The New York Mets drop a high scoring affair in Milwaukee to the Brewers

The New York Mets were defeated by the Milwaukee Brewers by the score of 9-6 on Saturday afternoon. The game was played at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jenrry Mejia made his first start of the season and didn’t pitch so well. The Mets bullpen was good and bad and Daniel Murphy and Ike Davis led the Mets offense. Sean Marcum started for the Brewers and he also didn’t pitch so well. The Brewers bullpen was good except John Axford tried to make it interesting. The Brewers offense was led by Rickie Weeks. 
Mejia pitched three innings giving up six hits and five runs with five walks. Jeremy Hefner pitched an inning giving up a hit and a run, Justin Hampson pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit and a run with a strikeout and Collin McHugh pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and a run. Manny Acosta pitched an inning giving up a hit an striking out two, Robert Carson pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a run and a walk and striking out a batter and Elvin Ramirez pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit. Jeurys Familia pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout. Marcum pitched four innings giving up seven hits and four runs with two walks and three strikeouts. Kintzler won his second game of the season pitching an inning giving up a hit and striking out two, Jose Veras pitched a perfect inning with two strikeouts and Francisco Rodriguez pitched an inning giving up a hit and a walk. Jim Henderson pitched an inning giving up a walk and striking out one and Axford pitched an inning giving up a hit and two runs with a walk and two strikeouts.

Ruben Tejada had a hit and an RBI, Murphy had three hits and an RBI and David Wright drew two walks. Davis had three hits, two RBI and drew a walk, Lucas Duda had two hits and an RBI and Jordany Valdespin had a hit. Andres Torres drew a walk, Mejia had an RBI and Mike Baxter drew a walk. Davis, Murphy and Duda each hit a double and Davis hit a homerun. The Mets were 3-12 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. Valdespin had a stolen base and Shoppach committed an error.

Aoki had a hit, an RBI and drew two walks, Weeks had two hits, three RBI and drew a walk and Ryan Braun had two hits and an RBI. Aramis Ramirez had a hit, Matthew LuCroy had a hit and Nyjer Morgan had a hit and drew two walks. Segura had two hits and drew a walk, Schafer had a hit and two RBI and Ishikawa had a hit and an RBI. Braun and Weeks each hit a double, Schafer and Ishikawa each hit a triple and Weeks hit a homerun. The Brewers were 6-15 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. Braun, Morgan and Segura each had a stolen base. Ramirez committed an error and Morgan had an outfield assist.

In the first Duda hit an RBI single giving the Mets a 1-0 lead. In the first Braun hit an RBI double to tie the score at one. In the fourth the Mets took the lead on a Mejia sacrifice bunt, Tejada RBI single and Murphy RBI double. It was 4-1 Mets and then in the bottom of the fourth the Brewers came right back. Schafer hit a two run triple, a wild pitch scored another run and then Weeks hit a two run homerun. The Brewers had a 6-4 lead at this point. In the fifth Ishikawa hit an RBI triple and Aoki hit an RBI single to make it 8-4 Brewers. Weeks hit an RBI double in the seventh to extend the lead to 9-4. Davis hit a two run homerun in the ninth to make it 9-6 and that was the final score.

The Mets and Brewers have each won a game in the three game series. The rubber game of the series will be played on Sunday afternoon. The Mets record fell to 66-79 and the Brewers record improved to 73-72. The Mets are just playing out the string and the Brewers are trying to make a late charge at one of the wildcard spots.

The New York Yankees bounce back with a victory over the Tampa Bay Rays

The New York Yankees defeated the Tampa Bay Rays by the score of 5-3 on Saturday evening. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. Ivan Nova started for the Yankees and pitched well, the bullpen held on to the lead but they did run into some trouble. Robinson Cano and Alex Rodriguez led the Yankees offense. James Shields started for the Rays and pitched ok and their bullpen was ok. Luke Scott led the Rays offense with a couple of RBI. 
Nova won his 12^th game of the season and pitched six innings giving up four hits and two runs with two walks and eight strikeouts. Boone Logan pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit and a run, Joba Chamberlain pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and striking out one and Dave Robertson pitched a perfect inning. Rafael Soriano picked up his 39^th save of the season. He pitched an inning giving up a hit and a walk with a strikeout. Shields lost his ninth game of the season pitching 6 1/3 innings giving up six hits and four runs with a walk and four strikeouts. Kyle Farnsworth pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a walk and a strikeout and Jake McGee pitched an inning giving up two hits and a run.

Ichiro Suzuki had a hit, Derek Jeter had a hit and an RBI and Cano had two hits. Rodriguez had two hits and an RBI, Raul Ibanez drew a walk and Curtis Granderson had a hit and two RBI. Eduardo Nunez had a hit and an RBI and Chris Stewart drew a walk. Cano hit a double, Granderson and Nunez each hit a homerun. The Yankees were 2-3 with runners in scoring position and they left four men on base. Suzuki had a stolen base.

Desmond Jennings had a hit, Evan Longoria had a hit and an RBI and Jeff Keppinger had a hit. Matt Joyce had a hit and drew a walk, Ben Francisco had a hit and Ryan Roberts had a hit. Carlos Pena drew a walk, Stephen Vogt drew a walk and Scott had a hit and two RBI. Joyce and Roberts each hit a double and Longoria hit a homerun. The Rays were 1-5 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base.

In the second inning Granderson hit a two run homerun and Nunez hit a solo homerun going back-to-back. It put the Yankees ahead 3-0. In the fifth Jeter hit an RBI single to extend the lead to 4-0. Longoria hit a solo homerun in the sixth to make it a 4-1 game. In the seventh Scott hit a two run single to get the Rays to within 4-3. Rodriguez hit an RBI single in the eighth to make it 5-3 and that would be the final score.

