Mets lose to the Marlins as a couple of bad innings do them in

The New York Mets lost to the Florida Marlins by the score of 8-5 on Saturday night. Chris Capuano started for the Mets and pitched ok. D.J. Carrasco had a rough inning making a tight game become out of reach. Jose Reyes and Justin Turner had big games but no one else on offense really helped them.

Capuano pitched six innings giving up six hits and four runs with three walks and six strikeouts. D.J. Carrasco pitched an inning giving up three hits and three runs, he struck out three and Ryota Igarashi pitched one inning giving up two hits and a run. Capuano took the loss and his record is now 8-10 with a 4.26 ERA.

Reyes and Turner each had three hits. Reyes had an RBI and Turner had a walk. Carlos Beltran had a hit, RBI and three walks, David Wright had a hit and two RBI and Lucas Duda had a hit and an RBI. Turner had two doubles, Duda and Reyes each had a homerun. The Mets were 2-8 with runners in scoring position and they left eight men on base. Reyes had a stolen base. Wright made a throwing error and Capuano did pick off a runner.

There were no runs scored until the fifth inning when Wright hit a two run single putting the Mets up 2-0. In the bottom of the sixth inning the Marlins scored four runs to take a 4-2 lead. Omar Infante hit an RBI triple, Gaby Sanchez hit a two run homerun and Logan Morrison hit a solo homerun. Beltran had an RBI single in the seventh to make it 4-3. In the bottom of the seventh Infante singled and a run scored on Wrights throwing error. Sanchez hit another two run homerun to make it 7-3 Marlins. The Marlins would score another run in the eighth to make it 8-3. The Mets scored a couple of runs in the ninth on back-to-back homeruns by Duda and Reyes. They were both solo homeruns and that made the final score 8-5. After the two homeruns the Mets next three batters were retired to end the game.

The two teams will play the rubber game of their three game series on Sunday afternoon. The Mets won the first game and the Marlins this game. The Mets are back at 500. It seems they get a couple games over and then they get back to 500. They have been right around 500 for a while but they can’t put any distance from the 500 mark. Wright has made an immediate impact in his two games back. He has had at least one hit and RBI in each game.

Yankees rout the Athletics

The New York yankees routed the Oakland Athletics tonight by the score of 17-7.  They had a 4-4 road trip and after the All Star Break so it felt like forever since they have been home.  I guess the Yankees really like being home.  Phil Hughes started and although he had all that run support he didn't pitch well at all, he couldn't even make it out of the fifth inning to earn a win.  Hector Noesi pitched well in relief and earned his second win of the season.  Noesi has pitched very well as the long man out of the bullpen.  Luis Ayala pitched a perfect inning to close out the game, he has the fifth lowest ERA of all relievers in the league, Dave Robertson is second. 

Mark Teixeira had a grand slam, Nick Swisher had a three run homerun and tied a career high with five RBI.  The Yankees had their single inning  highest output of the season with a nine spot in the third inning.  Derek Jeter had a couple of hits and took over sole possession of 25th place on the all-time hits list.  Brandon Laird had his first hit, RBI and walk of his major league career. 

The Yankees have now won 11 straight against the Athletics.  The two teams will meet tomorrow afternoon in the heat, tonight the first pitch temperature was 100, I could only imagine during the day how that will be.  A.J. Burnett will face off against Rich Harden.  Harden is a veteran, but he just can't stay healthy, he has had some success in his career when he pitches.  The Yankees remain two games back of the Boston Red Sox in the AL east.  They are 5 1/2 games ahead of the Anaheim Angels and 6 1/2 ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for the wild card. 

The Yankee lose a close one in Tampa

The Yankees were trying for the series win tonigth in Tampa but they came up just short losing 2-1.  CC Sabathia pitched well but James Shields was even better for the Rays.  Sabathia pitched a complete game giving up two runs on five hits.  He walked four and struck out eight.  Shields pitched 7 2/3 innings giving up one run on six hits.  He walked three and struck out six.  Sabathia saw his record fall to 14-5 on the season.  It was his 31st birthday and he couldn't get a win on it to celebrate. 

