I almost forgot what it was like to write about a win. I was beginning to miss it. Thanks to the Yankees exploding for 12 runs against Orioles pitching, I don’t have to miss it anymore. Hooray!

The Yankees got things started in the first inning – again.

Curtis ‘I’m not a home run hitter’ Granderson hit a home run into the second deck in right field putting the Yankees up 1-0 right away. It was his 29th of the year.

Nick Swisher followed with a double, Robison Cano hit a single and Andruw Jones hit a sacrifice fly to score Swisher to make it 2-0.

Baltimore answered with a one of their own in the bottom of the first.

In the bottom of the second, with runners on first and third, Derek Jeter smacked a single to right, scoring McGehee to give the Yanks a 3-1 lead. After Granderson struck out, Nick Swisher hit a single, scoring Jayson Nix to make it 4-1.

Phil Hughes had himself an interesting game. While watching him today, it seemed to me like he was a little out of whack and didn’t look comfortable. Yet, he always got an out when he needed it.

Case in point: In the top of the third, Baltimore led off the inning with two straight singles. Hughes needed a double play and he got one. The next batter lined out and he escaped trouble. It actually happened in the fourth inning as well. It was like he was doing a David Robertson impression.

The Yanks broke the game way open in the bottom of the third with the big blow being a grand slam by Robinson Cano to make it 11-1.

Here are the key plays:

• Russell Martin walks
• Casey McGehee walks
• Nix hit a ground rule double, scoring Martin to make it 5-1
• The Orioles mercifully take Zach Britton out and replace him with Kevin Gregg
• Jeter singles, again, McGehee and Nix score and it’s now 7-1
• Granderson singles
• Nick Swisher walks to load the bases
• Cano hits a 1-2 pitch into the right field seats to make it 11-1

By the way, six of those runs were scored with two outs. Does that sound familiar? If it doesn’t, you must have missed last night’s game when Ivan Nova had it happen to him – seven runs with two outs which led to Baltimore winning 11-5.

Joba Chamberlain made his 2012 debut in the seventh and was greeted rudely by JJ Hardy who took his 0-1 pitch deep into the left field seats. Chamberlain also gave up an RBI double to Endy Chavez in the eighth. He finished his day: 1.2 IP, 4H, 2R, 1BB and 0K.

I’ll chalk it up to nerves.

The Yankees added a run in the bottom of the eighth on sacrifice fly by McGehee.

Some notes:

• Hughes improved to 11-8 and lowered his ERA from 4.08 to 3.96. He finished with nine hits in six innings, gave up one run, walked two and struck out one.
• The Orioles were looking for their first three-game sweep at Yankee Stadium since June 1986. They didn’t get it.
• Ichiro extended his hitting streak to nine games.
• Jeter now has 276 games of three hits or more – he also collected three RBI
• Jayson Nix finished the day 3-4 with two singles and a double.

Image by Keith Allison

Hey the Yankees dropped a game 5-4 to the Orioles in extras again! This time in Baltimore, in front of a crowd of about 1,556 people (it’s an estimate and I’m too lazy to look it up) and the O’s got to celebrate a walk off win and carry on as if the game actually meant something.

“Yay! We beat Scott Proctor! WOOO!”

Yeah, I’m cranky. Sue me. I’m still tired from Tuesday night.

Ivan Nova wasn’t sharp and only lasted five and third BUT he left the game with a 4-2 lead. The problem today? The Yankees scored early against Alfredo Simon and then could not hit the Orioles bullpen. In fact, the Orioles bullpen held them hitless for six innings – from the fourth to the tenth.

To their credit, the Yankees’ defense made a couple of nifty plays at the plate to save a couple of runs. Francisco Cervelli was knocked into next week by Nick Markakis but held onto the ball and the Yankee kept their lead – for that moment.

It wasn’t a fun game to watch. Especially when pitchers like Jo Jo Reyes and Kevin Gregg – who frankly, suck – baffle the Yankee hitters.

Thankfully, we don’t have to face the Orioles again until 2012. And I’ve had enough of Buck Showalter’s face to last me a lifetime. So good riddance to you.

So now the Yankees get to travel out to California to start a perfectly timed week-long, West Coast road trip. And by perfectly timed I mean NOT PERFECTLY TIMED.

Oh and then they get to go to Toronto. Who does the scheduling? I’d like to find them and hit them with a nerf bat for about twenty minutes.

