Yankees Friday postgame notes

Here are the Yankees Friday night postgame notes after a lackluster loss where their division lead was cut down to two games.  The two teams will play Saturday afternoon and the Orioles can make it really tight with a win, the Yankees can breathe a little if they win and bump that lead back up to three games.  Here are the notes courtesy of the Lohud Yankees blog and my own thoughts are mixed in like always. 

Much of the talk before tonight’s series opener with the Baltimore Orioles centered around the Yankees not panicking despite the fact that their lead in the division had been cut down to three games. Players seemed loose in the clubhouse, and Joe Girardi smiled when asked questions about the Yanks’ shrinking cushion in the AL East.

But after the Orioles cut that lead to two games with Friday’s 6-1 win — a game in which the Yankees never really seemed to be in it — a bit of reality seems to be setting in.

“It’s that time of year where we know what’s going on,” Eric Chavez said.

For the most part, the Yankees still chalked this loss up as one of those games, but there’s no denying that they have not been playing well of late. Tonight’s loss is their seventh in their last 10 games, and there’s no doubt that they need to turn things around if they want to hold onto first place.  If they keep playing like that, they don't deserve first place, you don't want to be in a one game playoff so they better get it together here, it should help to get some guys back.  They should have Tex and Arod back shortly. 

“I probably said that about two weeks ago,” Girardi said. “When we got swept in Chicago, I said, ‘We need to play better.’ When we lost two out of three to Toronto, I said, ‘We need to play better.’ As I’ve said, there are going to be low points and high points during the season. You’ve got to find a way to get out of this little rut we’re in.”

Girardi is not your typical rah-rah type of manager, but he was asked after the game if he would feel the need to speak with his team if this skid continues.

“If I did,” he said. “Do you think I would tell you?”

While the Yankees looked lost at the plate for most of tonight’s game, O’s starter Miguel Gonzalez deserves a lot of credit. He was good against the Yankees the last time that he faced them, and he was even better this time around. Traditionally, the Yanks can be caught off guard when they haven’t seen a pitcher before, but they tend to catch up quickly after that. Gonzalez didn’t allow that, giving Baltimore seven shutout innings while striking out nine and allowing only four hits. “The ball was exploding out of his hand,” Chavez said. “The board said 91, 92, but it felt like 95.”  It could of been just that this guy is good, but the Yankees bats have to wake up starting Saturday. 

Aside from a deceptive fastball, there were two things that Gonzalez did very well: He got ahead in counts, and he mixed in his offspeed pitches well. A couple of Yankee hitters said they thought his split-finger was especially nasty tonight. “You’ve got to stay in attack mode against these really good lineups,” Orioles manager Buck Showalter said. “As soon as they feel some anxiety or that you’re picking around the strike zone, it doesn’t bode well for you.”

 As Yankees starter Hiroki Kuroda said after the game, “I think it’s pretty similar to my last outing. One mistake pitch too many.” Kuroda gave up some runs early to the Cleveland Indians in his last start before settling down, and that’s pretty much how it went tonight. He gave up a sac fly to Chris Davis and a two-run homer to Mark Reynolds in the second to give the O’s a 3-0 lead before promptly retiring the next nine batters that he faced. That streak was broken when he gave up a solo homer to J.J. Hardy in the top of the sixth.  He wasn't great but it looked a lot worse because the offense did nothing.  He keeps the Yankees in the game but in this one unless you threw a shutout the Yankees weren't going to win. 

Kuroda ended up giving the Yankees 8 1/3 innings while allowing the four runs, and he was asked after the game if it weighs on him when his offense isn’t backing him up. “In order to win, I have to minimize the damage to less than what we can score,” he said. “It’s really tough to face these situations.”

The Yankees best opportunity to get to Gonzalez came in the bottom of the sixth. Ichiro led off with a single, which was followed by a Jayson Nix walk. That set the table for the most formidable portion of this version of the Yankees lineup, but Derek Jeter, Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano went down in order. “I’m not an excuse guy,” Swisher said. “Just a bad game for us. We have to put this game behind us, and I can’t wait for tomorrow.”  They have been bad all year long with runners in scoring position and now it is catching up to them.

Out of all of the Yankees, Swisher had the most forgettable night. For the first time since 2006, he struck out in all four plate appearances. He has had four strikeout games since 2006, but not in a game in which he only came up four times. As reporters asked Swish about Gonzalez after the game, he responded, “I’m not the right guy to ask. I didn’t do too much against him tonight.”  It is like in the playoffs with him, he shrinks in big situations.  I don't think he will be around next year for that reason.

