Yankees finish road trip strong and head home

The New York Yankees defeated the Anaheim Angels on Sunday afternoon to win the series two games to one.  It also ended their longest road trip of the season with a 6-3 record.  They played really well on this road trip, some of these west coast trips can really hurt you but the Yankees took over first place out there and are one game up on the Boston Red Sox.  The Yankees lost the first two games in Seattle but then went six out of seven to finish the trip. Here are some postgame notes. “I don’t know if we’ll ever face a nine-game stretch of that kind of starting pitching again,” Mark Teixeira said.

Even the bad starters on this trip were pretty good, but the Yankees won six of nine and played legitimately good baseball. The games they lost were all one-run games. The starting pitching was tremendous, the bullpen did its job, the offense came to life and the defense was especially good the past two nights. Less than a month ago, the Yankees lost six in a row and seemed to be spiraling. Now they’ve won 13 of 18 heading into this week’s showdown against Boston.

“I thought we played pretty well at home before we left, the Mets and Toronto series,” Girardi said. “But before that, we were struggling. We were struggling to win series. There were times we’d win the first agme and we couldn’t win the next two and we weren’t playing well, but we’ve played much better the last five series, and that’s encouraging.”

Pitching deservedly got a lot of credit this road trip, but Teixeira had five home runs during this West Coast swing, including two of them today in Anaheim. He has eight home runs and 19 RBI in the past 16 games. He’s still not hitting for much average, but he’s driving the ball taking his walks.

“I feel good physically,” he said. “Sometimes when you don’t hit home runs, a lot of it’s because you’re a little tired. Your bat’s a little heavy, your bat’s a little slow. Physically I feel like we’ve had a good amount of off days. I feel like I’ve taken care of myself like I always do, and up to his point, my bat’s felt pretty good. Pretty much all season it’s felt pretty quick. I’d still like to get a few more hits. My average is probably not where I want it, but that’s just really good pitching.”

Pitching doesn’t get much better than what the Yankees saw during this road trip, but six wins in nine games shows how well they’re playing heading into tomorrow’s off day and this week’s three-game series against the Red Sox.
More than anything, it seemed the Yankees wanted to talk about their bullpen after this latest win. Bartolo Colon didn’t have his usual command, so the Yankees had to lean on their relievers for 3.2 scoreless innings.

“That might have been the toughest of all the wins that we had,” Girardi said. “It seemed like we had two runners on every inning form the sixth on, maybe even the fifth on, I don’t know, but that was a tough win… When (the relievers) had to get it, they got it.”

Dave Robertson struck out Maicer Izturis to strand the bases loaded in the sixth. Joba Chamberlain struck out Howie Kendrick to strand two runners in the seventh, then he got a double play to end the eighth. Mariano Rivera let the winning run come to the plate in the ninth, then ended the game with a quiet fist pump after the Yankees turned a quick double play.

“There’s a lot of days when you feel great and you’re blowing fastballs by people,” Chamberlain said. “This is the time you have to pitch. You rely on your command, your catcher and your defense most importantly. You’re not going to get a strikeout here, but you’ve got to let them put it into play and let them make plays behind you.”

Both Chamberlain and Robertson called it a battle. Neither had his best stuff, but both found a way. Girardi said some of the credit goes to the rotation for pitching so deep into games lately that he could stick with Robertson and Chamberlain through slightly extended outings.

 Colon only walked two, but it was clear this wasn’t his best day, and he didn’t have his usual command. “I couldn’t find a good grip on the ball,” he said. “I was trying to throw my two-seamer, and I couldn’t.”

  Derek Jeter had another single, this one to right field to pull within 14 of career hit No. 3,000. “As a club we’re starting to get excited,” Girardi said. “I think the fans are starting to get excited. We would love to see him do it at home during the home stand.”

