Yankees Tuesday night postgame notes

Here are the Yankees postgame notes from Tuesday night.  The main topic is Hiroki Kuroda of course who pitched a complete game two hit shutout against one of the best offenses if not the best in baseball.  Chad Jennings of the Journal News and the Lohud Yankees blog has it all covered and I add my own thoughts in. 

No matter who you spoke to in the Yankees’ clubhouse tonight, all anyone wanted to talk about was Hiroki Kuroda — and rightfully so.
The 37-year-old right-hander from Japan has been a godsend for the Yankees this season, who have dealt with injuries to both CC Sabathia and Andy Pettitte. His two-hitter tonight — in which he took a no-no into the seventh and recorded 15 ground ball outs — was just another reminder of how valuable he has been.  He has been their best and most consistant starter this season.  A lot of people were down on this signing when they did it, but I don't think anyone is now. 
“Hiro is my hero,” Nick Swisher said after Tuesday’s 3-0 win. “Tonight was his night.”  I love that line and typical Swisher. 
Kuroda was brilliant against a Texas Rangers lineup that many consider to be the best in the American League. In a rotation filled with question marks of late, he has been Mr. Consistency. Tonight’s effort dropped his season ERA to 3.06, and his WHIP to 1.15.
It was the sixth time this season that Kuroda tossed at least seven innings and held his opponent scoreless, which is the most such games in the majors.  He is proving if your good and have good stuff it doesn't matter where you pitch.  We have seen a lot of guys go from the NL to the AL and not be able to do it.  Maybe for him though the hardest adjustment was just coming from Japan and now nothing could faze him after that. 
“This is a very good lineup that he just shut down,” Joe Girardi said. “Probably our best pitching performance this year.”  I think I would say definitely not probabaly but everyone gets the idea. 
Elvis Andrus’ infield single ended Kuroda’s bid for a no-hitter in the top of the seventh. Jayson Nix got to the ball — which was hit relatively softly to the left side of the second base bag — but Andrus is the fastest runner that the Rangers have, and Nix never really had a chance to throw him out.
But rather than allow things to snowball, Kuroda simply continued to go about his business and shut Texas down.
“I had to regroup myself a little bit, but like I always say, me having a complete game or a shutout is not really important here,” Kuroda said. “The important thing is for the team to win, and that’s what we were able to accomplish today. That’s why I’m happy.”
After the game, Kuroda heaped praise on his catcher, Russell Martin. The two have a relationship that dates back to their days with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and Kuroda is clearly very comfortable with him. “As a pitcher, you have to throw to any catcher that’s out there, but I think Russell knows who I am – what kind of person I am, what kind of pitcher I am and the pitches that I have,” Kuroda said. “It really helps to have Russell as a catcher.”
Kuroda also praised Swisher for coming through in the bottom of the seventh with a two-run blast to break a 0-0 tie. The homer came shortly after Kuroda had lost the no-hitter, when it suddenly felt as though the Yankees might have lost momentum. “I was so happy,” he said. “I believe that tenacity pays off at the end, and you have to persevere until the end. You have to believe that your guys will pick you up, and that’s what he did.”  I would agree you can't worry about things you can't control and he knows the Yankees are capable of hitting a homerun at any time and putting them up which they eventually did. 
