Yankees at Rangers

Texas is in first place in the AL West which is a suprise, we know they have the great hitting but Nolan Ryan has made their pitching better getting them to be more aggressive and pitch deeper into games. It will be interesting to see how they do against the Yankees lineup. The Rangers have a 8 game winning streak at home their longest since 2005. The Yankees have not made a error in 11 straight games which appears to be a team record, they are 22-6 when they don't committ an error. Mark Teixeira was 18 of 39 on the homestand raising his average from 203 to 268. He had 6 homeruns and 16 rbi's. Him and A-rod make quite a tandem, maybe the best in the game right now. Alex has 10 hits since coming back with 7 of them being homeruns. He has hit the ball hard several times with no luck. I am not worried though because you want your cleanup hitter to provide the power and he is also walking a lot which is good. The Yankees are 12-4 since he came back. A-rod loves hitting at the Ballpark at Arlington but I am sure he will be recieved with jeers as he admitted using steroids in his 3 years with the Rangers, it will be interesting to see how Tex is recieved. A-rod is a 329 career hitter at Arlington. The Yankees are 13-3 in Texas since 2005. Nick Swisher since May 1st has been dreadful going 7 of 61 which is a 115 batting average. He has 3 xbh and 5 rbi's. He has also struck out 24 times in that stretch. He has hit well on the road so maybe that will wake him up although Gardner and Cabrera may be in the lineup again. The Yankees only drew 2 walks against the Phillies and struck out 24 times which isn't very good, they need to be more patient although the Phillies had Cole Hamels and Brett Myers going which are 2 good pitchers. A-rod is only 3 homeruns behind Mr October Reggie Jackson for 11th on the alltime homerun list. Hideki Matsui is 6 of his last 42, Nady and Posada may be back in a week or so though which will help. Thanks to Peter Abraham for the game notes and welcome back to him after a week off, check him out at http://yankeeslhblogs.com/ Yankees lineup: Jeter(DH) Damon(LF) Tex(1B) A-rod(3B) Cano(2B) Cabrera(CF) Swisher(RF) Pena(SS) Cash(C)

Yankees Recap

The New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox tonight in Tampa 7-1. AJ Burnett got the start and was good pitching 5 2/3 innings, giving up 1 run on 3 hits with 4k. MO pitched a 1-2-3 inning on 16 pitches. Jon Albaladejo faced one batter and got him out on a groundball. Damaso Marte pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up 1 hit, 1 walk and 1k, 0 runs and Edwar Ramirez closed it out with 1 1/3 innings, 0 runs, 1 hit and 2k. Austin Jackson hit a grandslam in the 8th inning when the Yankees scored 6 times. Tim Wakefield had the knuckler really knuckling and they couldn't get much going off of him. Johnny Damon was 1-3 with a rbi, Angel Berroa was 1-1 with a rbi. Derek Jeter was 1-2 with a walk, Hideki Matsui had a rbi. Robinson Cano was 1-3. Brett Gardner had a triple and run scored with his speed as he beat a throw to home and Melky Cabrera had a walk in his only at bat. Ramiro Pena who is in the mix for the utility role was 1-1. The Yankees have an off day tomorrow and will be back at it on Thursday when they face the Phillies with Joba Chamberlain on the mound. Austin Jackson was reassigned to minor league camp after the game along with Eduardo Nunez, Juan Miranda was optioned down. The Yankees are down to 39 players in camp now. Thanks to Peter Abraham for having that information on his blog and go check him out at http://yankees.lhblogs.com to see comments about Austin Jackson as Reggie Jackson and Joe Girardi had high praise for him. He ended up hitting 333 with 3 hr, 10 rbi a double and triple. He will be the AAA cf and if he does well we could see him in September, I will be watching him closely all season.

Spring Training Game 1

Brett Gardners son and wife were in attendance today. He had gone 127 at bats last year in the majors without a homer and today he took the second pitch out. His 3 month old son Hunter won't remember it but when he gets older his dad can tell him about that in his first game. Gardner brought his son into the clubhouse to show him off after the game. There was no audio available after the game. Tomorrow the Yankees have their Home Grapefruit league opener with Phil Hughes starting. Melky will be in CF and Tex will make his Yankees debut at first base. Phil Coke, Mark Melancon,Jon Albaladejo, Damaso Marte and Brian Bruney will all be pitching also. The game is on YES at 1:15pm with a replay at 7:00, it will be great to see the Yanks back on TV. Reggie Jackson had some interesting things to say, how he is dissappointed in Arod and how he was 6th on the all time hr list when he retired and since then 5 guys have passed him by and most of these guys were juicing. He said he is a fan and that is why he takes the steroid issue personally and has even got in trouble for comments he has made but he is a fan and can't help it.