The Yankees and Rays have split the first two of the three game series. They will conclude the series on Sunday afternoon. The Yankees record improved to 82-63 and the Rays record dropped to 78-67. The Rays are now four back of the AL East leading Yankees. The Yankees currently have ½ a game lead on the Baltimore Orioles who are playing late Saturday night in Oakland. The Yankees could be back in sole possession of first place with an Orioles loss.

New York Mets continue to play well on the road as they win in Milwaukee

The New York Mets defeated the Milwaukee Brewers by the score of 7-3 on Friday night. The game took place at Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Jon Niese started for the Mets and pitched well and their bullpen pitched pretty well. The Mets offense was led by Daniel Murphy and Lucas Duda. Fiers started for the Brewers and pitched ok and the bullpen was pretty good. The Brewers offense was led by Aramis Ramirez. 
Niese pitched six innings giving up six hits and two runs with three walks and five strikeouts. Niese picked up his 11^th win of the season. Josh Edgin faced two batters and retired them both, Jon Rauch faced one batter and retired him and Bobby Parnell pitched an inning giving up two hits. Ramon Ramirez pitched an inning giving up a hit and a run with a walk and two strikeouts. Mike Fiers lost his eighth game of the season pitching five innings giving up six hits and four runs with two walks and four strikeouts. Manny Parra pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up three hits and three runs with one of them being earned. Livan Hernandez pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings with a strikeout, Josh Stinson pitched an inning giving up a hit and a walk with a strikeout and Tyler Thornburg pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out two.

Murphy had two hits, two RBI and drew a walk, David Wright had two hits and Ike Davis had an RBI. Duda had two hits and two RBI, Jordany Valdespin had a hit and drew a walk and Josh Thole had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk. Niese had two hits, Fred Lewis had a hit. Wright hit two doubles and Duda and Thole each hit a double. Murphy and Duda each hit a homerun. The Mets were 2-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base. Valdespin was caught stealing and Tejada committed an error.

Norichika Aoki had a hit, Rickie Weeks drew a walk and Ryan Braun had a hit and drew a walk. Ramirez had two hits, Jonathan LuCroy had a hit and Carlos Gomez had a hit and drew a walk. Travis Ishikawa had a hit and an RBI, Jean Segura drew a walk and Fiers had a hit and an RBI. Nyjer Morgan had a hit and an RBI. Ishikawa and Ramirez each hit a double. Morgan hit a triple and the Brewers were 2-12 with runners in scoring position and they left eight men on base. Segura and Weeks each committed an error.

In the first the Mets took a 2-0 lead. Davis had an RBI groundout and Duda hit an RBI double. Murphy hit a two run homerun in the second to make it 4-0 Mets. In the bottom of the second Ishikawa hit an RBI double and Fiers hit an RBI single making it a 4-2 game. In the sixth Duda hit a solo homerun, Thole hit an RBI double and Tejada grounded out to score another run. It was 7-2 Mets. The Brewers scored the final run of the game in the ninth on a Morgan RBI triple.

The Mets record improved to 66-78 and the Brewers record fell to 72-72. The two teams will play game two of three on Saturday night.

Yankees postgame notes from Boston

Here are the Yankees postgame notes from Thursday night in Boston.  The Yankees finally won two in a row and won a series.  It has been a while since they did either. Jeter tied Mays on the all-time hits list and kept the Yankees tied for first.  The Lohud Yankees blog has all the information and I add in some thoughts. 

There are absolutely times when Derek Jeter’s intangibles are blown out of proportion. In fact, there are times when that storyline does a disservice the tangible player he’s been. But there are other times when Jeter’s quiet brand of leadership deserves a turn in the spotlight. It’s cliche to write a Captain Jeter story, and it feels silly to suggest he’s able to will this team to win simply by being himself.
But Jeter has that reputation for a reason.

In no way was Jeter the Yankees best player tonight — this game belonged to Phil Hughes in ever which way — but wouldn’t you know it, the Yankees had just one hit with runners in scoring position tonight, and it was Jeter who floated that RBI single into center field. And wouldn’t you know it, that hit just happened to be No. 3,283 for his career, tying Willie Mays — Willie Mays! — for 10th place — 10th place! — on baseball’s all-time hits list.

“It’s pretty special if you think about it,” Jeter said. “But it’s kind of hard to think about it now because we’re trying to win games.”  This is so Jeter, if they had a bigger lead he may talk about it more but would still say the goal is to get to the postseason then win a series. 

Of course he said that. Of course Jeter said the most perfect thing anyone could say in a situation like this. Did you expect anything different?  The answer is no of course not, does he ever say the wrong thing. 

“He was playing on probably about one ankle tonight, maybe one-and-a-quarter,” Joe Girardi said. “That’s who he is. He’s a fighter, and he finds a way. He gets the big hit tonight, and it’s impressive. … There’s no doubt that he’s a leader and he leads by example. He’s done that his whole career.”

Did the Yankees win this one for Jeter? No, I don’t think so. That RBI single was his only hit in a 1-for-5 night, and it was technically Andruw Jones’ sacrifice fly that brought home the winning run, but nights like this have helped build Jeter’s legacy. You could see him limping when he ran, but there was no doubt that he’d downplay the injury in the clubhouse and shift the focus to things much bigger than his left ankle. And he did exactly that. He did exactly what the Yankees have come to expect him to do.

“You cannot change anything that’s happened,” he said. “We’re in first place for a reason. We’ve played pretty well for the majority of the season. You’re going to go through up and downs, and obviously we would’ve loved to have won all the series leading up to this point but it wasn’t the case. All we can control is how we’re playing now, and we played well here.”  He is right about that and then you move on and try to get a lead in the division. 

This was only Hughes’ second career quality start at Fenway Park, and his first scoreless start in this stadium. He held the Red Sox hitless until two outs in the fourth, the deepest he’d carried a no-hitter since September 15, 2010 when he took one into the fifth inning. His seven strikeouts matched his highest total against Boston.  I know it is a depleted team but this should be a confidence booster, it should make him feel good.  Hughes has pitched well lately which the Yankees have needed. 

