New York Yankees begin road trip with a win in Houston

The New York Yankees defeated the Houston Astros on Monday night.  The game took place at Minute Maid Park in Houston, Texas and the final score was 2-1.  The day started with the Yankees trading away their closer Aroldis Chapman for four players and ended with new closer or old closer depending on how you look at it closing it out.  Michael Pineda started and pitched really well and the bullpen closed it out.  Carlos Beltran, Chase Headley and Austin Romine each had two hits. 

Pineda pitched seven innings giving up a run on five hits.  He walked two and struck out eight and won his fifth game of the season.  Dellin Betances pitched a perfect inning striking out the side and Andrew Miller pitched an inning giving up a hit and he struck out one and saved his eighth game of the season. 

Dallas Keuchel pitched 7 2/3 innings giving up six hits and two runs with no walks and five strikeouts.  He lost his 10th game of the season.  Luke Gregerson pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up a hit. 

Beltran had two hits, Didi Gregorius had a hit and Headley had two hits and an RBI.  Romine had two hits and an RBI, Gregorius, Beltran and Romine each hit a double.  The Yankees were 1-10 with runners in scoring position and left four men on base.  Torreyes had a stolen base and Castro committed an error. 

George Springer had a hit and an RBI, Jose Altuve had a hit and Carlos Correa drew a walk.  Luis Valbuena had three hits and drew a walk, Carlos Gomez had a hit and Springer hit a homerun.  The Astros were 0-5 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base.  Valbuena and a Gomez had a stolen base. 

In the first Springer hit a solo homerun to give the Astros a 1-0 lead.  In the fifth Headley hit an RBI single to tie the game at one.  In the eighth Romine hit an RBI double to give the Yankees a 2-1 lead and that would be the final score.  The teams will play game two of three on Tuesday night.   

Rays at Yankees

The Yankees will try to even their abbreviated three game set with the Rays this afternoon with Joba Chamberlain on the hill against Matt Garza. Matt Garza pitched well against the Yankees earlier in the year, but the Yankees came back and won the game 7-2. The goal of the Yankees should be to get the starters of the Rays out of the game early and go to work on the questionable and beat up bullpen of the Rays. Here are the pregame notes and lineup as always from Peter Abraham. The Yankees have lost 2 of three and are 8-6 in their last 14. They enter today tied for first in the loss column. It would be nice if they can beat the Rays the next couple of games heading into the Fenway showdown. The Yanks are 2-9 vs the Rays and Red Sox and that has to change. Yankee Stadium and Tropican Field are the only 2 ballparks in baseball that have given up at least one homerun in every game played there this year. The Yankees set the record with 18 straight errorless games, since then they have at least one error in 4 straight games, it definitely hurt them yesterday. Melky Cabrera has 23 rbi's and 11 of them have been to tie the game or give the Yanks the lead in the seventh inning or later. Big Tex has 12 homeruns and 35 rbi's in his last 26 games, man is he hot not coincidentally he has really shined with A-rod back. Those two have formed a great bond and they should. Derek Jeter has 11 stolen bases, he stole that many all of last year. Yankees lineup: Jeter(SS) Damon(LF) Tex(1B) A-rod(3B) Cano(2B) Posada(C) Matsui(DH) Swisher(RF) Cabrera(CF)

Yankees at Kansas City

UPDATE 3:05PM: I do have the lineups now and here they are Yankees Jeter(ss) Damon(lf) Teixera(1b) Matsui(dh) Posada(c) Cano(2b) Swisher(rf) Ransom(3b) Gardner(cf) KC Crisp(cf) Aviles(ss) Dejesus(lf) Teahen(rf) Gordon(3b) Butler(dh) Jacobs(1b) Olivio(c) Callaspo(2b) This is a bonus for today as I usually won't be posting the opposing teams lineup. Derek Jeter and Mark Teixera have fared well in their careers against Sidney Ponson. Jeter has 5 hrs going 29 of 77. Big Tex is 8 of 15 against him, the Yankees also will get to see old friend Kyle Farnsworth who already has blown a save for the Royals. Pettitte is 12-3 with a 3.59 career era against the Royals and 7-2 3.34 career in KC. Cody Ransom has struggled going 1-10, maybe they do need Arod after all. Robinson Cano is off to a great start going 6 of 11 with 5 runs scored, 3 rbi, 3 walks and 2 extra base hits. He hasn't struck out yet and it took him 19 games last year to get 3 walks. I give a shoutout to Peter Abraham for having the lineups and notes on his blog, check it out at http://yankees.lhblogs.com. Enjoy the game everyone and hopefully I will be back later with a happy postgame recap. I don't have the lineup yet or any notes but the Yankees will take on old friend Sidney Ponson today at 4:10pm. Kaufmann Stadium underwent a renovation and it will be interesting to see how it looks, i have always liked their stadium out there. I think the Yankees will score some runs off Ponson and if Andy can pitch a good game they should get a victory today. I think they will be more relaxed after getting their first victory and Big Tex after a rough start had a good day yesterday and I think he will be ok. I will be back in a little bit when I get the lineups and pregame notes. I do have a quick note, Andrew Brackman got shelled in his first outing yesterday in A-Charleston. AA Trenton picked up their first victory 5-4 in 14 innings yesterday and AAA-Scranton picked up their first victory in their first game.