Yanks in Minnesota

The New York Yankees had a workout today in Minnesota and were a happy group as you can expect after last nights thrilling victory. The Yankees will take on their former teammate if you can call him that tomorrow. I am sure they will really want to stick it to Carl Pavano and will be looking to hit him all over the ballpark. Andy Pettite will look to close out the series and send the Yankees back to NY to await the start of the ALCS. The big topic today was still the umpire missing that call down the line on Joe Mauers double that he called foul. A lot of talk has been about maybe instituting replay for other things. I am against replay, it is ok with the homeruns but this is baseball and the human element has always been a part of the game. I don't want to ruin the flow of the game by having too many replays. There really wasn't any news today from the workout, a lot of reporters were talking to A-rod and he continued to praise his teammates. A scary thing to think about though is a relaxed A-rod as he could carry the Yankees all through the postseason, he is that good. I don't know how if A-rod is hitting in the clutch and A.J. Burnett is pitching well the Yankees could lose but this is baseball and we will see what happens. If the Yankees do win they will have homefield advantage once again and open up the ALCS at the stadium next friday. The Yankees and Angels can both move on tomorrow and that would be strange having the whole week off before resuming play.

NFL Week 5

The New York Giants will take on the Oakland Raiders at home tomorrow and the New York Jets will head to Miami for a monday night game. The Giants will have Eli Manning it appears as he went through the walkthrough fine today and the Giants don't have a 3rd QB active for the game. If Eli wasn't playing I would still pick the Giants as the Raiders are just a bad team especially on the road and coming east. I think the Giants should win this game easily. Here are my picks for the Giants/Jets and a random game. The Jets will not have to worry about facing former teammate Chad Pennington as he is hurt. The JEts need to get a running game going but now they have Braylon Edwards which should really help Mark Sanchez. The Jets will be looking to bounce back after their first defeat of the season last sunday. Giants 24 Raiders 10 Jets 21 Dolphins 13 San Fran 17 Atlanta 14 I am 4-1 on the year and look to keep it going this week.

Wow what a win for Yanks

The New York Yankees won their most dramatic game of the season by the score of 4-3 in 11 innings. Mark Teixeira hit the walkoff homerun but A-rod had his heroics in the ninth off of closer Joe Nathan. A-rod hit a game tying 2 run homerun with 1 out in the ninth. Dave Robertson was another hero of this game as he got out of a bases loaded no out jam in the 11th. A.J. Burnett pitched well tonight although he did walk 5 and hit 2 batters. The bottom line is he gave them 6 innings only allowing a run. The bullpen wasn't so great as Phil Hughes gave up a couple of runs and even Mariano Rivera gave up a hit that scored a run which was charged to Phil Hughes. Damaso Marte gave up 2 singles to the only 2 guys he faced which were both lefties. The Yankees offensively couldn't do anything against Nick Blackburn who pitched one heck of a game. The Yankees now head off to Minnesota to face Carl Pavano the American Idle and try to sweep the series and head to the ALCS. I was at this game tonight and that is why I am not writing a lot as I am exhausted. I do have to say the stadium was amazing tonight, it was so loud and sounded like the old stadium, when A-rod hit the homerun it was amazing and then just the twists and turns and Tex hitting the walkoff set the place into a frenzy. The fans were great and it really was a great game to be at. I hope to have pictures tomorrow or maybe sunday depending on when I can download them. Dave Robertson by the way got the championship belt tonight.

Twins at Yankees ALDS Game 2

The New York Yankees will try to take a commanding 2 games to none lead on the Twins tonight. A.J. Burnett opposes Nick Blackburn, it is supposed to be cool but not too windy like the other night. There are showers in the forecast but thunderstorms may hold out until after midnight. Here are the pregame notes and lineup via Sam Borden of the Journal News. A.J. Burnett will be making his first start of the postseason in his career. He has made 244 regular season appearances which made him 4th highest among pitchers who never appeared in the postseason. The guys who are ahead of him are KC's Jamey Wright, Randy Wolf of the Dodgers and the Blue Jays Roy Halladay. Wolf came off the list on Wednesday and now its A.J.'s turn. Burentt at home this season was 5-3 with a 3.51 era in 16 starts. The Yankees were 12-4 at home when Burnett pitched. Burnett is 5-5 with a 4.96 era in 16 starts with Jorge Posada. He was 5-2 with a 3.28 in 11 starts with Molina behind the plate. Mark Teixeira hit the ball hard in game 1 but was 0-4 don't bet on that happening again. He is 6 for 6 in his career with a homerun off of Nick Blackburn. Derek Jeter and A-rod have had some success as well against him. Jeter is 3 for 7 with a homerun and A-rod is 3 for 9 with a homerun. Nick Blackburn has been a big game pitcher for the Twins this season. He had a 1.65 era in his last 4 regular season starts all wins as the Twins made a late rally to take the division. He hasn't had much success against the Yankees though going 0-4 with a 5.89 era in 4 starts. Yankees Lineup: Jeter(SS) Damon(LF) Tex(1B) A-rod(3B) Matsui(DH) Swisher(LF) Cano(2B) Cabrera(CF) Molina(C)

Playoff excitement

The Yankees had the day off and not much was going on at Yankee Stadium. The talk today was mostly about A.J., Molina and Posada as you would expect. I know a lot of people are making a big deal out of this but the bottom line is this, if A.J. Burnett pitches a good game the Yankees will win and it won't matter that Molina was catching him and doesn't do much offensively. I also was suprised that a lot of the talk radio today were people calling in and bashing Jorge Posada. I know he isn't the best defensive catcher and he never has been but lets not get carried away. He was won several championships as the starting catcher for this team and he is the emotional leader. His bat is a big plus and he will be missed when he retires. Joel Sherman of the Post was breaking news tonight that it looks like Joba will stay in the bullpen for the entire playoffs if they get past this round and Chad Gaudin would get the game 4 start in the ALCS. I think if Joba is lights out out of the pen this is the move to make. The Yankees can have a dominate pen for the last 3 innings and really shorten the games. I would expect the Yankees to have the same lineup tomorrow and I will be going to the game but will try to post the gamepost and all of that before hopefully. It is expected to rain but it may not be enough to affect anything. The Rockies defeated the Phillies this afternoon to tie the series at 1-1 headed back to Colorado. The Dodgers defeated the Cardinals to take a 2-0 series lead. The Dodgers should of lost they had 2 outs and no one on when Matt Holliday made a terrible play turning a sinking line drive in to a 2 base error instead of the last out and then the Dodgers got a walk, wildpitch, and 2 hits and won the game. It looks like the Dodgers may sweep now although it is headed back to St Louis. The Redsox and Angels are playing game 1 right now.