Hughes’ giving a blunt assessement of the crowd here in Boston: “To be honest, the atmosphere was a little dull in here for the first time in a long time because of the way the Red Sox season has gone this year. If anything, it just felt like a normal game. We just had to go out and win. We got two out of three here, we have to go home and have a tough series against the Rays. We have to get it done.”

Hughes really leaned on his fastball tonight, and he was aggressive with it. He said he tried to use his new slider early in the game, but the Red Sox weren’t really offering at it, so he decided to stick with the fastball. “I think I had nine or 10 pitches through three or four outs,” he said. “To get off on a good start like that really helps your pitch count later on in the game. That was the case tonight. I was pounding the strike zone early and forcing them to either get into bad counts or swing early and hit themselves into outs, so it’s a big day.”

This was career start No. 100 for Hughes. It was also his 29th of the season, matching his career-high set in 2010. He threw 95 pitches, his fewest ever in an outing of at least seven innings.  This is the thing people forget, he has been durable this year, taking the ball every fifth day and he has won 15 games. 

 Rafael Soriano got his 38th save of the season. It’s the first time he’s saved games on consecutive nights since July 16-17.  That seems crazy with this team but it is true, he has been great for them though. 

Girardi said he would have liked to have stayed away from Boone Logan and Dave Robertson, but he knew he could use them for a handful of pitches if necessary. In a two-run game, it was necessary. “In your mind, you say if you can stay away from them, you stay away from them,” Girardi said. “Boone didn’t throw a lot of pitches the last two days, even today we didn’t ask him to throw a lot. Robby, I was a little more concerned about, but I knew I wasn’t going to ask him to throw a full inning. I figured I’d have him for one hitter. Again, he came to me and said he was great.”  This time of the year that all kind of goes out the window. 

Alex Rodriguez scored his 1,888th career run in the fourth inning tying him with Lou Gehrig for ninth on baseball’s all-time scoring list. He went 2-for-5 tonight and has a hit in 15 of his past 16 games.

It was a good night for Eduardo Nunez who had two hits and no errors. In his first game back at shortstop since rejoining the team, the Red Sox first ball in play was hit to him. Of course it was.  That is the way baseball is. 

This was the Yankees ninth shutout of the season, and their first since August 14 against Texas. Last time they pitched a shutout at Fenway was July 25, 2008.

According to Elias, the last player to be in the Top 10 career hits list while an active member of the Yankees was Paul Waner in 1945. There’s your totally random fact of the night.  That is a cool stat though. 

The Yankees have won back-to-back games for the first time since August 15.

Final word goes to Jeter: “Now we’re on a winning streak, so were good again, right? It was great to win this series, it really was, but we start all over tomorrow when we get home. Tampa always plays us tough. They’re a handful, so we have to be ready to play, because the teams we’re playing want to beat us.”

New York Yankees lose first game of homestand to the Tampa Bay Rays

The New York Yankees were defeated by the Tampa Bay Rays by the score of 6-4 on Friday night. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx, New York. CC Sabathia started for the Yankees and didn’t pitch too well. The Yankees offense was basically Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter. David Price started for the Rays and was good. The Rays offense was led by Desmond Jennings and Ben Zobrist. 
Sabathia lost his sixth game of the season pitching 6 2/3 innings giving up six hits and four runs with two walks and three strikeouts. Cody Eppley pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and a run, Clay Rapada pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and struck out one and Joba Chamberlain gave up an unearned run and a hit in one inning. He struck out two batters. Price won his 18^th game of the season pitching seven innings giving up five hits and two runs with two walks and six strikeouts. Joel Peralta pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up two hits and two runs with a walk and Fernando Rodney pitched 1 2/3 scoreless innings giving up a walk and striking out two.

Jeter had two hits, Nick Swisher drew a walk and Rodriguez had a hit, two RBI and drew a walk. Robinson Cano drew a walk, Russell Martin had a hit and Raul Ibanez drew a walk. Curtis Granderson had a hit and an RBI, Steve Pearce had a hit and an RBI and Eduardo Nunez had a hit. Granderson and Rodriguez each hit a homerun. The Yankees were 1-6 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base. Nunez committed an error and Martin had a passed ball.

Jennings had two hits and an RBI, Zobrist had two hits and an RBI and B.J. Upton had a hit and an RBI. Chris Gimenez had two hits, Carlos Pena had a hit and drew a walk and Elliott Johnson had a hit and an RBI. Gimenez hit two doubles and Upton hit a homerun. The Rays were 3-10 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base. Johnson, Jennings and Thompson each had a stolen base.

In the second Pearce had an RBI single to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. In the fifth Johnson hit an RBI single to tie the game at one. Jennings hit an RBI single to make it 2-1 Rays. Longoria hit into a double play and a run scored to give the Rays a 3-1 lead. The Yankees cut the lead to 3-2 on a Granderson solo homerun in the bottom of the fifth inning. Zobrist hit an RBI single in the seventh to give the Rays a 4-2 lead. Upton hit a solo homerun in the eighth to make it 5-2 Rays. Rodriguez hit a two run homerun in the eighth to make it a 5-4 game. The Rays scored another run in the ninth on an error by Nunez. The final score was 6-4 as Rodney shut the door in the ninth inning easily.

The Yankees for the moment are ½ a game behind Baltimore for first place in the AL East. The Orioles are playing a late West Coast game. If the Orioles win the Yankees will wake up in second place on Saturday morning for the first time in a long time. The Yankees record fell to 81-63 and the Rays record improved to 78-66. The Rays are now three games behind the Yankees and the two teams will play game two of three on Saturday afternoon.