I will start this off by saying I am shocked the game actually went into extra innings. With the lineup Joe Girardi penciled in earlier, I was expecting a really terrible game. And hey, I was right! (But for a different reason)

I will also say that the sight of Buck Showalter’s face makes me want to punch things. He’s just so bitter and I HATE when the Orioles beat the Yankees because I do not want that man to be happy. Ever.

Okay, so the game wasn’t as terrible as I thought it would be score wise. I figured the offense would only be able to score one run so four was a nice surprise. But the errors, my God, the errors. Just atrocious. Six between the teams – four for the Yankees alone.

Was it wet and was the field sloppy? Yes. But come on, four? Really? Gah.

And now instead of having a travel day to get the West Coast tomorrow, the Yankees have to go to Baltimore to make up a game they could have already played two weeks ago. Yeah, MLB and the Orioles can bite me.

A.J. Burnett wasn’t very good but he wasn’t totally terrible. He gave up his four runs in the first three innings and he actually pitched into the seventh. He also gave up seven hits, walked four and struck out seven. Although five of those strikeouts were to Mark Reynolds and Chris Davis so somehow – according to some – they don’t count. Burnett threw a lot of change ups today and his fastball looked awful. Oh and how could I forget?? Burnett threw three wild pitches! (Hector Noesi added one for good measure when he came in for relief) Hooray!

Eduardo Nunez who was part of the error party added two more to his season total much to the amusement of the Yankee beat writers on Twitter who have beaten the “NUNEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE” joke into the ground.

Truthfully it was beaten into the ground two months ago.

The Orioles were playing like the game meant something to them. I think Showalter used about 15 pitchers – or at least it seemed that way – and he was mixing and matching as if they were fighting for a Division title.

It was maddeningly annoying.

So the Yankees’ six game winning streak came to an end but they have won 13 out of 17 meetings against the basement dwelling Orioles so far this season with one more game to play.

Tomorrow, Ivan Nova (15-4, 3.89 ERA) will be matched up against Alfredo Simon (4-8, 4.64 ERA).

Who will win it and will they have an actual crowd there to witness it? Watch tomorrow on YES (I think).

Note: This game ended after 2am so this is the ‘my eyes are crossing because I’m tired’ recap. I cannot be held responsible for what I write…

*Yawn*

If you stayed up to watch the game, are you still in disbelief about just how weird it turned out to be? And if you didn’t stay up and are reading this later today, you won’t believe what you missed.

It was sheer insanity.

As we were sitting waiting for the game to start – in my house, I wasn’t at the Stadium – my brother kept asking the same thing over and over again, “How the hell are they going to play in his [expletive deleted]?” I kept shrugging my shoulders because well, how the hell was I supposed to know?

So we sat and we waited and we waited some more. And still some more. I thought about the people at the Stadium and wondered how many people would stay.

When the beat writers tweeted that the Yankees planned to start the game at 11:00, I just laughed. The game hadn’t even started and it was already ridiculous. Little did I know just how ridiculous it would be.

After a four hour and three minute rain delay, Phil Hughes finally threw his first pitch – in the pouring rain, of course – and the game was underway. The next nine innings were an adventure.

It wasn’t high scoring like yesterday’s, excuse me, Monday’s game but it was wet, frustrating, hilarious, and fantastic all at the same time. Hmm that sounds like I’m describing something else, doesn’t it?

Excuse me, back to baseball.

The Yankees never trailed in the game but the Orioles did tie the score a couple of times just to make the night even longer than it had to be. I mean, really? You people have nothing to play for. NOTHING.

Anyway, Hughes lasted six innings and gave up two runs on five hits – the big blow being a two run homer off the bat of Matt Wieters that tied the game in the top of the sixth. No offense to Wieters but I could have hit that pitch out of Yankee Stadium. It was a [expletive deleted] meatball. Hughes also struck out five. Aside from that bad pitch to Wieters, Hughes had his curveball working tonight.

The hitting stars of the game were Jorge Posada, Francisco Cervelli and Brett Gardner. They all had solo home runs. I predicted Posada’s on Twitter and freaked everyone – including myself – out.

Yes, I rule. No, I'm not psychic.

And no, I can’t give you the lottery numbers.

Cervelli’s home run was a big one at the time. It broke a three all tie and was reviewed by the umps because it hit off a fan in left field. When the umps upheld the ruling on the field (wait, that’s a football thing right?) Buck Showalter came out to argue to no avail. Gardner came up next and hit a shot into the right field foul pole to put the Yankees up 5-3.

Yes, you are reading that correctly (people who missed the game), Francisco Cervelli and Brett Gardner hit back to back home runs. If I didn’t see I wouldn’t have believed it either. Like I said, the game was ridiculous.