 Jorge Posada said he didn’t think anyone was in position to catch the throw from left field, that’s why he rounded second base on his fourth-inning double. He saw the relay men in front of him and didn’t think any one was behind him. “To be honest,” Girardi said. “He hit the double and I looked down, and I was looking over this way, and the next thing I know, he’s in a rundown. I’m like, what happened? First baseman did his job, he followed, and I guess they threw behind him. I didn’t actually see the play because I assumed it was a double.”

Posada had his first two-hit game since May 17. He came into the game 1-for-16 on the road trip

Brett Gardner also had two hits. He had one hit in the first seven games of this trip, now he has four hits in the past two. Gardner was caught stealing for the seventh time this season. He’s never been a guy who gets caught stealing very often — nine times all last year — but for whatever reason he keeps getting thrown out this year.

This was the 30th career multi-homer game for Teixeira. It was his third multi-homer game in this ballpark, one as an Angel, one as a Ranger and one as a Yankee

Yankees defeat the Angels behind C.C.

The New York Yankees defeated the Anaheim Angels by the score of 3-2 on Saturday night. The Yankees offense was two homeruns, the big one coming off the bat of Alex Rodriguez to give them a two run lead that they would hold onto. Sabathia was brilliant pitching into the ninth inning but not being able to complete the game. Mariano Rivera earned the save by getting the last batter of the game.
Sabathia pitched 8 2/3 innings giving up two runs, only one of them being earned on eight hits. He walked one batter and struck out three. Sabathia has now won four in a row and pitched into at least the eighth inning in all of those starts. He is now 7-3 on the season with a ERA of 2.80. Rivera earned his 15th save of the season with a one pitch out. He got an easy pop up to short not even breaking a sweat in this one.

The Yankees only managed seven hits in this game, it was better then the three they had in the first game of the series. Robinson Cano had a solo homerun and Rodriguez had the two run homerun. Derek Jeter had a hit and a walk. Jeter is now 15 hits away from 3000 and he tied Sam Rice for 28th on the all-time list. Roberto Clemente is next up at 3000. Curtis Granderson had a hit and a walk, Nick Swisher had a hit and he hit the ball hard a couple of other times. Swisher appears to be coming out of his slump. Jorge Posada drew a walk and hit the ball hard to center field in one of his at-bats, he has been swinging better also of late. Brett Gardner had two hits. Swisher had a double, the Yankees were 0-5 with runners in scoring position and left five men on base. Granderson was caught stealing and Jeter committed an error.

The two teams have split the first two games of the series. They will finish the series at 3:30 on Sunday afternoon. Bartolo Colon will make the start for the Yankees against Joel Piniero. The Yankees will be trying to win their first series in Anaheim in seven years. They are also 8-20 in their last 28 series in Anaheim. Here are some postgame notes.

The first changeup was fouled off by Maicer Izturis. The second was hit to deep center field by Erick Aybar.










“It was huge for me tonight,” Sabathia said. “The only reason I pitched eight innings tonight is because I was able to get some swings early and get some weak fly balls (and) get some ground balls with that pitch. A couple of years ago, I probably would have been in trouble not being able to command it if I didn’t have it early.”  He is talking about his changeup which was a great pitch for him in this game.

Sabathia has pitched at least eight innings in his past four starts. He’s won seven of his past nine, and tonight he was one out away from his second complete game in the past two weeks. After Alex Rodriguez hit the go-ahead, two-run home run in the sixth inning, Sabathia needed a total of 12 pitches to get through the next two innings. A third of those 12 pitches were changeups, and there’s no telling how many of his fastballs were made more effective because of the change.

During this West Coast road trip, the Yankees have faced six starting pitchers with a 3.01 ERA or lower. They’ve seen some of the very best in the American League, but none has pitched as well as Sabathia, who’s allowed two earned runs in 16.2 innings.

“CC is amazing,” Alex Rodriguez said. “He’s been kind of a life-saver here for the last two or three years. He’s a guy that starts winning streaks for us and stops losing streaks. He did that last Sunday, and hopefully today was another example of that.”

