

In the top of the 8th, David Robertson replaced Chamberlain and retired the Rays 1-2-3. In the bottom half of the inning, the Yankees scored an insurance run, thanks to the heroics of both Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez. Actually, we can add a third person to the equation, B.J. Upton who had trouble tracking down Cano’s ball and it turned into a double. Rodriguez followed with an RBI single, putting the Yankees up 5-3.

Rafael Soriano made things slightly interesting in the ninth. It felt like I was watching John Wetteland circa 1996. Things started off fine when he got Keppinger to pop out to Nunez. Francisco followed that up with a single and Ryan Roberts flied out to Granderson for the second out. Just one more out to go.

Maddon pinch hit Stephen Vogt for Jose Lobaton and he walked. So with two on, two outs and the go-ahead run at the plate, Soriano settled down and got Elliot Johnson swinging the end the game.

The crowd, both at the Stadium and watching on TV exhaled, Soriano untucked and the Yankees high fived, celebrating their 82nd victory of the year.

(Syndicated from The Yankee Analysts)

Looks like Ivan Nova will be joining the list of thousands who have been on the disabled list this season for the Yankees. Word is, he felt his shoulder “grab” during his outing last night – a 9-6 loss to the Chicago White Sox.

Nova is being sent to New York for tests.

So far in 2012 he has a 4.92 ERA and 139 strikeouts in 157 1/3 innings.

Can someone please find Hiroki Kuroda and wrap him in bubble wrap? Thanks.

Oh, Nova…not again.

Ivan Nova’s line: 7.1 IP, 5 H, 2 ER, BB, 10 K

It’s what he needed and what the Yankees needed to keep their winning streak going. Good job kiddo.

After a disappointing 4-5 homestand, the Yankees are gearing up to play four games in Detroit against the Tigers.

The only word I can come up with right now to describe how I feel about this upcoming series is yikes. Yep, the word that’s used mostly humorously for expressing alarm is the only word I can come up with.

Call it a gut feeling but with the way the Yankees have been playing lately – as in the past three weeks or so – I’m not too confident about their chances.

Of course, that’s not to say they can’t beat Detroit – they’re 4-2 against them so far this year. It’s just that the Yankees haven’t looked good recently, four-game series are tough as it is and tonight’s matchup may be the scariest out of all of the pitching match-ups in this series.

» Continue reading “Yankees at Detroit: The Pitching Match-ups”

I’ve never been so happy to see a road trip end. The Yankees were awfully close to finishing this West Coast swing 1-6 but thanks to some late game heroics by Jayson Nix of all people, they salvaged a series win against the Seattle Mariners.

HALLELUJAH!

Just like in last night’s game, the Yankees struck early. This time it was a solo home run by Derek Jeter in the first inning but after that they were shut down Hisashi Iwakuma for four innings.

Iwakuma pitched five innings, gave up one run, six hits, struck out three and walked three.

As for Ivan Nova, he struggled mightily with his control today and because of that his outing was over after only five innings. He gave up two runs on two hits – in the first inning – and walked a career-hit six batters. He also struck five and threw 107 pitches.

After Nova walked the first two batters in the bottom of the sixth, Joe Girardi called on Clay Rapada who got Mike Carp to ground into a 3-6 double play. Then Girardi brought David Phelps into the game and he got Casper Wells swinging. The Yankees went down quietly in the top of the seventh, as did the Mariners in their half of the inning.

Another thing that was similar to last night’s game was that the fireworks happened in the eighth inning, only this time the fireworks were four runs by the Yankees to give them a lead they wouldn’t relinquish.

FINALLY!

The inning started with Derek Jeter getting hit by a pitch thrown by Josh Kinney. Hmm, that’s weird. A Yankee batter getting hit by a pitch by a Seattle pitcher? It’s not like that’s happened at all this series…

The Mariners brought in Lucas Luetge to face Robinson Cano who greeted him rudely with a single. Mark Teixeira followed Cano with a single of his own to load the bases.