Boone Logan came in to relieve Hector Noesi who came in to relieve Hughes. Noesi was fine. Logan gave up an RBI double to Nick Markakis – the only batter he faced – in the seventh which tied the score at 3. Logan was quickly replaced by Cory Wade who ended up getting the win thanks to Cervelli and Gardner’s heroics in the bottom of the inning.

Mariano Rivera entered the game in the ninth – duh – and after a rare Mark Teixeira error, had an easier time dispatching the O’s than he did three days ago in the 11-10 game. That was three days ago, right? It sure as hell feels like it was three days ago. What was I saying? Mo, right, he picked up his 39th save of the season and 598th save of the career.

We’re getting down to the nitty gritty with Mr. Rivera. What a ride it’s been.

Random Shiz:
Gardner’s dinger was the Yankees’ 200th of the year
The Yankees have a 6 game winning streak

Today’s matchup (because it is today now) is AJ Burnett (9-11, 5.25 ERA) against Zach Britton (9-9, 4.25 ERA). God help us all…

Flickr Image by midiman

Both of the teams’ starters, Freddy Garcia and Brian Matusz, were not sharp. Garcia had an off day. He left his pitches up and wasn’t able to get out of the third inning. And Matusz, well, he was just pitching as badly as he normally does. (Sorry O’s fans but it’s true.)

It was a seesaw affair that saw about 800 lead changes and pretty sloppy baseball.

Thankfully, the Yankees ended up on top with help from rookie Jesus Montero who belted two opposite field home runs in the fifth and seventh innings. In fact, the Yankees went ahead for good on his second home run.

Montero came out for a curtain call after each home run and he finished 2-3 with three RBI on the day. Oh and in case you were wondering, John Sterling’s home run call was “Jesus Has Been Turned Loose!” It’s okay to cringe. I did.

Robinson Cano who is pretty much the coolest cat in Major League Baseball hit his third grand slam of the season after Alex Rodriguez was hit by a pitch to put the Yankees up 8-5 in the second.

When Garcia couldn’t get out of the third inning, Joe Girardi called on Scott Proctor. Yes, that Scott Proctor who – because Joe Torre put him into every single game the Yankees played from 2004-2006* – made his 300th career appearance.

Proctor wasn’t terrible, he pitched two innings and gave up one run – a home run by Robert Andino, the hap hap happiest player the O’s solely judging from his gameday picture. Proctor also struck out two.

Girardi also called upon Aaron Laffey, Luis Ayala, Boone Logan, Cory Wade and Mariano Rivera. Laffey, who came in following Proctor picked up the win.

Rivera picked up his 38th save of the season but made it a tad scary at the end – which seems to be happening a lot lately. The Orioles scored a run off him and had runners on second and third when he struck Nolan Reimold out to end the game.

All told, the two teams combined for 21 runs on 29 hits, twelve pitchers appeared in the game and they threw about 38167528 pitches.

Tomorrow’s matchup features Phil Hughes (4-5, 6.75 ERA) against Tommy Hunter (3-2, 5.26 ERA). Hunter beat the Yankees back on – oh hey my birthday! – August 26 when A.J. Burnett crapped proverbial the bed.

*I kid. But he did appear in 83 games in 2006 for the Yankees so that certainly helped him reach that milestone number despite having surgery on his pitching arm and missing all of 2009.

Flickr Image by Keith Allison

It’s a split! They salvaged a split! Ahem, excuse me.

After losing two of three to Oakland and starting this series against Baltimore with two losses, I’ll admit I was a little worried about the Yankees. Then, they won handily last night and I thought, “Awesome, now they can’t split the series with a win tomorrow!” And with the help of Freddy Garcia who came back to the Yankees’ rotation after a three week absence, the Yankees defeated the Orioles 3-2.

Garcia threw six strong innings, gave up only one run on two hits. He surrendered only one walk and struck out four.

The Yankees got the scoring started in the first inning after Curtis Granderson walked and Mark Teixeira drove him in with a double off Orioles starter Alfredo Simon.

Nick Swisher hit his 21st home run of the season in the fourth and put the Yankees up 3-0. The Orioles then cut it to 3-1 after a Mark Reynolds home run in the bottom of the fifth.

After Garcia exited the game, it was time for the bullpen to get to work.

Alfonso Soriano pitched a scoreless seventh. David Robertson did something he hasn’t done all year and gave up a home run. As J.J. Hardy rounded the bases, Twitter blew up. Everyone was shocked but luckily it only cut the Yankee lead to 3-2 and Robertson was able to get out of the inning by striking out Adam Jones.