 Cano actually said he wasn’t happy with the home run at-bat because it should have ended earlier with ball four. “Honestly I don’t like that at-bat because I swing at everything and the other slider was in the dirt,” he said. “So, that’s me chasing and swinging at everything, and that’s not where you want to be. You want to be able to just take those pitches and just take your walks and just swing at better pitches.”


 Rodriguez had not hit a home run since May 21, but during that drought he hit .378 with a .417 on-base percentage. “You always want to be productive,” Rodriguez said. “If that means home runs, RBIs, doubles, whatever it takes to help the team win. Over my career, the one thing I’ve never worried about is home runs. I’ve focused on being a good hitter, drawing my walks and being very productive for my offense.”

Girardi on the decision to leave Sabathia in for the ninth: “He was throwing the ball great. I didn’t see any reason to make a change. His pitch count was down which we usually see out of CC. He’s been on a roll.” Girardi said he didn’t want to Sabathia to face Aybar a fifth time, so he went to the closer.

 The Yankees tied their season high by moving eight games above .500. They’ve won 12 of their past 17 games.


The Yankees got their first one-run road win of the season.

Also, Rodriguez tied Mel Ott for ninth place on baseball’s all-time RBI list with No. 1,864. Rivera moved ahead of Goose Gossage for sole possession of 14th on baseball’s games pitched list with his 1,003rd appearance.


The Yankees have assured themselves a winning record on this road trip, but they’d like to win this series. “Tomorrow’s a big game,” Rodriguez said. “We have to come in here with a lot of adrenaline and hunger to finish off the trio. We haven’t accomplished anything, but for the most part the team has played a little better.

New York Mets vs. Atlanta Braves

The New York Mets will be hoping to even their three game series against the Atlanta Braves tonight.  The game is at 7:00PM at Citi Field.  The Mets lost last night by the score of 6-3.  The Mets are having a tough homestand, they have injuries all over the place, they can't win, the stands are empty, there isn't much else that could go wrong for them.  They even had good news about David Wright yesterday but he is still going to be pushed back another three weeks.  Ike Davis, who knows when he will be back, no one not even Davis has an idea.  The Mets are a mess right now but somehow manager Terry Collins has kept them around the 500 mark and should be comended for that.  Here is their lineup for tonights game.

Mets Lineup:Jose Reyes, Justin Turner, Carlos Beltran, Daniel Murphy, Angel Pagan, Jason Bay, Josh Thole, Ruben Tejada, Dillon Gee.

Yankees at Angels Lineup

The New York Yankees will send their ace C.C. Sabathia to the hill tonight looking to even their three game series.  They lost to the Angels last night 3-2, Ivan Nova pitched a good game showing much improvement from his previous four starts.  Jered Weaver was almost unhittable though only giving up three hits.  The Yankees have had their problems in Anaheim over the years, they haven't won a series there in seven years and out of the last 28 series they have won eight of them in Anaheim.  If they could just win one game they will have had a winning road trip.  This is the end of a nine game, ten day West Coast swing, the longest trip of the year for the Yankees.  The Yankees will be off Monday and then start a three game series at Yankees Stadium agains the Red Sox on Tuesday night. 

Yankees Lineup:Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez, Robinson Cano, Russell Martin, Nick Swisher, Jorge Posada, Brett Gardner.

Yankees lose in Anaheim as usual and some notes

The New York Yankees lost to the Anaheim Angels last night by the score of 3-2.  It was a very non exciting game.  There were only three hits from the Yankees, they made Jered Weaver work but that is all they did.  They had him at 101 pitches after five innings but he only threw six pitches in the sixth inning and that is what could of changed the game.  If they were more patient and got him out in that inning would they have won the game??  It is difficult to say, who knows what would of happened but it didn't help that he got through that inning really quickly and was able to complete seven innings.  Ivan Nova is the other story as he started out shaky and the Yankees bullpen was busy in the fourth inning, he settled down though and pitched a good ballgame going into the seventh inning.  He is having an up and down season and many young starters do but he seemed to grow up in this one a little bit.  Here are some postgame notes from the late game.  The two teams will play game two of their three game series tonight at 9:00PM.