 Before the game, Girardi had talked about some signs that he would look for to see if his team was pressing. He talked about wanting to see guys smiling and enjoying themselves, but he also spoke about looking at their approaches at the plate — if they’re hacking away at bad pitches or seem too anxious. When asked if he had noticed any of those things in tonight’s game, he didn’t seem to think so. “I think the effort’s there,” he said. “It’s really kind of hard to judge if youre going to be satisfied with a guy’s at-bat, because then you’re asking me to get into people’s minds. But I didn’t see guys trying to do too much.”

Alex Rodriguez went 0 for 3 with a walk and a run scored for Single-A Tampa tonight in his first action in over a month. He grounded out to short in his first at-bat, walked in his second, and then struck out in his final two plate appearances. For more on that, here is a story from Newsday’s Greg Auman. A-Rod could be back as soon as next week, and Girardi was asked if he’s the type of spark that the team needs right now. “You hope he comes back swinging like he did before he got hurt,” he said. “That’s the idea. This is a guy that’s supposed to be an impact player for us, so you hope he makes a big impact.”

Swisher mentioned A-Rod as a guy that the team looks to for leadership in these situations, along with Jeter. “We look to them for guidance,” he said.

 I’ll give the final word to Showalter, whose team has shaved eight games off of the Yankees’ lead in six weeks: “I’m proud of our players. There will be another challenge. We’re going to sleep quickly. We’ve almost made it to September, what do we have, a couple of hours? I think we all know, it’s a given, what the Yankees are about and what they can do. We have to continue to stay focused on what we have to do and stay in the moment, which our guys have done such a great job with all year.”

Yanks not sleepless in Seattle

http://gmarchese.blogspot.comThe New York Yankees defeated the Seattle Mariners last night by the score of 5-2. Sergio Mitre got the start and didn't pitch too bad going 5 1/3 innings giving up 2 runs on 7 hits. Dave Robertson came on and pitched 1 scoreless inning giving up 2 hits but striking out 3. Phil Coke pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings giving up 0 hits with 3 strikeouts. Mariano Rivera pitched the ninth for the save giving up a hit and walk but also striking out two. The offense was led by Derek Jeter who had 2 hits and 2 rbi's and Robinson Cano who had 2 hits. A-rod had a hit and a couple of walks. Nick Swisher had a 2 run homerun, Mark Teixeira had a hit, Jerry Hairston Jr had a hit and Jose Molina had a couple of hits and also a big play in the seventh throwing out Ichiro trying to steal third. The Yankees just keep rolling along now 7 1/2 games ahead of the Red Sox for first place in the AL East. Joba Chamberlain will get the start today after all and then not pitch again for another 8 days. The Yankees are now 23-6 since the all star break which is the best record in their history post all star break. Mariano Rivera has now completed 31 consecutive save chances matching his career high which he last accomplished in 2005. The Yankees bullpen has given up 1 run in their last 20 2/3 innings, this is just dominant and with that type of pitching you would expect to have a run like the Yankees have had. The other thing the Yankees pitchers do for the most part is get a lot of strikeouts, the bullpen had 8 last night and CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte had 10 in back to back games.

Yanks sweep Jays heading home for showdown with Bosox

The New York Yankees defeated the Toronto Blue Jays by the score of 8-4 tonight. Sergio Mitre got the start and wasn't great again although he wasn't horrendous. He went 4 1/3 innings giving up 3 runs on 8 hits. Alfredo Aceves gave up 1 run in 2 innings with 1 hit and 3 strikeouts. Phil Coke retired both batters he faced with a strikeout and Phil Hughes and David Robertson each pitched a scoreless inning giving up a hit but striking out two. The offense came to life in the seventh inning when Nick Swisher led off with a homerun and then they scored 3 more after that. Johnny Damon had 3 hits and 3 rbi's, Derek Jeter had a hit, Mark Teixeira had a hit and 2 rbi's. Nick Swisher and Robinson Cano had 2 hits each and Hideki Matsui had a rbi single. The Yankees did a really nice job of coming back strong in Toronto after losing 3 in a row in Chicago and then pulling out the last one, they finish their road trip at 5-4 which is good and remain 2 1/2 ahead of the Red Sox which they started this roadtrip at. The big 4 game series starts tomorrow at the Stadium with Joba Chamberlain going against John Smoltz, the Yankees by splitting now will remain right where they are now and unless they get swept 4 in a row will be in first place after this series. It would be really nice if they can win 3 out of 4 and move to 4 1/2 ahead. The Yankees really need to come out tomorrow and play their best and get that win and move forward.