The Yankees went down quietly in the top of the ninth and Mariano Rivera came in to close the game. As the Camden Yards crowd was chanting “Let’s Go Mo!” Rivera induced to groundouts and struck out Reynolds to end the game. Oh, they were chanting “Let’s go O’s!”? My bad.

Garcia started tonight in part because the Yankees didn’t want to throw him into the fire, so to speak, and have him make his first post DL start in Fenway Park against the Red Sox. He earned his 11th win of the season and showed no signs of being affected by the wound on his finger.

Tomorrow is game one of the 56th series of the year between the Yankees and Red Sox. Okay, so I exaggerated but it certainly feels like the Yankees and Red Sox have played that many times. The scheduled starters are CC Sabathia (17-7, 2.99 ERA) and John Lackey (12-9, 5.98 ERA).

Will tomorrow be the night Sabathia figures out how to solve the Red Sox lineup? Find out on the next episode of “As The Stomach Turns…”

Congratulations! You scared the poor cat.

It’s that time of the week again. Time to crown our OMGWTF Moment of the Week.

The Yankees had an interesting go of it this past week, struggling against two sub .500 teams – losing two of three from the Oakland Athletics at home and getting shellacked by the Baltimore Orioles on Friday night before having their doubleheader postponed on Saturday due to Hurricane Irene – which leads up to this week’s winner.

A.J. Burnett is involved again because OMGWTF why can’t he pitch?

So without further delay, the OMGWTF moment was Burnett’s second inning of work on Friday’s loss in which he gave up six extra base hits in a row including two home runs that bookended four doubles.

Flickr Image by Keith Allison 08/26/11

Matt Wieters grounded out to shortstop to start the inning and then all hell broke loose. Mark Reynolds homered to deep left. Ryan Adams doubled to deep right center. Nolan Reimold doubled to shallow left and Adams scored. Matt Angle -whoever he is – doubled to shallow right and Reimold scored. Then that person Angle stole third. Robert Andino doubled to right and Angle scored. J.J. Hardy – who has become a pain in the rear end of late – homered to deep left center, scoring himself (obviously) and Adino. Then to add insult to injury Burnett decided that wasn’t enough so he committed an error, allowing Nick Markakis to get to first base. Finally, and mercifully, Vlad Guerrero grounded into a double play to end the inning.

With the help of that inning, Burnett ended up surrendering nine runs in total to the lowly Orioles which led to a 12-5 loss.

And I know they’ve been playing well of late but they’re still the Orioles. Their elimination number is three – any combination of Boston wins and Baltimore losses equaling three, eliminates them from the playoffs.

As for Burnett, he may be eliminated from the playoffs if he keeps pitching so badly. His next test will be Thursday night in Fenway Park against Jon Lester and the Red Sox.

So will there be an OMGWTF three-peat?

Stay tuned…

Flickr Image Courtesy of andy.wolf

All I’ve done is stick up for you for the past nearly two seasons. I felt bad that people were on your case all the time and also felt like a lot of them were being unfair to you and that you weren’t as bad as everyone said you were…

Yeah, I’m done with that.

You need to go to the minors and straight yourself out. You are historically mediocre which is fine but your last two starts have been so bad, I’d rather sit through a colonoscopy – and not my own. I’d rather watch a doctor stick a tube up someone else’s rear end than watch you pitch right now.

How could you give up nine runs to the Orioles? They are TERRIBLE.

NINE RUNS! WTF DUDE?

And this?
- M. Reynolds homered to deep left
- N. Reimold doubled to shallow left, R. Adams scored
- M. Angle doubled to shallow right, N. Reimold scored
- R. Andino doubled to right, M. Angle scored
- J.J. Hardy homered to deep left center, R. Andino scored

is not acceptable…

In other news Alex Rodriguez hit a home run so now everyone can stop complaining about his lack of power. And wow, is Nick Swisher on fire or what? Amazing.

Oh and to the Oakland Athletics, thank you so much. Yankee fans appreciate your help tonight.

One more thing. AJ Burnett’s record is now 9-11. Yeah…

Or Phil Burnett if you’d like.

After last night’s lackluster performance by AJ Burnett people can’t stop talking about the state of the Yankees’ pitching rotation. They want Burnett out of the rotation after his “gutless” outing against the Angels and they want Phil Hughes to replace him because of his strong outing against the Chicago White Sox last week.