Girardi was asked when he started to feel like something special might be in store tonight. “I noticed the sound of the crowd with two strikes in the bottom of the sixth,” he said. “You could see that they were starting to get into every pitch. I saw that his stuff was very good early on with all of the groundballs that he was getting. He went through the lineup the first time and maybe got six groundball outs.”
While Kuroda is known for having a bunch of quality pitches in his arsenal, his stuff was so good tonight that he mostly relied on two pitches — fastball and slider. Kuroda said that his slider was one of the best that he’s had all year. He pitched to contact, finishing with only five strikeouts, but it was clear that he was having his way with this very tough lineup. “It was pretty much fastball, slider getting ahead tonight,” Girardi said. “Those were his two big pitches. He threw some splitters to the left-handers to try put them away, but for the most part it was fastball-slider.”
Girardi also talked about his veteran presence on the mound, and how he’s able to make adjustments from hitter to hitter. “I think he’s really good at reading swings and setting up his pitches and knowing what he wants to do,” Girardi said. “He works very hard in between his starts to figure out what he wants to do in situations, and it shows.”
Any thought to taking him out in the ninth? “His pitch count was down, his stuff was still good – he was still throwing 93, 94 with good sink – so he made it pretty easy,” Girardi said.
 Lost in all of the Hiro madness was the fact that Swisher continues to thrive in the two-hole. He had the big grand slam last night, and once again came through with a clutch homer tonight. “I’m just trying to keep doing the same thing,” Swish said. “The season has a lot of highs, and a lot of lows. I’m just enjoying this time right now, but I’m really enjoying the success of this team.”
Swisher’s at-bat against Alexi Ogando in the seventh was classic Swish. After going down 0-2, he fought back to make it 2-2 before laying off of a very tough slider. Getting the count to 3-2 enabled him to sit on the fastball and deposit it in the Yankees’ bullpen. “He’s been really good there for us,” Girardi said of Swisher hitting second. “He’s taken his walks, he’s had big hits for us, he’s started rallies – he’s done a number of things for us. That two-run homer is a tremendous at-bat because I think he saw maybe four, five, maybe even six fastballs before he threw him a pretty good slider down and in. Swish laid off it, and then got the next pitch and hit it out for the home run.”
Swisher’s homer was preceded by a single from Derek Jeter (his AL-leading 156th hit of the season), which knocked Rangers’ starter Matt Harrison out of the game. Ogando was hitting 99 mph on the radar gun, so it was a very different look that Swish had to adjust to. His homer was followed by a solo shot form Mark Teixiera, which gave the Yankees their third run. “I was hitting on sound at that point,” Swisher said. “He was throwing 100 mph. He’s kind of one of those guys who has an arsenal of pitches, but you have to do what you can to stay on that fastball. In that 3-2 count, I was just hoping he threw another fastball, and I was looking to get the barrel on it.”
 It definitely sounds like Swisher likes his new spot in the lineup. “I think Skip made a couple of lineup changes, and from there we’ve just kind of taken off,” he said. “Everybody is going out there and having quality at-bats. When you have the bottom of the lineup kind of turning it over for the top, that’s when the success really takes off.”
  I think they have to stick with this, every time he has been in the two spot the last couple of years he has thrived and it is working once again, if it isn't broke why fix it. 