The New York Yankees take the series in Boston and remain tied for first

The New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox by the score of 2-0 on Thursday night. The game took place at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. Phil Hughes started for the Yankees and was great and their bullpen was good. Derek Jeter and Andruw Jones supplied the only runs of the game for the Yankees. Felix Doubrount started for the Red Sox and pitched well, their bullpen also pitched well. The Red Sox only managed six hits and not one player had more then one hit. 
Hughes pitched 7 1/3 scoreless innings giving up five hits and no walks. He struck out seven batters and earned his 15^th win of the season. Boone Logan pitched to one batter and retired him, Dave Robertson retired the only batter he faced and Rafael Soriano picked up his 38^th save of the season pitching one inning and giving up a hit and striking out one. Doubront lost his ninth game of the season pitching 6 1/3 innings giving up four hits and two runs with five walks and five strikeouts. Junichi Tazawa pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and striking out two, Craig Breslow pitched an inning walking one and striking out one and MarK Melancon pitched an inning walking one.

Jeter had a hit and an RBI, Nick Swisher drew a walk and Alex Rodriguez had two hits. Robinson Cano drew two walks, Russell Martin drew a walk and Andruw Jones had an RBI and drew two walks. Steve Pearce drew a walk, Eduardo Nunez had two hits and Nunez hit a double. The Yankees were 1-9 with runners in scoring position and left 11 men on base. Rodriguez had a stolen base

Jacoby Ellsbury had a hit, Scott Podsednik drew a walk and James Loney had a hit. Cody Ross had a hit, Daniel Nava had a hit and Mike Aviles had a hit. Pedro Ciriaco had a hit, Ciriaco hit a double and the Red Sox were 0-6 with runners in scoring position and they left six men on base. De Jesus and Iglesias each committed an error.

Jones hit a sacrifice fly in the fourth to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. In the seventh Jeter hit an RBI single to give them a 2-0 lead and that was the final score.

The Yankees won two out of three in the series. The Yankees also won two games in a row for the first time in 25 games. The Yankees record improved to 81-62 and back into a first place tie with the Baltimore Orioles. The Yankees will begin a three game series at home against the Tampa Bay Rays on Friday night.

The New York Mets are swept by the Washington Nationals as they go 0-6 on the homestand

The New York Mets were defeated by the Washington Nationals by the score of 2-0 on Wednesday night. The game took place at Citi Field in Flushing, New York. Matt Harvey started for the Mets and pitched well and the bullpen was pretty good. David Wright, Lucas Duda and Andres Torres led the Mets offense. John Lannan started for the Nationals and pitched well, their bullpen also pitched very well. The Nationals offense was led by Ian Desmond.  
Harvey lost his fifth game of the season pitching five innings giving up five hits and a run with three walks and ten strikeouts. Robert Carson pitched a perfect inning, Bobby Parnell pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit and walking two and Justin Hampson faced two batters and retired them both. Jon Rauch pitched an inning giving up a hit and a run with a strikeout, Frank Francisco pitched a perfect inning. Lannan won his third game of the season pitching 5 2/3 innings giving up five hits and a walk with two strikeouts, Christian Garcia faced one batter and retired him and Craig Stammen pitched a perfect inning. Ryan Mattheus pitched an inning giving up a hit, Sean Burnett pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and struck out one and Drew Storen saved his second game of the season retiring the only batter that he faced.

Jordany Valdespin had a hit, Wright had two hits and Duda had two hits and drew a walk. Kelly Shoppach had a hit, Torres had two hits and the Mets were 1-8 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. Wright had two stolen bases and Cedeno was picked off.

Jayson Werth drew two walks, Ryan Zimmerman had a hit, an RBI and drew two walks and Adam LaRoche had a hit. Desmond had two hits, an RBI and drew a walk, Roger Bernadina had a hit and Steve Lombardozzi had a hit. Mark DeRosa had a hit, Zimmerman and Desmond each hit a homerun and the Nationals were 1-5 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. Zimmerman committed an error and Lannan had a pickoff.

Zimmerman hit a solo homerun in the fourth inning and Desmond hit a solo homerun in the eighth inning for the only two runs of the game.

The Mets record fell to 65-78 and the Nationals record improved to 89-54 as they continue to have the best record in baseball. The Mets have an off day on Thursday and then head to Milwaukee to take on the Brewers.

The New York Yankees even up series with Boston Red Sox and remain tied for first

The New York Yankees defeated the Boston Red Sox by the score of 5-4 on Wednesday night. The game took place at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. David Phelps made the start for the Yankees and pitched well probably the best of his career. He didn’t pitch that deep into the game but under the circumstances it was some performance. The Yankees bullpen made it interesting but they weren’t that bad. Curtis Granderson powered the offense with two homeruns and Nick Swisher continued to come out of his slump with three more hits. Aaron Cook was out of the game early for the Red Sox and their pen did a decent job. Jarrod Saltalamacchaia was the leader of the Red Sox offense. 
Phelps pitched 5 2/3 innings giving up one run on five hits with a walk and five strikeouts. He won his fourth game of the season, Clay Rapada pitched to one batter and retired him, Cody Eppley pitched 1/3 of an inning giving up a hit and a run with a strikeout and Boone Logan didn’t record an out and gave up a hit and a run. Joba Chamberlain pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit, Dave Robertson pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and striking out one and Rafael Soriano pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up a hit and a run with a strikeout. Cook took the loss, his 10^th of the season pitching five innings giving up seven hits and three runs with two strikeouts. Rich Hill pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a walk and striking out one, Alfredo Aceves pitched an inning giving up three hits and two runs with a strikeout and Chris Carpenter pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up a walk. Andrew Miller pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and striking out two and Vincente Padilla pitched to one batter and struck him out.

