Yankees News and Notes from the past couple of days

The New York Yankees lost to the Boston Red Sox on Friday night, it was the third time in four games they have lost to them this season.  The Yankees are in a rough stretch where they have lost seven of their last 10 games and fallen out of first place.  They trail the first place Tampa Bay Rays by two games in the AL East.  Here are some notes before the game tonight, some of them are also from postgame last last night. 

Joe Girardi had a team meeting after the game and all the coaching staff was also included.  He most of just really went crazy.  I don't think he can handle the sloppy play, it isn't just the losing it is the way they are doing it. 

Bartolo Colon pitched well again as he has for most of the season.  He refused to address his offseason surgery that has become a issue.  The reason it has come up was because the doctor that did it has been known to inject HGH into his patients, he says he never did it with athletes though.  Colon not addressing it though is raising some eyebrows, the Yankees didn't even know he had the surgery when they signed him.

The pitch selection of Joba Chamberlain was questioned during the broadcast last night.  Joe Girardi said after the game that even if he did question it he wouldn't say anything to anyone outside of the locker room.  He said the scouting reports are something they protect very well. 

Girardi said that Cano never got a good grip on the ball when he tried to turn two in the seventh inning.  Cano was also playing closer to first which meant he had to really run to get over to second which didn't help the matter. 

The Yankees said Buchholz was really good last night and it was tough to hit him.  They did also admit though that they had their chances and couldn't do anything with it.  The Yankees also haven't hit at all for two weeks though.  It will be interesting to see if they get it going against Beckett who they have had success against, they usually like fastball pitchers. 

Colon reached 100 pitches for the first time since June 1, 2008.  Russell Martin hit a homerun which snapped a streak of 45 at-bats without one.  It also snapped a 1-18 skid, He still leads all majjor league catchers with seven homeruns. 

Brett Gardner went 1-4 and is hitting 474 in his past five games.  He is hitting 422 in his last 17 games dating back to April 26th.  He and Granderson are really the only guys in the lineup hitting right now.  It is amazing that so many Yankees and really good hitters are in a slump. 

The Yankees decided to shuffle the lineup today.  They have Jorge Posada batting ninth and Swisher batting eighth, they have been the worst two hitters so why not drop them down.  The lineup tonight is Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Russell Martin, Brett Gardner, Nick Swisher, Jorge Posada.  C.C. Sabathia goes up against Josh Beckett in the pitching matchup. 

In his last two starts Sabathia has a 4.85 ERA, 288 opponents batting average against, seven walks and eight strikeouts.  In his previous six starts he had a 2.25 ERA, 248 opponents batting average against, 11 walks and 36 strikeouts. 

The game is on FOX tonight and ESPN tomorrow night.  The Yankees/Sox draw primetime ratings and that is why you have the two night games on the weekend.