One guy who has been struggling a bit of late is Curtis Granderson. He went 0 for 4 tonight, including a fly out to center in the third with the bases loaded. I’ve noticed that he hasn’t been pulling the ball as much recently, which seems like a good thing, but it also seems to have taken away from his production. “I’m convinced that Curtis will come out of it,” Girardi said. “I thought he had some pretty good swings against a tough left-hander tonight. He just missed some balls.”  Granderson is the type of hitter that will be feast or famine, he strikes out a lot and he seems to be a power hitter now, not really a great hitter overall
Some pretty good news on A-Rod, who had an X-ray on his broken left hand tonight. There was some confusion earlier when Girardi talked about A-Rod hitting — it sounds like he’s still only swinging with his right hand. But that could change soon. “It’s definitely better,” Girardi said. “The brace will come off. He’s not quite ready to swing, but he will do strengthening exercises, so that’s a good sign for us.”
I’ll give Girardi the final word on Kuroda: “He’s been really, really big for us, and he could have a number of more wins. He’s been the hard-luck guy for us this year, where at times we haven’t scored him a lot of runs… Realistically, he could have 15 or 16 (wins) at this juncture.”

The Mets lose 3-0 in Cincinnati on a walk-off homerun

The New York Mets were defeated by the Cincinnati Reds by the score of 3-0 on Tuesday night. The game took place at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati, Ohio. Chris Young started for the Mets and pitched well and the bullpen was good until the ninth inning when they blew the game. The Mets offense managed six hits and not one player had more then one hit. Mat Latos pitched well for the Reds and their bullpen was good also. Their offense was led by Jay Bruce.  Young pitched 5 2/3 innings giving up eight hits and no runs with four walks and four strikeouts. Ramon Ramirez pitched to one batter and retired him, Bobby Parnell pitched an inning giving up a hit and two walks with two strikeouts and Jon Rauch pitched an inning striking out one. Manny Acosta lost his third game of the season not recording an out and giving up a hit and two runs with a walk. Josh Edgin didn’t record an out and gave up a hit and a run. Latos pitched seven innings giving up five hits and no runs. He walked two and struck out four. Sean Marshall pitched an inning walking one and striking out two and Jose Arredondo won his fifth game of the season pitching an inning giving up a hit and a walk.
Ruben Tejada had a hit, Mike Baxter had a hit and David Wright drew a walk. Ike Davis drew a walk, Daniel Murphy had a hit and Jordany Valdespin had a hit. Josh Thole had a hit and drew two walks, Scott Hairston had a hit and Tejada hit a double. The Mets were 0-8 with runners in scoring position and they left ten men on base. Hairston had a stolen base and Wright was caught stealing.
Zack Cozart had two hits and drew a walk, Drew Stubbs had a hit and Brandon Phillips drew three walks. Ryan Ludwick had two hits, Bruce had two hits and three RBI and Todd Frazier had a hit. Xavier Paul drew a walk, Ryan Hanigan had two hits and drew a walk and Latos had a hit and drew a walk. Bruce, Cozart, Ludwick, Hanigan and Young each hit a double. Bruce hit a homerun which was the game winning hit, a walk off shot. The Reds were 1-10 with runners in scoring position and they left 14 men on base. Hanigan committed an error.
The only runs of the game were scored in the ninth inning. Bruce hit a three run walk-off homerun for the Reds.
The Mets record fell to 55-61 and the Reds record improved to 70-46. This was the first of a three game series with game two on Wednesday night.

The Yankees win their second straight over Texas behind a brilliant Hiroki Kuroda

The New York Yankees defeated the Texas Rangers by the score of 3-0 on Tuesday night. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx,NY. Hiroki Kuroda started for the Yankees and was brilliant. Nick Swisher and Mark Teixeira led the Yankees offense. Matt Harrison started for the Rangers and pitched well and their bullpen didn’t. The Rangers offense only managed two hits in the game.  Kuroda pitched a complete game two hit shutout for his 11^th win of the season. He walked two and struck out five. Harrison pitched 6 1/3 innings giving up five hits with three walks and two strikeouts. He lost his seventh game of the season, Alexi Ogando pitched 2/3 of an inning giving up two hits and two runs and Tanner Scheppers pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out two.
Derek Jeter had two hits, Swisher had a hit and two RBI and Mark Teixeira had two hits and an RBI. Robinson Cano drew a walk, Andruw Jones drew a walk and Casey McGehee had two hits and Russell Martin had a hit and drew a walk. Teixeria hit a double, Swisher and Teixeira each hit a homerun. The Yankees were 0-2 with runners in scoring position and they left nine men on base.
Elvis Andrus had a hit and drew a walk, Michael Young had a hit and Mitch Moreland drew a walk. The Rangers were 0-2 with runners in scoring position and left two men on base. Andrus had an error in the game.
The Yankees scored all of the runs in the seventh inning. Swisher hit a two run homerun and then Teixeira followed it with a solo homerun. The two players went back-to-back and that was it for the scoring in the game. 3-0 was the final score in favor of the Yankees.
The Yankees have won two straight against the Rangers to be in first place in the American League. The Yankees have also won six out of their last seven games. The Yankees record has improved to 69-47 and the Rangers record dropped to 67-48. The two teams will play game three of four on Wednesday night.

Monday night postgame notes

Here are the Monday night postgame notes courtesy of the Lohud Yankees blog and Journal News.  The Yankees beat the Rangers 8-2 to move into first place in the AL, they still have three more games against each other for the battle for the top spot in the AL. 