Derek Jeter had two hits, Granderson had two hits and three RBI and Alex Rodriguez had a hit. Robinson Cano had a hit and two RBI, Swisher had three hits and Eric Chavez had two hits. Andruw Jones drew a walk and Chris Stewart drew a walk. Chavez and Swisher each hit two doubles. Granderson hit two homeruns and Cano hit a homerun. The Yankees struggles with runners in scoring position continued as they were 0-13 and left 10 men on base. Dickerson had a stolen base and Soriano committed an error. Jacoby Ellsbury had a hit, Dustin Pedroia had two hits before leaving to be with his wife who was in labor and James Loney had two hits and an RBI. Saltalamacchia had three hits, an rBI and drew a walk, Daniel Nava had a hit and Miguel Gomez had an RBI. Mike Aviles had a hit and an RBI, Pedroia, Saltalamacchia, Nava, Aviles and Loney each hit a double. Saltalamacchia hit a triple and hit a homerun. The Red Sox were 3-9 with runner sin scoring position and left six men on base. Ciriaco, Aviles and Miller each committed an error.

In the fourth inning Granderson hit a solo homerun to make it 1-0 Yankees. Cano hit a two run homerun and it was 3-0 Yankees. The Red Sox scored a run in the bottom of the fourth inning on a Loney RBI single. Granderson hit a two run homerun in the seventh inning making it a 5-1 game in favor of the Yankees. In the bottom of the seventh the Red Sox scored a couple of runs to make it a 5-3 game. Gomez hit an RBI groundout and Aviles hit an RBI double. The Red Sox scored a run in the ninth on a Saltalamacchia solo homerun to make it 5-4 and that was the final score.

The Yankees and Red Sox have split the first two games of a three game series. The three game series will conclude on Thursday night. The Yankees record improved to 80-62 and the Red Sox record fell to 64-79. The Yankees remain in a first place tie with the Baltimore Orioles in the AL East. They moved to three games ahead of the Tampa Bay Rays.

The Mets lose and Dickey fails to win his 19th game

The New York Mets were defeated by the Washington Nationals by the score of 5-3 on Tuesday night. The game took place at Citi Field in Flushing, New York. R.A. Dickey started for the Mets and pitched ok but not great. The Mets bullpen other then Frank Francisco pitched well and their offense was led by Ruben Tejada. Bryce Harper led the Nationals offense and Jordan Zimmerman started for them and pitched pretty well, their bullpen was good. 
Dickey lost his fifth game of the season pitching seven innings giving up eight hits and three runs with three walks and two strikeouts. Jon Rauch pitched an inning giving up two hits, Francisco didn’t record an out and gave up three hits and two runs with a walk and Josh Edgin pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up a hit and striking out one. Manny Acosta struck out the only batter that he faced. Zimmerman pitched five innings giving up six hits and two runs with three walks and six strikeouts. Tom Gorzelanny pitched a perfect inning with a strikeout to earn his fourth win of the season, Garcia pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings with three strikeouts and Mike Gonzalez struck out the only batter that he faced. Drew Storen pitched to one batter and retired him and Tyler Clippard saved his 31^st game of the season pitching an inning giving up two hits and a run with two strikeouts.

Tejada had three hits, Daniel Murphy had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk and David Wright had a hit and an RBI. Ike Davis drew two walks, Scott Hairston had a hit and an RBI and Josh Thole had a hit. Ronny Cedeno had a hit, Murphy hit a double and Hairston hit a homerun. The Mets were 1-6 with runners in scoring position and they left seven men on base.

Jayson Werth had two hits and drew three walks, Harper had four hits and an RBI and Ryan Zimmerman had a hit and an RBI. Adam LaRoche had a hit and drew a walk, Ian Desmond had a hit and Daniel Espinosa had a hit. Kurt Suzuki had two hits and an RBI, Tyler Moore had a hit and two RBI and Chad Tracy had a hit. Harper, Desmond and Espinosa each hit a double and Moore hit a homerun. The Nationals were 2-13 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. Desmond was caught stealing and Zimmerman committed an error.

In the first Zimmerman hit a sacrifice fly giving the Nationals a 1-0 lead. In the fifth Murphy hit an RBI double and Wright hit an RBI single to give the Mets a 2-1 lead. Moore hit a two run homerun in the seventh to make it a 3-2 Nationals lead. In the ninth Suzuki hit an RBI groundout and Harper hit an RBI single to make it 5-2. Hairston hit a solo homerun in the ninth to make it a 5-3 game and that was the final.

The Mets have lost the first two games of this three game series. The Mets record fell to 65-77 and the Nationals record improved to 88-54. The final game of the series will be played on Wednesday night.

The Yankees fail to win two in a row once again as they fall in Boston

The New York Yankees were defeated by the Boston Red Sox by the score of 4-3 on Tuesday night. The game took place at Fenway Park in Boston, Massachusetts. The Yankees haven’t won two in a row in nearly a month. Hiroki Kuroda started for the Yankees and he pitched ok. The Yankees bullpen was pretty good and their offense was not clutch at all. Derek Jeter is the only player that had a hit with runners in scoring position. Jon Lester did not have his control and he didn’t last that long but he battled, Dustin Pedroia led the Red Sox offense. 
Kuroda pitched 6 1/3 innings giving up three runs on eight hits. He didn’t walk a batter and struck out six. Boone Logan pitched to one batter and gave up a hit, Joba Chamberlain pitched 2/3 of an inning retiring both batters that he faced and Dave Robertson suffered his seventh loss of the season pitching 1 1/3 innings giving up three hits and a run with three strikeouts. Lester pitched 5 1/3 innings giving up five hits and three runs with seven walks and five strikeouts. Junichi Tazawa pitched 1 2/3 perfect innings with three strikeouts, Craig Breslow pitched a scoreless inning giving up a walk and Andrew Bailey pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out one to earn his first victory of the season.

Jeter had a hit and two RBI with a walk, Nick Swisher had two hits and Alex Rodriguez drew a walk. Robinson Cano had an RBI and drew a walk, Russell Martin had a hit and drew a walk and Steve Pearce drew a walk. Curtis Granderson drew a walk, Andruw Jones had a hit and drew two walks and Jayson Nix had a hit. Swisher, Nix, Martin and Jeter each hit a double. The Yankees were 1-12 with runners in scoring position and left nine men on base. Nunez was caught stealing and Martin committed an error.