 Jeter on his 15-pitch at-bat to start the game: “It was a while. I don’t know how many pitches it was, but it was probably the longest I’ve been up there. I’m not known for being up there too long.” Just a few seconds later, with a straight face, Jeter began explaining that his entire approach tonight was to foul off as many pitches as possible. He was kidding.



 After Jeter flied out to end that opening at-bat, he clearly communicated a little bit with Weaver as he ran off the field. “It was just more of a gesture,” Jeter said. “I’ve known him since he was a teenager, so it was all in good fun.”

 The line drive back to the mound hit Nova at the very bottom of his glove hand, and pretty much hit all glove. Nova said he’s fine. “I just see the ball right at my face and react,” he said.

Turns out to be significant that Jorge Posada’s fourth-inning double bounced over the wall. If that weren’t a ground rule double, Nick Swisher almost certainly would have scored an extra run.

 Nova had never faced any of the Angels hitters before tonight.

Boone Logan was brought in to face a switch hitter tonight. He got two strikes, but he couldn’t put Alberto Callaspo away, giving up a single. “I just thought he missed his spot with that pitch,” Girardi said. “With two strikes, hitters sometimes shorten up a little bit and take a little bit different approach, and you got to be able to make the pitch.”

 The Angels announced that Ervin Santana has been bumped up one day and will start Saturday in place of Dan Haren. Joel Pineiro will start Sunday’s game in place of Santana.

 Jeter was asked if it’s starting to feel like the Yankees are facing one ace after another. “Even if you’re facing guys that may not be big-name pitchers,” he said, “they still seem to get up for us and throw the ball well."

The Yankees really struggle in Anaheim and with the Angels in general.  The Yankees are 45-56 against them including last nights game since 2000.  They haven't won a series in Anaheim in seven years and are 8-20 in their last 28 series there.  Anaheim is not a place the Yankees like going too, for whatever reason they just don't win there. 

The Yankees will have their ace on the mound tonight with C.C. Sabathia pitching against Ervin Santana. 

Mets vs. Braves Pregame with the Mets Lineup

The Mets begin a three game series with the Atlanta Braves tonight at Citi Field.  Here are some notes, with Ike Davis comments and the Mets lineup.  The game is at 7:05PM.

Ike Davis spoke to reporters this afternoon at Citi Field, about his ankle and his recovery, basically saying the following:

He knew the sprain wasn’t bad, but the bone bruise is in the ankle, and it has been slow to heal.

The ankle got worse when he ran, and so they decided to shut him down.

He is in New York for a couple of days, and will head back to Port St. Lucie to continue his rehab.

He is trying to take time off from hitting to see if gets better faster.  It does seem strange that he would be out for so long with this injury but you can't get into his body to see how he really feels.

There is no timetable for his return, I don't expect him back anytime soon.

In addition, Terry Collins spoke with reporters, and basically said:

David Wright had an appointment with doctors, and he doesn’t have the results yet.  The appointment was at 3:30 so maybe before the game but I would expect to hear in the postgame.

The Braves have a complete pitching staff, and they are all tough pitchers.

He likes that Manny Acosta has been throwing strikes with high velocity in the minors and he feels Mike O’Connor needs to get his command back.  He thinks that Ruben Tejada will be a very good major leaguer.

Tonight’s lineup is:

1. Jose Reyes SS

2. Justin Turner 3B

3. Carlos Beltran RF

4. Jason Bay LF

5. Daniel Murphy 1B

6. Angel Pagan CF

7. Josh Thole C

8. Ruben Tejada 2B

9. Jon Niese LHP

Yankees sweep Oakland and some postgame notes

The New York Yankees won 4-2 this afternoon over the Oakland Athletics sweeping the three game series.  The Yankees started off this road trip losing the first two games, they have now won the last four in a row.  They have run into good starting pitching but the offense has done well and the Yankees starters have performed really well which they have for most of the season.  It is really interesting that they don't get talked about a lot right now but they may be soon if this keeps up.  Ivan Nova has the highest ERA of the starters and that is in the high fours.  Every other starter has an ERA below four.  Here are some postgame notes as the Yankees will enjoy a day off on Thursday and head to Anaheim to get ready for a three game series there beginning Friday night.