Now, this is the time in the game when everyone – including me – began to get nervous. Bases loaded with no outs and the Yankees have not mixed well at all lately. And when Curtis Granderson popped out to Kyke Seager in foul territory, everyone’s sense of deja vu was kicking in.

Girardi reached into his bag of tricks and sent Jayson Nix to the plate to pinch hit in place of Raul Ibanez. The Mariners countered with a change of their own, bringing in Shawn Kelley to face Nix.

This time, thankfully, the Yankees won the battle. Nix rewarded his manager with a hard hit double to the left centerfield gap. Jeter, Cano and Teixeira all scored and the Yankees were up 4-2.

THANK GOODNESS!!

Following an intentional walk to Eric Chavez and an Andruw Jones strikeout, Russell Martin singled to left scoring Nix.

The Yankees were up 5-2 and that’s how it would remain.

HOORAY!

David Robertson relieved Phelps and threw a 1-2-3 inning with two strikeouts and a groundout. After the Yankees’ quiet top of the ninth, Rafael Soriano came in to close the game. He got two quick outs before giving up a soft single to Casper Wells – which turned out to be the only hit the bullpen would give up today. He got Carlos Peguero to strikeout swinging to end the game and picked up his 26th save.

I think the Yankees are probably as happy as we are to be heading home. I’m sure they want to forget all about this road trip.

Today’s victory puts the Yanks back at the 20 games over .500 mark and amazingly enough, despite their 2-5 record in their past seven games, their run differential was 0 – they scored 21 and gave up 21.

I know it’s obvious to say that I love when the Yankees win. But I really love when they beat the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim. They’re one of those teams that always seems to be a pain in the butt so whenever the Yankees can win two games in a row against them, it’s a good thing.

Although, I was shocked to find out that since the new Stadium opened, the Angels are only 5-15 in New York. So I guess they only beat the Yankees when they’re out in Anaheim? Or maybe I’m just remembering the Angels of 2002 and 2005. Who knows.

Enough rambling, let’s get on with the recap!

Freddy Garcia was not great but he won and he was able to last five full innings after laboring through most of the game. So I’ll give him points for that. It was a – and I hate these words – gritty and gutty performance. In his career, Garcia has insane numbers against Anaheim – he’s 16-3 against them. Maybe we should have signed him sooner? Like, oh I don’t know, in 2005?

Curtis “Don’t Call Me a Home Run Hitter” Granderson hit his 24th of the season. Robinson Cano hit his 21st and extended his hitting streak to 17 games. The Yankees now have 138 home runs on the season. Yeah, that’s a little insane. They need to stop hitting so ma– oh who am I kidding? It’s awesome.

Speaking of awesome, the bullpen shut the Angels down for four innings. They only gave up two hits and struck out four. Cody Eppley followed Garcia and pitched two scoreless innings. David Robertson struck out two and Rafael Soriano picked up his 22nd save of the season.

Alex Rodriguez started off slowly but finished 2-4 with the two hits coming in his last two at bats – including a loud double to left center field. Maybe that will get him back on the right track and keep the boo birds away.

Oh wait, how could I forget to mention this? The Yankees finally kept Mark Trumbo in the park. He actually didn’t hit a home run! It’s a Christmas Miracle in July!

The Yankees go for the sweep tomorrow with Ivan Nova facing off against Jered Weaver which has the potential to be a good game.

Well, it wouldn’t be a Yankees-Red Sox game if it didn’t last four hours. But at least the Yankees finished on top.

Ivan Nova struck out 10 batters and picked up his 10th win of the season. He’s now is 22-3 with a 3.59 ERA in his last 33 starts dating back to June 10, 2011. And thanks to YES’s research guru: Nova is the first Yankee starter with two wins at Fenway since Randy Johnson in 2006.