Jacoby Ellsbury had four hits and two RBI, Pedroia had three hits and two RBI and Cody Ross had a hit. Ryan Kalish had a hit, Pedro Ciriaco had two hits and Mike Aviles had a hit. Ellsbury, Ciriaco and Ross each hit a double and Pedroia hit a homerun. The Red Sox were 5-12 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base. Ellsbury had a stolen base.

In the first inning Cano hit an RBI groundout to give the Yankees a 1-0 lead. They had second and third no outs though and that was all they got, it set the tone for the game. In the third Ellsbury hit an RBI single and Pedroia hit an RBI single to give the Red Sox a 2-1 lead. Jeter hit a two run double giving the Yankees a 3-2 lead in the sixth. In the bottom of the sixth Pedroia hit a solo homerun to tie the game at three. In the bottom of the ninth Ellsbury hit an RBI single to win the game 4-3.

The Yankees record fell to 79-62 and the Red Sox record improved to 64-78. This was the first game of a three game series. The two teams will play game two on Wednesday night. The Yankees are now once again tied for first place with the Baltimore Orioles.

The Mets continue to lose at home as they are defeated b the Washington Nationals

The New York Mets were defeated by the Washington Nationals by the score of 5-1 on Monday night. The game took place at Citi Field in Flushing, New York. Collin McHugh started for the Mets and pitched ok but not deep enough into the game, their bullpen was good. Scott Hairston had the only RBI for the Mets. Gio Gonzalez started for the Nationals and pitched well, the bullpen did it’s job and Ryan Zimmerman and Ian Desmond led the Nationals offense. 
McHugh lost his second game of the season pitching four innings and giving up five hits and five runs with two of them being earned. He walked two and struck out three. Elvin Ramirez pitched two innings walking two and striking out four, Ramon Ramirez pitched a perfect inning and Jeurys Familia pitched two perfect innings with two strikeouts.

Gonzalez won his 19^th game of the season pitching six innings giving up three hits and a run with five walks and six strikeouts. Ryan Mattheus pitched a perfect inning, Drew Storen pitched an inning giving up two hits and striking out one and Tyler Clippard pitched a perfect inning striking out one.

Ruben Tejada had a hit and drew two walks, Ronny Cedeno drew a walk and Daniel Murphy had a hit. David Wright had a hit and drew a walk, Hairston had a hit and an RBI and Ike Davis drew a walk. Andres Torres had a hit, he hit a double and Hairston hit a homerun. The Mets were 0-5 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base. Shoppach committed an error.

Jayson Werth drew a walk, Bryce Harper drew two walks and Zimmerman had a hit and two RBI. Adam LaRoche had a hit, Michael Morse had a hit and Desmond had a hit and two RBI. Daniel Espinosa drew a walk, Kurt Suzuki had a hit and an RBI and LaRoche hit a double. Suzuki, Zimmerman and Desmond each hit a homerun. The Nationals were 0-3 with runners in scoring position and left three men on base. Harper was caught stealing.

The Nationals took a 3-0 lead in the third inning and extended it to 5-0 in the fourth inning. The Mets scored their only run in the fourth inning. Suzuki hit a solo homerun and Zimmerman hit a two run homerun. Desmond hit a two run homerun and Hairston hit a solo homerun to finish the scoring. The Nationals won by the final score of 5-1.

The Nationals took the first game of a three game series. The Mets record fell to 65-76 and the Nationals record improved to 87-54. The Nationals continue to have the best record in baseball. The Mets will try and even the series on Tuesday night.

The New York Jets rout the Buffalo Bills in their season opener

The New York Jets came out flying in their season opener. They were 0-4 in the preseason and had a lot of trouble scoring. Their first team couldn’t score a touchdown, well not it is the regular season and what a difference it makes. The Jets defeated the Bills by the score of 48-28. The game took place at Met Life Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey. 
Mark Sanchez looked like a man on a mission as he played a fantastic game. Tim Tebow was pretty quiet, he had five plays for 11 yards and when he was out there they ran eight wildcats for 22 yards and he recovered an onsides kick. Sanchez threw for 266 yards and three touchdowns. There was no quarterback controversy this week.

Shonn Greene ran the ball 27 yards for 94 yards. He had one touchdown and it was an average of 3.5 yards per carry. Stephen Hill led the team in receiving yards with 89 on five catches. That is a 17.8 yard average and he had two touchdowns.

The defense was led by LaRon Landry who had six tackles and one assist and Darrelle Revis had an interception. Santonio Holmes and Jeremy Kerley each had four receptions. Holmes had 68 yards and Kerley had 45 yards.

The Jets are 1-0 and will play at Pittsburgh on Sunday September 16^th, 2012. We will see how the wildcat is used going forward and if it truly has an impact or if it is just meant as a distraction to the other team. If the Jets keep winning and playing like they did against the Bills it won’t matter though, they sure looked good in week one but it is only one game.

Yankees Sunday evening postgame notes

Here are the postgame Yankees notes from Sunday evening.  The Yankees won a game to split the series and jump back into sole possession of first place.  The Yankees had a bad day on Saturday, a bad call to end the game, Teixeira reinjuring himself and the manager having a fight with a reporter after the game.  Today was a good day for them though and they will try and carry that over into Boston on Tuesday night.  The Lohud Yankees blog has all the info and I add my own info. 

When it was a two-run game and Freddy Garcia was letting it slip away. At that point, Joe Girardi was planning backwards, starting with the end of the game. He thought he could get nine outs from Rafael Soriano and Dave Robertson, and he thought Boone Logan could get the Yankees through the sixth inning. What he needed was a bridge, someone to get the Yankees from Garcia’s rapidly disentigrating start to the most reliable arms in the bullpen.