Both Hughes and Burnett have issues when they make their starts that Yankee fans have problems with.

For A.J. Burnett it’s length. It seems like it’s been a dog’s age since he’s pitched past the seventh inning (although for the record, his last 7+ IP performance was against the Orioles on July 29 when he pitched eight innings in a 4-2 loss to Jeremy Guthrie).

I posted a stat in the gane recap last night that bares repeating in this post as well – Thanks to Jay Jaffe from Baseball Prospectus and Pinstriped Bible for the info – Burnett hasn’t thrown a quality start since June 29. His stats since then, 6.00 ERA, 1.5 HR/9, 4.5 BB/9 in 7 starts.

Yikes.

Here are Burnett’s stats by inning for 2011 and you’ll see how the stats change, notice the trailing off of IP in later innings while hits and runs increase in later innings as well (though his stats in the first inning are nothing to write home about either):

Now for Hughes, his 2011 is abbreviated thanks to his lengthy stay on the disabled list so he’s only made nine starts compared to Burnett’s 24.

Hughes’s two main issues have been his velocity diminishing in later innings and his inability to put hitters away when he’s recorded two outs (or at least it seems like he has that issue when watching him).

During his start against the White Sox on August 2 he looked a lot better but some people are wondering if it’s because the idea of pitching for his rotation spot has lit a fire under Hughes’s ass so to speak.

I came up with an idea on Twitter after spying on other people’s Burnett and Hughes discussions. It was as a goof but still, bare with me.

Here it goes:

Why can’t the Yankees just have both Burnett and Hughes pitch the same game? Burnett can start and pitch into the fifth inning and then Hughes, who has bullpen experience can come in for the sixth, seven and eighth. Then you can choose who you want to close out the game!

So the rotation would be CC Sabathia, Bartolo Colon, Freddy Garcia, Ivan Nova and Burnett/Hughes (or Hughes/Burnett). You could have six “starters” but everyone would be going on regular rest!

Aren’t I a genius? Okay, so that won’t actually work.

So what do the Yankees do now?

As for A.J. Burnett and where he stands now, I actually agree with Jack Curry of the YES Network. On the postgame show last night he said that Burnett should skip a start, take a week to work with Yankees pitching coach Larry Rothschild and see what happens.

This will give Hughes a chance to show if he can replicate his performance in Chicago and give Burnett the chance to regroup.

Then again, AJ Burnett has been a mediocre pitcher his whole career and so far, that’s what the Yankees have gotten. It’s just that his really bad starts seem to happen at the wrong time – like when the Yankees have lost two games in a row and fans are rabid. Also, he hasn’t won since June and he’s winless in August while with the Yankees and those are glaring problems.

Now where I didn’t agree with Curry during the postgame was when he implied that if AJ Burnett had actually made a quality start and not given up a run, or maybe had gotten out of that sixth inning only having given up one run, it wouldn’t have been a big deal because the Angels aren’t a great team offensively.

That’s interesting, isn’t it?

So maybe Burnett was better off crapping the bed – for lack of a better phrase – because it’s what expected of him. And if he had pitched well and led the Yankees to victory all we’d be seeing, “Well it was only the Angels. Let’s see how he does against the Red Sox!!!” all over Twitter and being uttered on various sports radio shows.

Well, I have news for everyone. The Angels have a good shot at making the playoffs. They’re within striking distance of the AL West leading Texas Rangers so it is conceivable that the Yankees could face Anaheim in the Division Series – if the Yanks make the playoffs – so wouldn’t it have been significant if AJ Burnett out dueled Dan Haren?

Of course he didn’t, so the point is moot but I wasn’t quite understanding the whole downplaying the opponent aspect of the analysis. Normally I love Curry but he kind of lost me there.

I mean, I guess the same could be said for young Mr. Hughes. Yes, his last start was great but it was against the Chicago White Sox who aren’t a great offensive team and it was a rain shortened outing.

See what I did there?

Anyway, Hughes is scheduled to start against the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday at the Stadium. That should be a good test for him. If he does well against the Rays, who aren’t exactly burning any barns, but who are are still pesky and annoying, it could be a very good thing for his confidence. And if he can keep them off the bases altogether it could a really good thing for the Yankees.

Another good sign for Hughes will be his velocity staying elevated and his ability to get people out swinging and missing or pitching to less contact. If his curve is working he could have a great outing.

Oh who am I kidding? Let’s all just pray to the Baseball Gods and hope that AJ Burnett somehow becomes a better pitcher and that Phil Hughes lives up to his potential as at least a number two starter.

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.