Nova’s stats in those two games:  2.25 ERA in 12 innings,  two walks, 15 strike outs, and the Sox have a .271 average against him.

Andruw Jones – who was the MVP of this series, you know, if they actually awarded such a thing – hit another home run tonight. He finished with four in the series and how’s this for a funny stat? Jones has hit four home runs in Fenway Park this year and Adrian Gonzalez who plays for the Red Sox, also has four home runs this season in Fenway. Jones finished the weekend with six RBI. Gonzalez was taken out of the game because he was suffering flu-like symptoms.

Jones’s home run tonight put him in a tie with Cal Ripken on the All-Time home run list with 431.

Also a main story line this series, the Yankees scored more first inning runs. This time scoring two. For the series the Yankees scored 14 runs. were 12-23 with three home runs, two walks and were for 5-8 with runners in scoring position.

In other news:

• Alex Rodriguez hit his first triple of the season.
• Derek Jeter made a couple of defensive miscues – including dropping a pop up.
• 134 home runs so far this season
• The Yankees are now 5-1 against Boston this year, are seven games ahead of second place Baltimore – yes, they’re still in second place – and have the best record in baseball at 52-33.

Man, oh man.

This game had the potential to be one of those ‘break your remotes out of frustration’ games until the seventh inning when thanks to home runs by Raul Ibanez and Eric Chavez, the Yankees stole what seemed like a sure victory out of the Mets’ grasp.

Ivan Nova wasn’t bad, his defense failed him on a couple of occasions and he ended up leaving after 5.2 innings. He gave up two earned runs – three runs total – on five hits, walked three and struck out seven.

The top of the seventh started innocently with a walk to Mark Teixeira which was followed by a Nick Swisher double – hit # 1,000 of his career – which moved Teixeira to third.

Most Yankee fans were wondering just how the offense was going to screw up with two on and no outs, especially with the runners on second and third. That particular situation seems to be the one they have the most trouble with.

Well, Raul Ibanez didn’t give us enough to time to think of any horrifying scenarios because he hit the first pitch he saw from Chris Young out of the park.

The game was tied and the Yankees had new life.

After Jon Rauch and his scary neck tattoo, replaced Young, he struck out Russell Martin for the first out. Eric Chavez was brought in to pinch hit for Clay Rapada and hit an 0-2 pitch into the left field seats giving the Yankees and Rapada the lead.

Rapada pitched a third of an inning and he earned the win. I love baseball.

The Yankee bullpen pitched 3 1/3 scoreless innings and recorded eight strikeouts. Boone Logan had two huge strikeouts in the bottom of the seventh – both Lucas Duda and Daniel Murphy went down swinging. David Robertson did his usual Houdini act in the bottom of the eighth. It started off well with him striking out Scott Hariston but then he walked Omar Quintanilla and Josh Thole.

Terry Collins inserted Justin Turner to pinch hit for Tim Brydak who pitched the top of the eighth and Robertson struck him out, then struck out Kirk Nieuwenhuis swinging.

No harm, no foul.

In the bottom of the ninth, Rafael Soriano came in and struck out Jordany Valdespin to start the inning, gave up a single to David Wright, struck out Duda swinging and got Murphy to fly out to Swisher to end the game. It was Soriano’s 14th save of the year.

After it was all said and done, Clay Rapada picked up the win and the Yankees snapped a three-game losing streak. They also won the season series against the Mets.

At the time of this entry, we’re under 24 hours away from tomorrow night’s much anticipated matchup between R.A. Dickey who hasn’t lost a game since Burger King was a Prince – or so it seems – and CC Sabathia who is looking to shut the doubters up and show that he is still worthy of the title of ace. Why do I have this weird feeling that it’s not going to live up to expectations? Probably because match ups like that rarely ever do.

Don’t forget that tomorrow’s game is an ESPN Sunday Night Game. Also, don’t forget to mentally prepare yourselves for it. One last thing, nap during the afternoon since you never know how late it will end.