How cool is David Phelps these days? Standing at his locker after tonight’s win, he was surrounded by media, answering questions behind a wall of television cameras and tape recorders, when pitching coach Larry Rothschild walked by and flipped him the game ball. Phelps snatched it out of the air, dropped it to his feet and looked up to answer the next question.
“I went through the lineup,” he said. “I got to face their top three hitters three times, and it was just going out and proving I can pitch deeper into a game. It’s a huge confidence boost. … They’re very big shoes to fill. What (CC Sabathia) brings to this team is that stability. He goes out every fifth day and gives us a chance to win every single time out. He’s been the anchor of our staff for the entire time that he’s been here, and to go out there and give our team a chance to win in his spot is huge.”
When the trade deadline came and went, the Yankees made no move to bolster their pitching staff, choosing to trust in-house options like Phelps. Of course, it took less than two weeks for Sabathia to land on the disabled list. Phelps moved into Sabathia’s rotation spot and Derek Lowe signed off the scrapheap to fill Sabathia’s spot on the roster. Tonight, those two replacements combined to allow two runs on eight hits and one walk, beating the Rangers and making a statement: This battered Yankees pitching staff just might have enough left to keep that top spot in the American League.
“I don’t know how you can ask two guys to do any more than that,” manager Joe Girardi said. “To hold a team like Texas down to two runs and give yourself a chance to win a ballgame, that’s really stepping up.”
It was quite a Yankees debut for Lowe, who pitched four scoreless and showed he has something left in the tank afterall. It was another milestone for Phelps, who’s breakout season now includes his first major-league win as a starter. In three previous attempts he’d failed to pitch through the fifth inning.
Tonight he threw 26 pitches in first inning, burning through nearly a third of his limited pitch count. The Rangers had scored their first run on a broken-bat single, and they increased that lead with a leadoff homer in the second. From there, Phelps retired 10 of the 14 batters he faced, and he picked off two of the four who reached.
“He’s just focused out there,” Russell Martin said. “He doesn’t let anything get to him. He just competes, pitch after pitch. He’s the type of guy you like having out there.”
Said Girardi: “We’ve seen him grow up a lot from the 2011 spring training until now. I’m not really surprised, just the way he’s went about his business. We saw a different guy in spring training and we’re seeing a much different guy this year. I’m not really surprised.”
Lowe got his first save since August 12, 2001 when he was with the Red Sox. According to Elias, his 11 year and one day between saves is the longest such gap since Darren Oliver went nearly 16 years between saves from 1994 through 2010. “I’m not going to lie to you, and say I’m not going to sleep with a smile tonight,” Lowe said. “It’s a pretty good way to start your career here.”
 Lowe said he actually thought about picking up a cheap save when the Yankees sent him back out for the ninth. “I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “I think I was throwing below the speed limit there in the last inning. But it’s been a long day. To get back to a regular baseball routine — just a great start, and like I said, just here to help out. My role’s probably going to be like it is today: Just save the bullpen. It’s very important to have the back-end guys not have to pitch if they don’t have to. So hopefully this will benefit us for a couple days.”
According to Elias, 15 rookie pitches have started against the Rangers since June 13. Phelps is the second to earn a win. The first? Former Yankees minor leaguer Jose Quintana. Of course.
 Phelps threw 26 pitches in the first inning. “I wasn’t really thinking about my pitch count,” he said. “I wasn’t really thinking about how long I was going to go. I knew as long as I was going to go, I had to keep us in the game, especially after giving up two runs early. I just went out there and I was trying to throw up as many zeros as I could regardless of how many innings it was going to be.”
What made Phelps effective? “He was just throwing strikes,” Martin said. “He was attacking the strike zone and keeping the hitters off balance by throwing off speed strikes. Just using that cutter to get them off that fastball a little bit. Just making pitches. They got one run off a broken bat and another one off a pretty good pitch.”
Nick Swisher’s 200th career home run was a go-ahead grand slam in the third inning. It was his sixth grand slam ever and second of the season. “Two hundred couldn’t feel sweeter,” Swisher said.
The Yankees have hit nine grand slams this season, one shy of their franchise record set in 1987 and matched in 2010 and 2011. They have 29 grand slams since the start of 2010, more than twice the total of any other team.
Swisher, Alex Rodriguez, Andruw Jones, Mark Teixeira, Raul Ibanez, Derek Jeter and Eric Chavez all have more than 200 career home runs. With Swisher joining the list, they now have a Major League-high six players who have 15 homers this year (Cano, Granderson, Ibanez, Rodriguez, Swisher and Teixeira).
Eric Chavez might join that 15-homer list soon. He hit his 13th tonight and has 10 home runs in his past 36 games. “It’s hard to argue with what he’s done,” Girardi said. “He has been great for us. He’s in the middle of one rally, adds an add-on run later on to make it 6-2, and those runs are important because you can give Robertson, Soriano and some of your guys a day off.”
Phelps picked off two base runners tonight. The pickoff at first base was called from the bench. The pickoff at second was simply Phelps recognizing the Elvis Andrus was too far off the bag. “Anytime you can get an out with those types of hitters they have, we’ll take it,” Martin said. “Especially when they’re in scoring position.”
Girardi said he’s not sure when Lowe could pitch again. He’ll be unavailable for at least two days, probably three. Lowe thinks he could, if necessary, pitch tomorrow. “I told them today, I said, I’ll be ready every day,” Lowe said. “Now will I probably be up tomorrow? Probably not. But I’m going to prepare every single day you’re in the bullpen — that’s your job, to be ready every day, so I’m going to show up tomorrow ready to go.”
Alex Rodriguez is scheduled to have an X-ray tomorrow. It will have been three weeks since the injury.
 Let’s give the final word to Swisher: “I think our whole mindset is just win every game. Every single game, whether you’re playing a first-place team or whether you’re playing a last-place team, you’ve got to go out and win games. That lead there dwindled a little bit, so we’re doing our best to up that a little bit.”