“I like the way (Joba Chamberlain) had thrown the ball the last two times,” Girardi said. “We don’t have a lot of time, so if you’re going to move up the food chain, you move up pretty quick this time of year.”  I agree he has looked a lot better and maybe he is ready to be a real contributor now.  I think most people forget how long he was out and that he had to work the rust off, he was basically in spring training mode when the rest of the players were in end of season mode. 

Girardi has wanted to use Chamberlain in low-leverage situations, but things finally seem to be coming together for him, and today Chamberlain delivered easily his best outing of the season. He struck out four — tying his career-high for strikeouts in a relief appearance — and gave the Yankees an inning and two-thirds of hitless relief when things could have gone the other way.

“There’s no low-leverage from this point out,” Chamberlain said. “You play this game to be in tight situations. You play this game to be the best, and understand what you have to do. Especially with this lineup, the way they’re swinging the bat, they can change the game with one swing. That’s good for me to know that they’ve seen me a lot, and to be able to make the adjustments that I’ve made thus far.”  I would agree with him and now it is just time to go out and pitch and help the team. 

The most recent adjustment? Chamberlain moved his hands up a little bit. Nothing big, but one of the small things that sometimes make a big difference for a pitcher that’s been struggling with command and consistency.  There are times where it is something very simple and a good outing like he had today will help him mentally and that is always a big boost. 

“All along, you would see good pitches out of both (his fastball and his slider),” Girardi said. “But the consistency wasn’t there. He would make a mistake. Now I see more consistency.”

Is this an indication that Chamberlain might become more helpful down the stretch? Obviously it could be. This Orioles lineup has proven it can be dangerous, and Chamberlain shut it down in a game that pushed the Yankees back into sole possession of first place.

“I think it all just came together,” Chamberlain said. “Being able to get my delivery down. Getting the mentality of, ‘Get the ball, here it goes, hit it.’ It’s not necessarily that I had been second-guessing myself, but I’d been gone for so long. … You guys put expectations on me, but I put bigger expectations on myself. That was frustrating. I knew the velocity was there, I knew the work I put in, and I wasn’t getting results. But you can’t get frustrated. If I would have rolled over and been done, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing for this team.”

In the previous month, since August 9, Curtis Granderson was hitting .163. No wonder, then, that Girardi kept him out of the lineup today and yesterday. Off the bench, though, Granderson went 3-for-3 this afternoon with a home run, a double and five RBI. “Don’t know exactly what it is (that’s caused the struggles),” Granderson said. “Physically everything felt fine. Mechanically everything looked right, whether it be from video or from Kevin Long’s perspective. It just felt like, for whatever reason, balls that I was going ahead and attacking, which were strikes, (the swings were) just a tick off for whatever reason.”  Granderson and Swisher have been killing the Yankees especially with Teixeira and Rodriguez being hurt.  This is a good sign because eventually they will break out and maybe this will help the Yankees get on a roll. 

After the game, Mark Teixeira said that he’s not sure how badly his calf is injured right now, but it doesn’t feel as bad as it did when he first strained it two weeks ago. He said he’s not particularly worried about missing the rest of the season — “That would be worst, worst-case scenario,” he said — but he obviously has to make sure it’s better than yesterday.  This seems like good news but until they have the MRI tommorrow and get the results there will be some concern.  I think he may miss the next series and then be back when they return home to play Tampa Bay. 

Here’s Teixeira: “I thought I could play on it at 80 percent or whatever it was. I couldn’t, so when I come back next time — whether it’s two days or a week, whatever it’s going to be, I don’t know how long it’s going to be — I’ll just make sure that it’s better than 80 percent. Again, it’s not going to be 100 percent, we know that. We just know that I have to make sure I can do a little more.”

Girardi said that the Yankees are still on rotation for the Boston series, suggesting David Phelps is still the scheduled starter for Wednesday. “That’s something I’ve got plenty of tine to think about over the next 48 hours or so,” Girardi said.  I could see Nova taking his spot but we will see how the next couple of days go, they may use Nova out of the pen but if not I think he will make that start. 

Speaking of starters, Freddy Garcia seemed to be rolling along before things got out of control in that fourth inning. Could the long top of the fourth have anything to do with it? “Could have been,” Girardi said. “He walked the first guy, then he gets ahead of Hardy 0-2 and hit him with a split. That kind of led to their inning. Betemit hits an 0-2 pitch, so the 0-2 pitches got him in trouble today. That’s not usually something that happens with Freddy.”

 It goes overlooked because the game became a blowout and Chamberlain was so good, but Cory Wade was excellent today. Two hitless innings, no walks, three strikeouts. Haven’t seen him like that in a long, long time.

Granderson’s home run was his 100th as a Yankee.

 Here’s Granderson talking about his three at-bats, starting with the homer: “Just trying to hit it. No mindset. Not trying to drive it one way or the other. The second at-bat I actually got beat. That was a fastball in that just got up on me and I was able to fist to the other way. The last at-bat was another fastball in, but I was able to pull that to the other side of the field.”

Alex Rodriguez has a 13-game hitting streak, his longest since 2007. Since coming off the disabled list he’s hitting .308 with seven runs and six RBI in seven games. … Ichiro Suzuki went 8-for-14 with four RBI this series. … Derek Jeter went 9-for-19 with a home run, four RBI and four runs this series.

Nick Swisher is hitless in his past 28 at-bats.  This is crazy to me, he will bust out of it soon I am sure how much longer could this go on??

The Orioles and Yankees split their season series with nine wins apiece. Each team went 3-6 at its home stadium.

Might as well give the final word to Jeter: “You always have to try to find some sort of positives, even when you lose. We lost a couple tough games, but we did battle back, we never gave up. We’ve come to expect that. We’d like to have won them (all), but we didn’t. Today was a big one for us. We have a much-needed day off tomorrow, we go to Boston ready to play. I liked the way we played.”