“Our guys have pitched pretty well too,” Joe Girardi said. “Bartolo got us off to a great start, and Freddy’s been throwing the ball well, and I just felt that our club, we had a chance to win every game on this road trip, and we’ve been playing better. I just felt we had a chance today.”

Following the lead of Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia, A.J. Burnett gave the Yankees seven strong innings. He allowed a two-run homer in the first inning, then allowed one more hit the rest of the way. Girardi said Burnett got stronger as the game went along. 

“Once you’re out there you don’t think about it,” Burnett said, “but obviously you don’t want to be the guy that makes the winning come to an end either. I think we’ve done a good job here of late, and to keep it going, it’s up to us to go out and set the tone. Our defense and our hitters see that confidence and see we’re in those games. It helps them out as well.”

“We’ve beaten three pretty darned good pitchers,” Alex Rodriguez said. “Our guys have been terrific. You can’t say enough about the jobs Colon and Garcia have done. Those guys have been Godsends for us, and A.J. was terrific today.”

Said Girardi: “Pitching is the key, obviously. You have to pitch well to win a lot of games. Whenever we pitch well I get excited, but it’s good to see our offense swinging the bats. It’s great.”


The Yankees got their first three-game series sweep of the season. Every other series sweep this year has been a two-game set against the Orioles. With Sunday’s win in Seattle, this is also the Yankees first four-game winning streak of the year.

Girardi pointed out that this game wasn’t necessarily easy for Burnett. The final numbers are outstanding, but he was laboring, especially early. The difference, he said, was an adjustment away from his four-seam fastball, which was finishing too far up in the zone. “I think at times in the past I would stick to it and get beat up,” Burnett said. “I realized that the two-seamer kept me down in the zone today. To righties I used that more and changeups to lefties. Everything was down.”

The Yankees have won 10 straight against the A’s, and they’ve gone 24-4 against them since Girardi became manager in 2008. “That’s hard to believe because they’ve got a really good team,” Alex Rodriguez said. “Billy Beane has done a great job of gathering talent and great pitching.”

 When Swisher was traded to Chicago, Gonzalez was one of the primary pieces coming from the White Sox to the A’s. Swisher said he had no idea until this morning that he was facing a guy he was once traded for. “I just found out about that this morning, that we were in the same trade,” Swisher said. “No one likes getting traded, bro. You don’t really pay attention to who was on the other side of it. He’s a great pitcher, no doubt, and he’s got a lot of potential. I wish him the best of luck.”

 Derek Jeter had a double to move within 16 hits of 3000. “I can’t wait, man,” Swisher said. “I can’t wait to see that. I’ve seen someone hit 500 (home runs), seen Mariano save 500, but I’ve never seen 3,000 hits, man. I’m excited to see that.”


 Jeter has a seven-game hitting streak and has a .512 on-base percentage when leading off the first inning this year. That’s the highest such on-base percentage in the Majors.

 Russell Martin is hitless in his past 16 at-bats. On the positive side Mark Teixeira has a nine-game hitting streak.

 Mariano Rivera picked up his 14th save of the season. He’s now pitched in 1,002 games, tying Goose Gossage for 14th on baseball’s all-time games pitched list.

 Burnett had not won a game on the road since August 10, 2010, an 11-start streak without a victory. He was 0-5 with a 5.64 ERA. No other Major League starter failed to get at least one win on the road over that stretch (minimum 60 innings pitched) and only one had a higher ERA. Carl Pavano was the other pitcher.