The offense was stuck in neutral once again, this was the second time since July 10th that they weren't able to hit Shields.  Sabathia got the best of him in their last meeting winning the game 1-0.  The only offense came in the eighth inning on a Robinson Cano RBI double.  Derek Jeter also had a double in the game tying him with Wade Boggs on the all-time hits list with 3010. 

The Yankees are now two games back of the Boston Red Sox for first place in the AL East.  They are 5 1/2 games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays for the wild card.  The Rays will play the Yankees and Red Sox 19 more times this season.  There was a chance that they could of been buried this week by those two teams but they are hanging in there and with all those games have a chance to do some serious damage. 

The Yankees will begin a ten game homestand on Friday night.  They will take on the Oakland Athletics, they will also face the Seattle Mariners and Baltimore Orioles on the homestand.  There will be a doubleheader on July 30th.  Ivan Nova could be recalled to make the start in one of those games.  The Yankees need to win a majority of these games and try to make up ground or at least seperate themselves from the Rays and the rest of the pack.

Yankees lineup for series finale at Tampa Bay

Here is your Yankees lineup for the series finale at Tampa Bay tonight at 7:00PM.  CC Sabathia will be on the mound looking for his major league leading 15th win of the season.  He has won seven straight starts and is on some roll.  He will face off against James Shields.  They met in the final game before the All Star Break at Yankee Stadium in a classic that the Yankees won 1-0. 

Yankees Lineup:Brett Gardner, Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Jorge Posada, Russell Martin, Eduardo Nunez, Chris Dickerson(LF).  Granderson as expected is out of the lineup as he is very sore.  He will be available to play later in the game though if needed. 

Yankees postgame notes from Wednesday night

Here are some postgame notes from Wednesday night after the Yankees victory over the Rays.  An assist goes out to the Lohud Yankees blog for some of the quotes and information. 
“That’s what good pitchers and good players do,” Freddy Garcia said. “It can be rough the night before, then the next day you can be the hero. That’s the way baseball goes.”

Last week, Garcia was pitching on 11 days rest, and it showed. He was rusty, much more sloppy than what he’d been in the first half. Tonight was the Garcia the Yankees were used to seeing. He was sharp, and although the Rays got their hits, they didn’t take a single walk and Garcia got big outs when he needed them. The Rays were 0-for-6 with four strikeouts with runners in scoring position. Three of those strikeouts were inning-enders by Garcia.  Garcia always seems to be in trouble but he is calm and he knows how to pitch, he has the experience and it shows. 

“You’re a professional, so you expect to do your job,” Garcia said. “I’m a pitcher. I try to do my job every time I go out there, win some games and help the team.”

This was the third time in his past four starts that Garcia didn’t allow a walk. He hasn’t allowed a home run in his past 46 innings, the longest streak of his career. Opponents are hitting .173 against him with runners in scoring position. That average dips to .163 when there are two outs and runners in scoring position.  He has been everything and more that the Yankees could of dreamed of when they signed him, there are no complaints about him. 

“Because (Garcia and Bartolo Colon) are older, people seem to think, ‘Is this the end?’ every time they have a bad start,” Joe Girardi said. “Freddy didn’t start for about 15 days after being skipped by the rain (last time), so I wasn’t sure how sharp he was going to be. I’m not surprised he did what he did.”

Logan’s first two and a half months mean he’ll probably be a punching bag the rest of the season, but he’s been pretty good since the middle of June, and tonight he got a massive strikeout against baseball’s third-leading hitter. One night after Logan’s error cost the Yankees the ball game, he and Casey Kotchman battled through a seven-pitch at-bat that ended with Kotchman swinging through a 94-mph fastball.  It also doesn't help when your the only lefty in the bullpen, so of course he is going to hear it when he doesn't perform.

“It felt good,” Logan said. “Felt just as good as I did yesterday, luckily he didn’t hit the ball back to me. They’re all big outs, and coming in after what I did yesterday and coming out to get that big strikeout, I got pretty pumped up.”