Yankees at White Sox

The New York Yankees start a 4 game series with the Chicago White Sox tonight. Andy Pettitte will be taking on Gavin Floyd. Here are the pregame notes and lineups via Peter Abraham. The Yankees enter play today tied for best record in baseball with the LA Dodgers. The White Sox come back home from a terrible 1-6 roadtrip, they are in 3rd place in the AL Central. They trail the Detroit Tigers by 3 games. Andy Pettitte is 11-9 with a 4.48 era in 22 career starts against the White Sox. The Yankees haven't played the White Sox since last Sept and haven't been to US Cellular Field since last April 22-24th. The Yankees were 5-2 against them last year. The Yankees are 11-2 in their last 13 although they have only outscored their opposition by 24 runs. MO in his last 17 games has gone 16 2/3 innings giving up 0 runs on 4 hits with 5 walks and 27 strikeouts. The Yankees have a 3.03 era in the 13 games since the break. Melky Cabrera is 6 of 15 with 5 runs scored since Brett Gardner went on the DL. He is now batting 290. Jorge Posada in his last 12 games has 7 rbi's, 7 xbh and 6 runs scored. Big Tex has a 8 game hitting streak. He is batting 346 since the break with 5 homeruns, 11 rbi's and 7 runs scored. Nick Swisher is 6 of 18 with 3 runs scored, 3 rbi's, 4 xbh and 2 walks. Yankees Lineup: Jeter(SS) Damon(LF) Tex(1B) A-rod(3B) Matsui(DH) Swisher(RF) Cano(2B) Cabrera(CF) Molina(C) White Sox Lineup: Kotsay(CF) Beckham(3B) Dye(RF) Thome(DH) Konerko(1B) Pierzynski(C) Quentin(LF) Getz(2B) Nix(SS)

Yankees finish off strong homstand with a win

The Yankees defeated the Oakland A's today by the score of 7-5 to cap off a 9-1 homestand. Sergio Mitre got the start and only lasted 5 innings giving up 4 runs on 9 hits with 1 strikeout. Phil Coke came on in relief and was shaky giving up 2 hits and a run in his one inning of work. Phil Coke has been so great but it is going to happen and it will really be beneficial to him and the team if Damaso Marte comes back and they can have the two lefties out of the pen. Phil Hughes came on for 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief. He gave up a hit and a walk but had 3 strikeouts. He has just been so good you wonder if he will ever let up a run again out of the bullpen. Mariano Rivera also pitched 1 1/3 innings of scoreless relief giving up 0 hits and 0 walks with 2 strikeouts. The Yankees pitching has been so good and that is the key to their success, it will be interesting to see what they do, if they add another starter or take Aceves out of the pen and make him a starter again, I don't think they will move Hughes back as he has been so dominant and it would take him time to build back up to starting. The offense was led by Derek Jeter who went 2-4 with 2 rbi's and a walk. Johnny Damon had a hit and a walk and Big Tex had 2 hits and a rbi. Jorge Posada had a hit and a walk, Hideki Matsui had a hit, walk and rbi. Nick Swisher had a hit and a walk and Robinson Cano had a huge 3 run double. Melky Cabrera had a hit and 2 walks, he has started hitting well again lately and he is once again the CF as Gardner is hurt so this is a good sign. Cody Ransom had 2 hits, everyone in the lineup had at least one hit. The Yankees finished off the homestand at 9-1 which is great and they also are 2 1/2 ahead of the Red Sox as they got that game back they lost yesterday with their win and Bostons loss. The Yankees now begin a huge 9 game roadtrip with 3 in Tampa starting tomorrow, 4 in Chicago and 2 in Toronto. The Yankees will have the Red Sox for 4 games when they return home but lets focus on each series first and not look ahead, hopefully we will remain in first at the end of this roadtrip and go from there. I would accept 5-4 on this roadtrip but 6-3 would be really nice.

Yanks win again take over first place

The New York Yankees won their fifth game in a row tonight and in doing so they took over sole possession of first place. They now lead the Red Sox by 1 game in the AL East. Sergio Mitre got the start and pitched fairly well going 5 2/3 innings giving up 8 hits, 4 runs with 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. Alfredo Aceves pitched 1 1/3 scoreless giving up 0 hits, 0 walks and 0 strikeouts. Phil Coke came on and pitched a scoreless 8th and Mo finished it off with a 1-2-3 ninth for his 26th save. The offense really didn't do much again but A-rod had a big 2 run single and also added a walk and stolen base. Cody Ransom had a double and a couple of walks with a stolen base. Johnny Damon had a rbi single, just missing the 200th homerun of his career. Robinson Cano had a couple of hits with one of them being a 2 run homerun. The Yankees once again played very good defense. They will look for their 2nd straight sweep tomorrow afternoon with A.J. Burnett on the mound.

Game 86: Yankees at Angels

I apologize for the lack of posts but I have been seriously ill and I am still fighting it. Here are the pregame notes and lineup via Peter Abraham. Mark Melancon was recalled from Scranton and Jon Albaladejo was optioned back down. The Yankees start the day tied for first with the Red Sox in the AL East. They finish the first half in Anaheim with 3 games then its the all star break. Game 86: Yankees at Angels Posted using ShareThis