The New York Mets are swept at home by the Atlanta Braves

The New York Mets were defeated by the Atlanta Braves by the score of 3-2 on Sunday afternoon. The game took place at Citi Field in Flushing, New York. Chris Young started for the Mets and pitched ok and their bullpen pitched pretty well except for Bobby Parnell. Daniel Murphy led the Mets offense, Tommy Hanson started for the Braves and pitched pretty well and their bullpen pitched well. The Braves offense was led by Michael Bourn. 
Young pitched six innings giving up five hits and two runs with four walks and seven strikeouts. Josh Edgin pitched 1 1/3 perfect innings, Jon Rauch pitched 2/3 of an inning striking out one and Frank Francisco pitched an inning giving up a walk and striking out two. Parnell lost his fourth game of the season pitching an inning giving up a hit and a run with two walks and a strikeout. Hanson pitched 5 2/3 innings giving up four hits and two runs with a walk and five strikeouts, Venters pitched 1 1/3 innings giving up a hit and struck out one and O’Flaherty pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out one. Craig Kimbrel won his first game pitching an inning giving up a hit and striking out two and Moylan saved his first game pitching an inning giving up a hit and a walk and striking out one.

Murphy had three hits and drew a walk, David Wright had a hit and an RBI and Ike Davis had two hits and an RBI. Lucas Duda had a hit, Andres Torres drew a walk and Jordany Valdespin had a hit. Murphy hit two doubles and Wright hit a double. The Mets were 2-9 with runners in scoring position and left seven men on base. Torres, Bay and Valdespin each had a stolen base.

Bourn had two hits and an RBI, Martin Prado had a hit and Jason Heward drew two walks. Freddie Freeman drew two walks, Dan Uggla had a hit and drew a walk and Brian McCann had a hit and two RBI. Jose Constanza had a hit and drew a walk, Chipper Jones drew a walk and Uggla and Constanza each hit a double. McCann hit a homerun and the Braves were 1-11 with runners in scoring position and left 10 men on base. Bourn had a stolen base and Freeman committed an error.

In the fourth Davis hit an RBI single to give the Mets a 1-0 lead. In the fifth Bourn hit an RBI single to tie the game at one. McCann hit a solo homerun in the sixth to give the Braves a 2-1 lead. Wright hit an RBI double in the bottom of the sixth to tie the game at two. In the tenth inning McCann hit a sacrifice fly to make it 3-2 and that was the final.

The Braves swept the three game series. The Mets record dropped to 65-75 and the Braves record improved to 81-60. The Mets will begin a three game series with the Washington Nationals beginning on Monday night.

The New York Yankees break out in Baltimore to take back first place

The New York Yankees defeated the Baltimore Orioles by the score of 13-3. The game took place at Camden Yards in Baltimore, Maryland. Freddy Garcia started for the Yankees and didn’t pitch too well, the bullpen did though. Curtis Granderson as a pinch hitter had three hits and five RBI to lead the offense. Zach Britton started for the Orioles and wasn’t very good, their bullpen also got hit around. Wilson Betemit led the Orioles offense. 
Garcia pitched 3 1/3 innings giving up three hits and three runs with a walk and a strikeout. Joba Chamberlain picked up his first victory of the season pitching 1 2/3 perfect hitless innings with a walk and four strikeouts, Boone Logan pitched an inning giving up a hit and a walk with two strikeouts and Cory Wade pitched two perfect innings with three strikeouts. Derek Lowe pitched a perfect inning. Britton lost his second game of the season pitching 3 1/3 innings giving up five hits and five runs with five walks and two strikeouts, Jake Arrieta pitched three innings giving up three hits and three runs with a walk and four strikeouts and Zach Phillips pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and a run. Kevin Gregg pitched an inning giving up three hits and four runs with three of them earned. He walked two and struck out one and Tommy Hunter pitched an inning giving up a hit and he struck out two.

Derek Jeter had two hits and three RBI with a walk, Nick Swisher drew a walk and Chris Stewart had a hit. Alex Rodriguez had a hit and drew a walk, Robinson Cano had two hits, an RBI and drew two walks and Russell Martin had two hits, an RBI and drew a walk. Steve Pearce had an RBI and drew a walk, Raul Ibanez drew a walk and Granderson had three hits and five RBI. Jayson Nix had a hit and an RBI, Ichiro Suzuki had two hits and an RBI and Granderson hit a double and hit a homerun. Jeter hit a homerun and the Yankees were 7-15 with runners in scoring position and left eight men on base.

Nate McClouth drew two walks, Wilson Betemit had a hit and two RBI and Adam Jones had a hit. Matt Wieters had a hit and an RBI, Mark Reynolds drew a walk and Chris Davis had a hit. Betemit hit a double, the Orioles were 2-5 with runners in scoring position and left four men on base. McClouth had a stolen base, Machado and Reynolds each committed an error. Exposito had a passed ball and Davis had an outfield assist.

In the first inning the Yankees took a 1-0 lead on an RBI single by Cano. In the fourth Pearce had an RBI walk, Nix had an RBI single, Suzuki had an RBI single and Jeter had an RBI walk. The Yankees took a 5-0 lead. In the fourth Betemit had an RBI double and Wieters had an RBI single to make it a 5-3 game. Granderson hit a solo homerun in the sixth to make it 6-3 and in the seventh Granderson hit a two run single to make it 8-3. In the eighth Jeter hit a two run homerun, Martin hit an RBI single and Granderson hit a two run double to make it 13-3.

The two teams split their four game series and ended the season with a 9-9 record against each other. The Yankees regained sole possession of first place and have a one game lead over the Orioles. The Yankees record improved to 79-61 and the Orioles record dropped to 78-62. The Yankees will have an off day on Monday and then head to Boston for a three game series. Baltimore will stay home and host the Tampa Bay Rays on Tuesday night.