Until the ninth inning, Granderson two-run home run was responsible for the only scoring in the ball game, but that wasn’t his most memorable moment. With two on in the fifth, Evan Longoria drove a ball to deep center field. It was a much more difficult catch than the ball Granderson lost in the roof last night, and this time he made a sprinting grab just before slamming into the center field wall.  He is banged up and I wouldn't expect him to play in the series finale. 

“I saw that one all the way,” he said. “I thought I was going to be able to stay and brace myself because I could see (the wall) coming up and I got my hand out. The good thing is, this wall doesn’t have much behind it so there’s a lot of give. It just kind of pushed me off and I fell back off it. It probably looked worse than it actually was… If that would have been in Yankee Stadium it wouldn’t have been pretty by no means.”

David Price apologized to Granderson on the field after drilling him between the shoulder blades with a 95-mph fastball. Obviously there’s no chance Price was trying to hit him, but he apparently felt a little bad about that one.  I am sure he knew how much that hurt and was feeling bad for letting that happen.

After 6.2 scoreless from Garcia, Logan got a big out against a lefty, Dave Robertson and Mariano Rivera struck out four through hitless eight and ninth innings. “That’s a perfect scenario,” Logan said. “That’s what we want to do. When the bullpen comes in and shuts it down, you can’t ask for more from it, and it’s always a good feeling when we all go out there and do our job.”  The Yankees bullpen through all the injuries has remained a strength, it is amazing what all the guys have been able to do, Robertson has stepped up big time but there are other guys also. 

 Brett Gardner reached base two more times tonight, and he’s hitting .346 since June 4, raising his batting average from .244 to .291. He’s now stolen 16 bases in a row, including at least one in five straight games.

 Gardner is the first Yankee with consecutive 30-steal seasons since Alfonso Soriano did it in three straight, from 2001 to 2003.

Granderson now has 26 home runs for the season, 10 of them off left-handed pitchers. He has two homers in 24 career at-bats against Price. All other left-handed hitters have two homers in 399 at-bats against him.

The Yankees and Rays will play the finale of the four game series Thursday night at 7:00PM.  It will be CC Sabathia vs. James Shields.  It should be a good one to close out a good series.  The Yankees can really put distance between themselves and the Rays with a victory, it would be 7 1/2 games. 

The Yankees win behind a great start from Garcia

The Yankees had a lot of questions in the last week or so about their starting pitching.  The reason for that has been that Bartolo Colon had a couple of bad starts and Freddy Garcia had a bad start his last time out.  The two of them put the doubters aside for now though especially Garcia who pitched a shutout tonight.  Garcia would of completed seven innings if it wasn't for a Eduardo Nunez error.  He pitched 6 2/3 innings of shutout baseball though with no walks and seven strikeouts.  Boone Logan got a big strikeout, David Robertson and Mariano Rivera closed it out without giving up a hit.  They each had two strikeouts. 

Curtis Granderson hit a two run homerun and Eduardo Nunez had a two run single.  That was all the offense in the game.  The Yankees did steal four bases, with Gardner having two, Gardner leads the league with 30.  Gardner has also been successful in 17 straight stolen base attempts.  He has really improved in that department which is what they Yankees need from him. 

The Yankees will try and win the series tomorrow night.  The Yankees have won two of the first three games and are 6 1/2 games ahead of the Rays.  They remain 1 1/2 behind the first place Boston Red Sox.  The Yankees will return home on Friday night to take on the Oakland Athletics. 

Yanks lineup at Tampa

The New York Yankees will go for their fourth straight win tonight.  They will take on the Rays in the second of four from Tampa.  The Yankees won 5-4 last night in comeback fashion.

A.J. Burnett had a rough first and then settled in.  The bullpen was solid and the offense did enough late with help from the Tampa bullpen.  Here is the Yankees lineup for tonight

Derek Jeter, Curtis Granderson, Mark Teixeira, Robinson Cano, Nick Swisher, Jorge Posada, Russell Martin, Brett Gardner, Eduardo Nunez.