The Yankees slam their way past the Rangers and into first in the AL

The New York Yankees defeated the Texas Rangers by the score of 8-2 on Monday night. The game took place at Yankee Stadium in the Bronx,NY. David Phelps started in the place of ace CC Sabathia who just went on the DL with elbow tightness. Phelps pitched pretty well and Derek Lowe making his Yankees debut pitched great. Nick Swisher led the Yankees offense. Ryan Dempster who the Rangers acquired at the trade deadline from the Chicago Cubs did not pitch well. David Murphy and Nelson Cruz led their offense.  Phelps pitched five innings giving up two runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out three and earned his third win of the season. Derek Lowe got credit with his first save of the season. He pitched four innings giving up no runs and two hits with no walks and four strikeouts. Dempster lost his sixth game of the season pitching six innings giving up nine hits and eight runs. He walked two and struck out four, Michael Kirkman pitched an inning giving up a hit and striking out two and Mark Lowe pitched an inning giving up no runs and no hits and he struck out one.
Derek Jeter had a hit, an RBI and drew a walk, Swisher had two hits and five RBI including a grand slam and Robinson Cano drew a walk. Mark Teixeira had a hit, Eric Chavez had two hits and an RBI and Curtis Granderson had an RBI. Russell Martin had a hit, Raul Ibanez had two hits and Ichiro Suzuki had a hit. Jeter hit a double, Suzuki hit a triple and Swisher and Chavez each hit a homerun. The Yankees were 4-5 with runners in scoring position and they left three men on base. Phelps picked off two runners, one at first and one at second.
Elvis Andrus had two hits, Josh Hamilton had a hit and drew a walk and Adrian Beltre had a hit. Nelson Cruz had two hits and an RBI, Murphy had two hits and an RBI and Murphy hit a double and a homerun. The Rangers were 1-6 with runners in scoring position and left six men on base. Kinsler and Andrus were each picked off a base.
In the first Cruz hit an RBI single to give Texas a 1-0 lead. Murphy hit a solo homerun to give Texas a 2-0 lead in the second inning. In the third inning the Yankees offense came to life, Swisher hit a grand slam and Granderson had a sacrifice fly to give the Yankees a 5-2 lead. Chavez hit a solo homerun in the sixth to make it 6-2 Yankees and in the seventh Jeter hit an RBI double and Swisher an RBI single to make it 8-2. That would be the final score of the game.
The Yankees have now won five of their last six games and with the win have the best record in the American League. The two teams have the same amount of losses but the Yankees are percentage points ahead. The two teams will play game two of a four game series on Tuesday night. The Yankees record improved to 68-47 and the Rangers record dropped to 67-47.